Ximian was a company that provided free software desktop applications for Linux and Unix based on the GNOME platform. Ximian (previously called Helix Code, and originally announced as International Gnome Support) was founded by Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman in October, 1999, and was bought by Novell on August 4, 2003. Novell intended to continue and extend development of Ximian's original projects, while adding support for its own GroupWise and ZENworks software.
Ximian both developed new products and "polished" existing free software projects to provide more consistent operation. These projects were packaged into its Ximian Desktop product — a range of integrated applications intended to provide all the tools a typical business user might require. So-called "Ximianized" versions of GNOME, OpenOffice.org, and Gaim were released, along with the following completely new products:
- Evolution
- Ximian Connector
- Red Carpet
- Bonobo
- Mono
Ximian was a founding member of the Desktop Linux Consortium and drove the development of Mono, an implementation of the .NET Framework as free software.
Attachmate acquired Novell in April 2011. In May 2011, the Mono development team was laid off, and Miguel de Icaza created the company Xamarin to continue development of Mono.