ZDNet: Ximian To Offer Shrink-Wrapped Linux PIM

“At the LinuxWorld trade show next week, Ximian, the
company building a Linux desktop around the Gnome user interface,
will introduce a shrink-wrapped version of its personal information
manager instead of distributing it solely via user downloads from
its Web site.

Ximian will offer its Evolution application, an e-mail
management, calendar and to-do list manager, as a package with
documentation in a $29.95 standard edition and $49.95 professional
edition, said Jon Perr, vice president of marketing. The latter
adds the StarOffice desktop applications from Sun Microsystems,
which include a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation
graphics that are compatible with Microsoft Office
applications.

The conversion of a hitherto free software offering into a
packaged product is unusual among Linux offerings, Perr said, but
he said the low-priced packages offer “the convenience of local
installation” plus documentation.”

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