Hummingbird Communications Ltd jumped on the Linux bandwagon at the Linux Showcase in Atlanta, Georgia this week, announcing that the latest version of its SearchServer information retrieval product will run against the open source operating system. SearchServer 4.0 enables users to store web-base information, using a URL as a filename, and has now been enhanced to allow administrators to access and edit information via a browser.
The Toronto, Canada-based company has offered links to Linux systems before, but SearchServer 4.0 is the first of its products to run directly against the OS, and represents a (slightly belated) recognition by the company that Linux is a market it has to play in. [We’re] getting on the Linux bandwagon to make sure we don’t miss a trick, said Hummingbird’s European Evangelist, Kobi Korash. The OS may not the operating system of choice quite yet, but it is an important alternative to Microsoft for small and medium enterprises, he said.
Also slightly behind the market trend, Hummingbird says it is planning to get behind the portal movement too. The company is working feverishly to get something out before the end of the year, said Korash, who believes the endgame is the enterprise application portal.
When it arrives, Hummingbird’s portal will provide access to the company’s DocsOpen document management application, the DocsFulcrum knowledge management package, and its other business intelligence apps. The portal will be Corba-compliant and have a fully customizable front-end with interfaces to Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, and APIs messaging applications from other vendors.
