n add-on package f
or Windows NT is gaining a following among users who need to run existing Unix applications while they begin the move to NT.
The vendor of the OpenNT package, Softway Systems Inc., along with Microsoft and Hughes Data Systems, will announce this week that the U.S. government has approved the combination of OpenNT and NT to be purchased as a replacement for Unix in an important Air Force contract that includes up to 37,000 workstations. "The customer wants NT but couldn't find a way to run their mission-critical Unix command and control applications on NT," says Softway CEO Douglas Miller.
OpenNT ports much of the Unix operating system directly onto the NT 4.0 kernel, allowing Unix applications to be recompiled and run with no modifications. Because OpenNT bypasses Microsoft's Win32 programming interfaces and runs directly on the kernel itself, application performance is not affected as much as it would be on an emulator running on top of Win32, analysts say.
"This is an easy transition for devel
opers because they can work in a Unix environment on NT," says Mary Hubley, an analyst at Datapro Information Services Group, in Delran, N.J.
Perhaps most important, OpenNT lets Unix and NT coexist and interoperate, says Tom Harris, an analyst at International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. This is especially critical because use of both systems is growing in the public as well as private sector, according to an IDC survey.
Analysts still expect that the bulk of the Air Force workstations will be Unix machines from vendors such as Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment. However, the Air Force has agreed to allow OpenNT and NT to be used as a Unix substitute on Digital Alpha-based workstations.
The Air Force deal is also considered another important entree for Microsoft into the government sector.
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n add-on package f
or Windows NT is gaining a following among users who need to run existing Unix applications while they begin the move to NT.
