NeTraverse to Offer $200,000 worth of software to user groups [LWN.net]

From:		"Mark R. Hinkle" <mhinkle@netraverse.com>
To:		<lwn@lwn.net>
Subject:		NeTraverse to Offer $200,000 worth of software to user groups
Date:		Wed, 20 Nov 2002 15:04:25 -0500

Mark R. Hinkle
Vice President
NeTraverse
http://www.netraverse.com


NETRAVERSE ANNOUNCES LINUX USERS GROUP SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM

NETRAVERSE TO DONATE OVER $200,000 WORTH OF SOFTWARE TO USER GROUPS

AUSTIN, TEXAS - 11/18/2002-- NeTraverse Inc., the leading provider of
Windows-to-Linux software bridging solutions for the enterprise and software
developers, announces an unprecedented program to sponsor Linux User Groups
(LUGs) throughout the world.

"NeTraverse understands that the stunning success of Linux has been largely
attributed to the grassroots efforts of user groups and enthusiasts
worldwide who have supported the Linux movement." says Mark Hinkle, Vice
President, NeTraverse, "It is our goal to encourage and empower these
efforts by helping make it easier for mainstream users to bridge from
Windows to Linux."

NeTraverse plans to donate over $200,000 worth of software to LUGS
throughout the world over the next year. This effort is intended to help
computer users who are under increasing pressure from draconian licensing
and cost tyrannies of Microsoft. By dramatically easing the transition from
Windows to Linux, users from schools, governments, police departments and
major enterprises can begin to reap the cost and security benefits from
using Linux right away.

NeTraverse products include Win4Lin Workstation Edition 4.0, which allows
desktop Linux users to execute their legacy Windows operating system as a
process under Linux. Linux users can now run their one or two
hard-to-replace applications without rebooting their system or having to
manage a separate Windows system on their desktop.

Win4Lin provides seamless support for Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Office
2000 and earlier versions of  Office, but it's real strength is in
complimenting Open Source solutions like StarOffice and OpenOffice by
running the "other applications" that will take more time to replace, and
can often lead to objections and delays in moving rapidly to Linux. These
'other' applications may be third party applications, in-house applications
or just familiar development tools. Win4Lin allows a user to expand the
Linux footprint end-to-end, all the way to the desktop, without having to
compromise functionality or productivity.

For software developers, Win4Lin Workstation Edition is particularly useful
for running Internet Explorer and popular web design and development
products like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage.

In addition to Win4Lin Workstation Edition, NeTraverse offers Win4Lin
Terminal Server that allows users to run multiple Windows sessions on one
Linux server. These sessions can be forwarded or 'served' to any
network-connected device whether it is a Linux or UNIX workstation, a thin
client device, a PDA or traditional Windows desktops. The added value in the
Win4Lin Terminal Server, beyond helping users migrate to Linux without
leaving their critical Windows applications behind, is that they can
consolidate the hosting and administration of their desktop resources for a
fraction the cost of a Citrix or Windows Terminal Services solution.

About NeTraverse

NeTraverse Inc., is the market leader in bridging Windows® to Linux® with
over 800,000 users worldwide. Providing thin-client software solutions on
the Linux and UNIX platform, NeTraverse offers innovative products and
services to facilitate the seamless migration from Windows to Linux and
lower the cost of enterprise IT infrastructure. NeTraverse products include
Win4Lin Workstation, Win4Lin Terminal Server and Merge. Headquartered in
Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.netraverse.com.

For Further Information, Contact:

Mark R. Hinkle,
Vice President, NeTraverse
lugs@netraverse.com
NeTraverse LUGs Page

Win4Lin is a registered trademark of NeTraverse Inc. Windows and the Windows
operating system are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Linux is a registered
trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other products, services, companies, events
and publications are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of
their respective owners in the U.S. and /or other countries.

This message contains information about NeTraverse and Win4Lin products, if
you do not wish to receive these messages in the future, simple reply to
this message with the word delete in the subject line.




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NeTraverse to Offer $200,000 worth of software to user groups

Posted Nov 22, 2002 0:35 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

Hmmm. I suppose this could be a good thing. The greatest gift of all
would be GPLing the software but the companies infrastructure probably
couldn't handle the change in direction required. Understandable.

$200,000 worth of software sounds funny, if they doubled their prices they
could give away $400,000 worth of software. Given that making a thousand
copies of a piece of software costs little more than making a hundred,
putting monetary values on copies of software hasn't made sense to me in
a long time.

When I see companies "giving away" copies of software I am reminded of the
copies that they won't let people have. I suppose this could make it
easier for some people to encounter GNU/Linux, hopefully this will help
spread the word about the existence of Free Software.

I wouldn't use the software myself but I acknowledge that this is a
contribution to the GNU/Linux community.

Ciaran O'Riordan

(Looking a gift horse in the mouth? I'll stare at it 'til I'm sure it's
not trojan.)

NeTraverse to Offer $200,000 worth of software to user groups

Posted Nov 25, 2002 12:33 UTC (Mon) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

Well, Wine and WineX are pretty much the same - and they run programs in "compatibility mode". You can run a lot of doze progs, but you may fall foul of unimplemented interfaces, missing undocumented calls, etc etc. So Wine works *most* of the time. However, provided you don't run any doze dll's you don't need a doze licence :-)

VMWare provides a virtual box on which to run a genuine copy of Windows (most any version). So you can run anything, but it's slow.

Win4Lin basically runs W9x as an unprivileged process, so like VMWare you need a doze licence, but unlike VMWare (a) you can't run programs that require NT, but (b) what it can run it runs at full speed.

Cheers,
Wol