FrameMaker shelves Linux release

Adobe will not produce a Linux version of its long-established print software tool FrameMaker when the beta version expires next month.

A company spokesman in England said it is not uncommon for the full version to be released after the beta expires. However, he was unable to suggest a release date for the full version. Information on the Linux version was posted today on the company's website. According to Clive Longbottom, software industry analyst at Quocirca, porting FrameMaker to Linux is "a fundamentally flawed concept." He said: "The sort of people likely to be using FrameMaker will already be on Windows, Unix or a Mac. These people want to use Open Source software. "Frame Maker is an old tool and there is a lot of code under the hood," he added. "My guess is someone wanted to port the software and it seemed a good opportunity to test out the market." By Geoffrey Davies