Oracle Corp subsidiary Network Computing Inc’s NC Server software includes everything needed to configure and administer NC network computer clients, including the NCOS operating system written by Oracle from a NetBSD freeware kernel, NC Services for configuring the client machines, updating the software and users authentication, and applications, including Oracle Designer and Developer 2000 and Web Forms, Report and Graph; HTML-based editor and presentation tool; and terminal emulation for 3270, 5250 and VT220 terminals. The NC Desktop runs what is termed a VUI – video user interface – which provides a video help at the click of a button, the NCOS, and includes a new e-mail application code- named Summatra, calendar, address book, Netscape Navigator, file manager, news ticker and Hat trick Java-based word processing and presentation graphics applets. NC Connect, which is used to run Windows applications on NCs, requires devices to be connected to an NT Server. NC Connect is OEMed from one of the companies providing software to run Windows applications remotely, including Citrix and Insignia, though NCI won’t say which it is using. We’d previously heard NCI was talking to Exodus Technologies Inc. In the Network-In-A-Box configuration of NC Servers and Clients – see other story this section – the majority of the client software is stored on the server, though other NCs will also feature desktop software burned into ROM or Flash RAM for mobile and disconnected users. NC Servers, which will cost between $1,500 and $10,000 include 64Mb RAM and 3Gb hard disk, The top end server is the NC Data Server, which runs the NCOS, Oracle Universal database and Web Server. The Network-In-A-Box package, as well as the NCI software products, are available from Propeller Portable Computer Products Inc, in Orem, Utah. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison donated $100m to an Oracle’s Promise foundation which will seed NCs in schools. He reminded the audience at yesterday’s rollout that the NC Server and Desktop software can also run on Windows and Mac clients in addition to NCs, and on NT servers.
Content from our partners
