“Yet, as a former developer of X Windows, the free software
behind most Unix and Linux-based graphic user interface programs,
Weiner knows what its like to watch his work come crawling out of
the Internet petri dish. That’s why when it comes time to describe
his company’s role in the evolving open source universe, Weiner has
to go back a few billion years to find the closest historical
parallel…”
“Officially, Weiner says BeOpen’s business goal is to become the
“leading community-based portal” for open source developers and
users alike. Unofficially, however, he sees the BeOpen.com and the
www.beopen.com website as a catalyst, a central switching point
linking corporate dollars with projects beyond the GNU/Linux
infrastructure, a process Weiner colorfully refers to as “growing
the organism.”
“We think the operating-system space is covered pretty
well,” Weiner says. “Let’s move on to the next generation:
applications, groupware, platform integration tools.“