Distributed Computing Environment house Transarc Corp is offering another one of its thin clients to provide access to additional Distributed Computing Environment services from Microsoft Corp Windows desktops. DFS-Light is effectively a Windows NT gateway that enables LAN Manager to send requests to a Distributed File System server and retrieve DFS files in their native format to personal computers. A user completes a password routine to authenticate a request; the routine is cached for subsequent access requests. Transarc recently began shipping a Distributed Computing Environment and Encina client for Windows called DeLite. DFS-Light does not require DeLite. Transarc’s plans for Java-enabled clients are still under wraps. DFS-Light costs $150 per user under Windows and Windows NT this quarter. Meantime, Transarc’s parent IBM Corp has put its DFS-Web extension for Web servers out to beta test. DFS-Web links the Distributed Computing Environment-based Distributed File System to the Internet through a browser. DFS-Web will enable client browsers to access Distributed File System without requiring changes in the client application programming interfaces. General availability is set for the first quarter next year.
