Motif ported to 64-bit Turbo Linux
 
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Turbo Linux last week joined Integrated Computer Solutions, which makes commercial Motif products, in announcing the port of ICS's Open Motif desktop to the 64-bit version of TurboLinux for the upcoming Itanium processor.
ICS's Open Motif is the first version of the desktop environment to be ported to a 64-bit Linux operating system. Since many large enterprises may have custom Unix applications designed to interface with Motif, the porting of the desktop could help more companies port other 64-bit Unix-based applications to Linux.
Motif has been a popular Windows-like desktop environment for Unix users for many years, and was once the dominant user interface in the Unix world. Last May, the source code for the Open Group, under pressure from the open-source development community released Motif. The Open Group had previously been licensing the Motif source code to Unix makers such as Sun and Hewlett-Packard to use as a standard desktop environment.
However, the "open-sourcing" of Motif may have come too late, say some observers, as the open-source software movement has lessened Motif's hold on Unix desktop environments. The development of other open-source desktops for Linux, such as KDE and GNOME, has transcended into the Unix world. Earlier this fall, several of the top Unix makers - including Sun, HP and IBM - announced that the GNOME desktop would become the standard user interface that shipped with all the companies' pre-installed Unix boxes.
Still, many large enterprises, such as Boeing and Credit Suisse, use custom applications written to Motif, and it is a familiar GUI for lots of Unix administrators and programmers (who often double as Linux users). Some popular 32-bit Linux distributions even ship with the software, including SuSE Version 7 and Red Hat Linux Enterprise Edition.
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Phil Hochmuth is a Network World Senior Writer and a former systems integrator. You can reach him at phochmut@nww.com.
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