Insignia Solutions Inc this week will put a beta copy of its promised NTrigue client for Java out on the Web, expecting the test period to be over in four to six weeks. In keeping with the Java motif, the software has been named Keoke after an Irish coffee-style drink make with a Hawaiian brew. Keoke, which Sun Microsystems Inc will bundle on its JavaStations, will let any Java-supported platform or browser run Windows applications – a necessity for any Java network computer, considering the deficit of Java applications and the heavy user demand for running Microsoft Corp programs. Keoke, which was built from the ground up by Insignia’s engineering staff, is a project that started late last summer and is essentially a thin version of the standard X Windows Systems graphics protocol. Insignia engineers used only what was absolutely needed of X, not duplicating any functionality provided by the JavaOS, and managed to squeeze it all into only 100Kb of code. A standard X System is between 4Mb and 8Mb in size. Insignia, which demonstrated the software in New York last year on the day Sun announced the JavaStation, says Keoke is optimised for distributing graphics over a local area network or the Internet to Java desktops. It can support all Java virtual machines, although performance is in part dependent on how good the underlying virtual machine and the JIT Just in Time compiler used is. Sun, which is the first network computer company to take up Keoke, is not selling the NT-based NTrigue server that Keoke requires to run the Windows applications. Considering its anti-Microsoft stance, that wouldn’t be politically correct. It will however co-market the server with Insignia. Keoke is going to Sun royalty-free, though according to our sister publication ClieNT Server News, there was an up-front development charge. Insignia expects to make its money from the server, which sells for $7,500 for 15 concurrent users and a cut- down version for five concurrent user costs $2,000. Windows applications will be accessible on JavaStations with the click of an icon.
