Subject: Freedom Desktop comes to Linux
From: Freedom Software Support <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 16:56:05 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce

The Linux community has long waited for a Desktop Manager comparable
to the ones found in the Macistosh and the MS Windows world.

Freedom Software has recently announced that will open its GUI/Desktop
management technology (Freedom Desktop): Any interested party 
is welcome to license this technology, use it, enhance it and/or 
resell it.

Freedom Desktop is an advanced desktop manager for Motif.
It was designed to increase the productivity of Unix users. 
To provide the flexibility that users require, it combines a 
nice graphical user interface with the well-known command interface 
(xterm). The Program Manager allows users to organize their work into 
convenient groups. Through a well-organized set of dialogs, the user 
can create iconized shell scripts to automate repetitive tasks to the 
greatest extent.

Freedom Desktop also provides tutorial  capabilities: 
it can be set up to translate user actions (i.e. mouse actions) 
into Unix commands. Users can learn or improve their knowledge 
of Unix. You will find that only Freedom Desktop provides
these capabilities which makes this package unique. 

If you are the interested, you can take a look at Freedom Desktop via
our home page: 

	mosaic http://freedom.lm.com/motif.html

	or

	lynx http://freedom.lm.com/motif.html
	
Opening our technology is consistent with the Open Systems 
philosophy followed by Freedom Software. Customers will benefit
in many ways. Among them:

	Freedom or choice which empowers the customer not the vendor.
	Customers will be able to buy the same technology from different 
	vendors.

	Lower cost for the customer  due in part to a bigger number of
	vendors (competition).

	Availability of a common desktop environment on all Unix platforms.

Freedom Desktop will be licensed based on the following licensing fees.
The approach taken here is very similar to the one used by OSF with Motif 1.x

a) Source code - $1,000 for each CPU on which Freedom Desktop is used.

b) Binary code - $40 for each executable copy of Freedom Desktop used or 
                 distributed.

For instance, if you decide to license 100 binary copies of Freedom Desktop 
for your institution, the price would be $5,000. This is $1,000 dollars for 
the source code in addition to $4,000 (100 * $40) for the 100 binary licenses.

I've also included with this message, a copy of the product overview
for your review.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any comments or
concerns.

Regards,

Edgar Galvis
Freedom Software

		 Freedom Desktop for Motif

Freedom Desktop is an advanced desktop manager designed to improve the 
productivity of Unix users.

Freedom Desktop provides highly interactive features that bring all the 
power of Unix to the user's fingertips. It helps users interact with 
Unix quickly and efficiently by providing a consistent interface full 
with visual clues.

Multiple Unix skill levels are accommodated. New or infrequent 
Unix users can become productive very quickly. Freedom Desktop 
provides them with menus, icons, help and tutorial capabilities.
Freedom Desktop can be set up to translate user actions into Unix
commands. This feature is included as a tutorial capability that
allows users to learn or improve their knowledge of Unix.

Fast interaction techniques required for more advanced users are 
also included. For instance, a built-in terminal window allows more 
advanced users to type Unix commands directly. This eliminates the 
need of creating a terminal window to type Unix commands, which is 
very cumbersome.

A file manager provides support for both basic and advanced file
operations. A program manager acts as a place holder for groups 
of often used files, directories and applications. A trash can
is used as a temporal storage area for unused files. All of these 
modules are based on OSF/Motif. Although the Motif window manager 
(mwm) is  recommended, Freedom Desktop  can  run on  top  of 
OpenWindows 3.0.

Freedom Desktop is based on standards. Among them: OSF/Motif and the 
X Window System. Freedom Desktop is also built on genuine OSF/Motif 
toolkit.  Because Freedom Software believes in Open Systems, Freedom 
Desktop can be used with the Motif runtime of any third party vendor.

Several unsupported public domain applications are included to 
enhance the environment. Among them, a screen grabber and an
icon/pixmap editor.

Freedom Desktop runs on SunOs 4.1.x and later, Solaris, AIX, and HP-UX.
For a limited time, Freedom Desktop costs $200 per single-user 
license.

Contact Freedom Software, 9F Oliver Court, Pittsburgh, PA 15239.
Tel.:(412)327-4940, fax:(412)327-6518.
Email: [email-masked]
Home Page: http://freedom.lm.com/freedom.html

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