[CrackMonkey] FW: Greetings friends of Eazel!]
Mae Ling Mak
spinster at moebius.digitalflock.org
Thu Feb 24 21:26:04 PST 2000
anyone else seen this?
<FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE>
CONTACT:
Greg Wood
A&R Partners for Eazel
gwood at arpartners.com
650-762-2838
KEY MEMBERS OF ORIGINAL
MACINTOSH TEAM FORM NEW
COMPANY TO MAKE LINUX
EASIER TO USE
Eazel Will Provide Next Generation
Desktop and Services to Both
Technical and Mainstream Users
PALO ALTO, Calif. - February 22, 2000 - Eazel,
Inc. today unveiled plans to develop products and
services which will make the power and reliability of
the Linux operating system accessible to mainstream
desktop users. Eazel was founded in August 1999 and
is led by a group of industry veterans including
Michael Boich, Andy Hertzfeld, and Bud Tribble, all of
whom were part of the original Apple Macintosh
team and were founders of other successful Silicon
Valley companies. Eazel is developing innovative
desktop software for Linux that will be integrated with
Internet-based services, and will be released this
summer.
Currently, Linux is used primarily by technically
sophisticated users, who operate servers or
administer web sites, and are able to manage the
complexity of Linux. The Linux desktop environment
still lacks the simplicity and usability expected by
mainstream desktop users. To address this, Eazel is
working with a group of Open Source software
developers at the GNOME project, which was
created to build a complete desktop environment for
Linux. This development, when combined with the
other well known strengths of both the Linux
operating system and the open source software
development model, will revolutionize desktop
computing.
Michael Boich, President and CEO of Eazel, founded
Apple's software evangelism group for the
Macintosh. After Apple and prior to co-founding
Eazel, Boich co-founded Radius Inc., which grew to
be a $300 million supplier of graphics hardware and
software for the Macintosh. Mike was also the
founder and CEO of Rendition Inc., a semiconductor
firm whose breakthrough graphic rendering engine
pioneered the integration of high performance
three-dimensional graphics into PC graphics
controllers.
Andy Hertzfeld, Software Wizard, designed and
implemented a large portion of the original Macintosh
system software, including the User Interface
Toolbox. Prior to co-founding Eazel, Hertzfeld
designed software for a number of Macintosh
products including ThunderScan, Switcher and the
Radius Full Page Display. He also co-founded
General Magic, where he was the lead developer of
their innovative Magic Cap platform for personal
intelligent communicators.
Bud Tribble, Vice President of Software Engineering,
is one of the industry's noted experts in
object-oriented programming and user interface
design. Prior to joining Eazel he was VP and Chief
Technology Officer for the Sun-Netscape Alliance,
responsible for guiding Internet and e-commerce
software R&D. Bud began his career at Apple
Computer where he managed the original Macintosh
software team. In 1985 he helped found NeXT
Computer, where he was Vice President of Software
Engineering and a key architect of the NextStep
operating system.
"We have gathered a uniquely qualified group of
software architects, Linux experts and industry
veterans to tackle the issue of Linux usability on the
desktop," said Michael Boich, president and CEO of
Eazel. "Our goal isn't to recreate what we did 15
years ago. It's to combine a next generation desktop
with Internet-based services to deliver a superior
user experience."
"Linux has the potential to become increasingly
important on personal computers, mobile computers,
and on intelligent devices," said Dan Kusnetzky,
Program Director of market research firm IDC's
Operating Environments and Serverware Service. "A
few barriers remain, however, such as the need for
better user accessibility and manageability."
"We at the Gnome Project are excited to have the
expertise of Eazel added to our efforts to make
GNU/Linux easier-to-use and, as a result, more
ubiquitous," said Miguel de Icaza, co-founder of the
GNOME project. "These efforts will bring the true
benefit of the Open Source environment to a broader
user base and provide compelling alternatives to
computer users everywhere. We're encouraging
Open Source developers to check out our work and
the work of companies like Eazel and get involved!"
The advantages of the Open Source-based Linux
operating system have propelled it to worldwide
recognition and the fastest adoption rate of any
operating system in history. Despite its popularity,
the
use of Linux has been primarily restricted to "back
room" applications because the operating system is
too difficult for the typical desktop user to operate.
Eazel intends to change that by developing products
that make Linux as easy-to-use as Windows or the
Macintosh OS. Eazel's products will bring the power
and security features of Linux to a much broader
group of users by making it suitable for desktop use.
About Eazel, Inc.
Eazel was founded in August 1999. The company is
headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
----- End forwarded message -----
--
"I was a long time coming; I'll be a long time gone.
You've got your whole life to do something,
And that's not very long, so why don't you give me a call
When you're willing to fight for what you think is real,
For what you think is right."
-Ani DiFranco
"Willing to Fight"
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