SAN JOSE, CALIF.. -- Representatives of both Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems said Tuesday that the companies will begin using the GNOME desktop environment as their default Unix desktop interface.

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The surprise announcement from the two computer makers came during a GNOME press conference here at the fourth LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.

"Sun will adopt GNOME as the default desktop environment going forward for Solaris," said Marco Boerries, a vice president and general manager for desktops at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun. "We will also begin moving it into workstations and other devices."

"Today, HP is also pledging its support for the GNOME environment, and will offer GNOME as the default [interface] for HP-UX," said Martin Fink, the R&D lab manager for Unix systems enablement at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.

GNOME, a free software project comprised of over 500 developers, has built a free desktop environment that runs on both Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Until now, industry observers have criticized Linux's interface as being too complicated for the majority of desktop computer users.

"(GNOME) unifies the existing Unix world," said Boerries. "It's great for developers and end users, and we need a user environment that's easy to use, competitive, and gives us the foundation for more than just another desktop environment."

"By having GNOME based on open-source standards, every contributor, every corporation that gets involved, will know that no other company is out there trying to eat them up," said Boerries.

Two primary goals were announced at Tuesday's press conference: The creation of the GNOME Foundation, which will be governed by a board of directors elected by volunteer developers who contribute to GNOME; and a list of five major GNOME initiatives aimed at creating an industry-wide open user environment.

The first initiative is the establishment of the GNOME user environment as the unifying desktop for the Linux and Unix communities.

The second is the adoption of OpenOffice.org technologies for integration into GNOME. OpenOffice.org is the open-source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite.

Sun will also begin specifying XML office formats and publish them on the OpenOffice site, according to Boerries.

"What good is an operating system without office productivity applications?" asked Boerries.

The third initiative is the integration of the Mozilla browser technology into GNOME. Mozilla is the free, open-source version of the Netscape browser.

Fourth on the GNOME initiative list is the joining together of industry-leading companies to improve the reliability, quality, and accessibility of GNOME. Contributions will range from the addition of personal finance management software from Gnumatic, to improved file management software from Eazel, called Nautilus.

Finally, a key initiative for GNOME is to move the GNOME framework out as the standard environment for next generation Internet devices, such as Internet Appliances and thin clients.

"The future is not the PC," said Bob Young, the chairman of Durham, North Carolina-based Red Hat. "The future is an appliance talking to a server via Mozilla, which will become the standard browser technology for the future of computing."

"The big news here is getting everyone together. Look around us," said Young, referring to the twelve representatives of the GNOME Advisory Board taking part in the press conference. "We have no corporate lawyers, and we've signed no agreement. Under the open-source model, and the GPL (general public license), we've eliminated the need for trust. This is a remarkable model."

Initial members of the GNOME Advisory Board include Compaq, based in Houston, Texas, Eazel, based in Mountain View, Calif., Gnumatic, based in Austin, Texas, Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, Calif., IBM, based in Armonk, New York, Object Management Group, based in Needham, Mass., Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems.