Before the customers start flocking or otherwise, the first test of whether you have a winning product or not is the degree of support you get from your peers, and on that count, Windows NT on the PowerPC is doing rather well, because Mountain View, California-based Network Computing Devices Inc is sufficiently hopeful for its prospects that it yesterday rushed out PC-Xware for NT on PowerPC. Moreover it is the company’s first move beyond the iAPX-86 family with its personal computer X Window server software (remember in the quirky Alice in Wonderland world of the X Window System the server software is at the terminal end of the link). PC-Xware for Windows NT supports Microsoft Corp’s Windows Folder Tabs user interface to improve productivity with on-screen choices that eliminate the need to navigate through a maze of pull-down menus and dialogue boxes in order to find important data, configure interfaces, create icons and launch applications. PC-Xware for Windows NT is written as a native 32-bit Windows NT application and is compatible with Microsoft’s TCP/IP stack, which is included with Windows NT. The NT version also includes CD-quality sound and support for the X Image Extension. The company has also upgraded the iAPX-86 version of PC-Xware product to be X11,6-compatible, with virtual screen support for high-resolution workstation applications on a lower-resolution personal computer screen, single Windows mode for improved X Window grouping, and a Windows File Transfer Protocol utility. PC-Xware for the PowerPC ships next month for $545, single-quantity price.
