A Tasmanian software developer, Trumpet Software International Pty Ltd, is planning to go head-to-head with Microsoft Corp, releasing a home grown 32-bit operating system that runs native Windows applications. The OS, called PetrOS, is aimed at the NT market and is due to be released next month.
Simon Milburn, the US manager for Trumpet, which has offices in Diamond Bar, LA County, California, said that the OS – which has been four years in development – was created as a low-cost, small footprint alternative to Windows/NT. The software is expected to cost between $20 to $40 per OS. The microkernel is 100Kb and with a full TCP/IP stack it weighs in at just over 200Kb. In keeping with its stripped down nature, the OS does not yet have a graphical user interface, using the command line format instead. However, Milburn said that the company would be canvassing users to see if they wanted a GUI after the OS was on the market. The software has been tested and runs all Windows/NT applications, according to Milburn.
Trumpet is still in the dark about Microsoft’s response to PetrOS. The company has done some checking about the legal status of its product but has not had a conclusive answer on where it stands regarding Microsoft. Milburn admitted that it was possible – although unlikely – that PetrOS could be stalled on the launch pad. Microsoft declined to comment on the matter.
However, Trumpet is no stranger to tangling with Microsoft at ground level. Founder Peter Tattam, launched the five-year-old company on the back of his Winsock program – a TCP/IP stack program that brought dial-up networking capabilities to Windows 3.1. The bottom fell out of that market when Microsoft added TCP/IP functions to Windows 95 and Trumpet has concentrated on developing a mail server and other Windows utilities.
