Back in 1984 they made history with the Apple Macintosh. Now four prominent
members of the original Macintosh developer team have reunited at a new Silicon
Valley start-up called Eazel and are trying to develop a version of the Linux OS
that common computer users can understand and work with intuitively.
Eazel was founded last fall by Mike Boich and Andy Hertzfeld, two original
members of the Apple Macintosh team. Now two more Mac veterans, Susan Kare and
Guy Tribble, have joined the company. Tribble comes from Sun Microsystems where
he was chief technology officer for the Sun-Netscape alliance. "Eazel
intends to make Linux the desktop of choice for millions of people,"
Eazel’s Web site at www.eazel.com.
"To achieve this, we are creating next generation user interface software
and services designed to make Linux easier to use." Eazel has received
financial backing from Ron Conway, a well-known Silicon Valley venture
capitalist as well as from Mike Homer, a former executive at Netscape and Apple,
and Bud Colligan, the former chairman of Macromedia.
Eazel wants to develop a new graphical -- point-and-click  user-interface
for Linux to manage files and folders, so Linux will be as simple to use as the
Macintosh or Windows, if not easier. The complexities involved in installing the
Linux OS and running applications, remains one of the main obstacles in
popularizing the OS on the desktop. Unless the software becomes more intuitive,
it is likely destined to remain a server-oriented solution in which it will host
files, applications, Web sites, e-mail and other functions. Eazel’s efforts
are paralleling those by non-profit Linux groups such as the GNOME Project and
KDE. Eazel is reportedly working closely with the GNOME group as part of its
development effort.
Analysts said they enormous technical expertise and vast experience of the
Eazel team in developing and marketing user-friendly OS solutions gives the
company perhaps the best shot yet at succeeding in making Linux a viable desktop
alternative to Windows.