"When Lycoris released a new version of its popular Linux operating system, Desktop/LX 1.4, this week, it also debuted a new application integration infrastructure, nicknamed AI2 (A-I-squared). The company claims that AI2 'bridges the gap' between commercial Linux applications and the Linux desktop. Already, one major Linux application vendor, NeTraverse, has had its flagship desktop product, Win4Lin Workstation, integrated with Lycoris' Desktop/LX operating system using the AI2 system. But is AI2 really as revolutionary as Lycoris claims? Even if it is, does it matter?
"'You can code to the Linux Standards Base, or to Red Hat or SUSE,' explained Joseph Cheek, CEO of Lycoris, in a recent IRC conference, 'but it's a pain trying to support all these different systems. With AI2, you don't have to. You just ship your standard products and let AI2 do the integration for you...'"
