Insignia Systems Ltd has launched SoftWindows, enabling Unix users to run Microsoft Corp’s MS-DOS and Windows applications and utilities on their workstations (CI No 2,259). UK general manager and vice-president of engineering, George Buchan, sees the situation as being that workstation users have traditionally been isolated from corporate personal computer-based systems, but the rapid growth of workstations in business environments demands means for running commercial and in-house custom Windows applications on non-Intel Corp hardware. He describes SoftWindows as a personal computer within a Unix box – so, if for example, you want your personal computer to talk to or share information with a Unix machine, he says, SoftWindows makes it think it is simply talking to another personal computer, providing you with a virtual Windows desktop. SoftWindows essentially comprises 80% emulation software and 20% translation software, which, the High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire-based firm claims, enables applications running on an entry-level RISC-based workstation to run at the same speed as on a 25MHz 80486 personal computer.
Conforms to Win16
Release 1.0 conforms to the Win16 application programming interface, meaning it can run both Windows and MS-DOS applications. It also includes Windows device and source drivers; supports Microsoft Corp’s Object Linking & Embedding and Dynamic Data Exchange technology; provides client support for Novell Inc NetWare, LAN Manager, OS/2 and various Unix file servers; and will be available on Hewlett-Packard Co and Sun Microsystems Inc machines from December. Versions for Digital Equipment Corp, IBM Corp and Silicon Graphics Inc workstations will follow in March 1994, and a single-user licence will cost $400. Initially, Insignia intends to ask the various workstation vendors mentioned above to bundle a full-function demonstration copy of SoftWindows free of charge with their systems. If after 30 days, customers want to buy a licence, they then go back to the vendor, to a distributor or to Insignia itself. Release 2.0 of SoftWindows is due in about six months. It will have full Win32C compliance, which means it is optimised for Chicago or Windows 4.0 applications, although it will also run a range of NT, Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS packages. The product, code-named Red Baron in response to Wabi’s supposed Snoopy tag, will include Bristol Technology Inc’s Wind/U-32s tool kit. This recompiles and links Windows source code with a Wind/U library to generate Unix versions of an application. Such programs have the same functionality and performance of the original Windows application, but with a Motif look-and-feel.
