Template:Short description {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }} Eazel was an American software company operating from 1999 to 2001 in Palo Alto<ref name="Linux in every lap">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and then Mountain View, California.<ref name="nf2001">Template:Cite news</ref> The company's flagship product is the Nautilus file manager for the GNOME desktop environment on Linux, which was immediately adopted and maintained by the free software movement. As the core of Eazel's business model, it is an early example of cloud storage services in the form of personal file storage, transparently and portably stored on the Internet.

HistoryEdit

Eazel was founded by Andy Hertzfeld in August 1999 in Mountain View, California. It had 22 initial employees and raised Template:US$ from several venture capital investment companies.<ref name="Eazel Closed"/><ref name="10 to watch"/> Initially, all the programmers worked on every aspect of the product and eventually specialized on its components.<ref name="Working at Eazel">Template:Cite interview</ref>

The company grew from 22 employees in 1999<ref name="10 to watch"/> to 75 employees in 2001<ref name="nf2001"/><ref name="Eazel shows off Linux client"/> and was named one of the top 10 companies to watch among "earsplitting buzz surrounding Linux", by Red Herring magazine.<ref name="10 to watch">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Staff consisted of former employees of many technology companies such as Apple, Netscape, Be Inc., Linuxcare, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. Mike Boich was CEO, having been a major figure at Apple and co-founder of Radius; Bud Tribble was VP of Engineering, having been software manager and a designer of the original Macintosh project; Andy Hertzfeld was a principal designer, having been a lead software engineer and a designer of the original Macintosh project; Darin Adler led development, having been the technical lead for System 7 for the Macintosh; and Susan Kare designed new vector graphics-based iconography, having designed the original Macintosh icons. Other staff included programmer Maciej Stachowiak, who was a programmer and board member for GNOME; and board member Michael Homer, formerly of Apple, AOL, and Netscape.<ref name="Linux in every lap"/><ref name="Nautilus' contributors">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Fortune Twilight Zone">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Eazel Closed"/>

Eazel's flagship product is the Nautilus file manager for the GNOME desktop environment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In this, the company faced several simultaneous challenges: creating a lot of intricate user-facing software from scratch or from existing code which must target all the disparate Linux environment versions; integrating a corporate personality into the existing and outspoken volunteer community of the GNOME desktop environment; building upon a very small nascent market of Linux desktop users among an already widely served and monopolized desktop computing market; and monetizing free software for individual consumers by creating essential business services. In other words, Eazel sought to switch a groundswell of users from Macintosh and Windows to a new and immature system that free software users would want to pay for. Of the two predominant free desktop environments for Linux, the choice to target GNOME instead of KDE was made largely because of the questionable legality of the Qt license upon which KDE was based.<ref name="A Sneak Peek at Nautilus from Eazel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Failed verification<ref name="10 to watch"/>

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In December 2000, Dell invested a "substantial stake" in Eazel<ref name="Eazel shows off Linux client"/> and committed to preloading Nautilus on its Linux-based desktop and laptop systems, while Eazel preannounced its core business services which were woven directly into the free Nautilus application. Described as the "network user experience", those services are the Software Catalog to aid users in locating and installing applications, and Eazel Online Storage for easily storing and browsing files via their desktop or web browser.<ref name="Eazel shows off Linux client">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Dell Signs Linux Deal">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Review: Nautilus 1.0"/>

The company failed to successfully monetize, or to secure more funding before venture capital ran out, and the technology market changed drastically in the two years of the company's lifespan. On March 13, 2001, Eazel simultaneously launched the first release of Nautilus (version 1.0),<ref name="Review: Nautilus 1.0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and laid off most of its 75 employees in an attempt to secure funding in its final few months.<ref name="nf2001"/><ref name="Eazel Closed"/> The company attempted to sell its core development group but ceased operations on May 15, 2001.<ref name="Eazel Closed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Sorry we're closed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Hertzfeld arranged a meeting with Steve Jobs and most of Apple's high level management.<ref name="Working at Eazel"/> In June 2001, most of Eazel's final roster of senior engineers joined Apple's Safari team,<ref name="Gramps">Template:Cite mailing list</ref> including Bud Tribble, Lisa Melton, Darin Adler, John Sullivan, Ken Kocienda, and Maciej Stachowiak.

LegacyEdit

The Nautilus file manager was received positively,<ref name="Review: Nautilus 1.0"/> and has been incorporated into GNOME since GNOME version 1.4.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> GNOME has renamed Nautilus to Files and now refers to some of Eazel's early concept of "network user experience" as "cloud storage", which is provisioned by a variety of sources including the complimentary Google Drive. Files is continuously maintained by the free software movement as a centerpiece of some free Linux-based desktop environments.

See alsoEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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