Ximian was a company that provided open source desktop applications for Linux and Unix based on the GNOME platform. Ximian (previously called Helix Code, and before that International Gnome Support, although this name was apparently only used during the planning stage) was founded by Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman in October 1999, and was bought by Novell on August 4 2003. Novell intends to continue and extend development of all Ximian's current projects using the Ximian name, whilst adding support for its own Group Wise and ZENworks software.