MANILA (Dow Jones)--SpecOps Labs, a privately held Philippine software developer, is set to unveil Thursday the working prototype of its software that would allow Windows-based applications to run smoothly on the free and open-source Linux operating system.
The "middleware" program, codenamed David, is expected to be commercially available before the end of this year and give SpecOps a share of the $30 billion operating system software market worldwide, the company said.
"David will break the bonds of the giant Windows software and forever change the way the world computes," said SpecOps Chief Executive Fredrick Lewis in a letter inviting journalists to the launch of the software's beta version Thursday.
SpecOps said that once completed, David would allow the production of more personal computers preloaded with the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows operating system.
By preloading a free operating system like Linux that can seamlessly run Microsoft programs, the cost of purchasing personal computers is expected to decline.
SpecOps projects revenue of around $35 million within two years of David's commercial launch, coming mainly from original equipment manufacturers and white-box builders - the small resellers or distributors that assemble and sell personal computers without major brand names.
Conceptualized and developed by a team of Filipino software engineers, the primary purpose of David is to provide a platform that would serve as viable alternative to the Windows operating system, the company said.
According to SpecOps' Web site: "The next generation (of David) will, in effect, incorporate the operating system into the Web browser, virtually eliminating the need for an operating system eventually, except to boot computer and launch the browser."
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