August 16, 1996
SCO - The Santa Cruz Operation has announced the immediate OEM availability of its Network Client Operating System (NC/OS). SCO claims its NC/OS is the first network computing operating system to run on Intel chips. Other solutions in the works or already released rely on less-widespread processors such as those from Advanced Research Machines, a fact that SCO says makes its OS the first volume platform for the network computer.
While other NC operating systems to hit market have been built on new proprietary platforms SCO's NC/OS builds on a stripped-down version of its flagship OpenServer operating system. Customers can use a proven operating system instead of a completely new technology."What we are providing is a real alternative for those who thought they could only use Microsoft on the desktop," said Scott McGregor, senior vice president, Products, for SCO. "Unlike typical network desktop PCs, this new cost-effective architecture utilizes centralized server administration and management, helping to reduce expensive upgrade costs, as well as the support and administration overhead for the IS department. The merging of SCO's industry-leading UNIX operating system with the technologies of Intel and Netscape offers our OEMs a powerful combination that can take them into this new market today." The SCO NC/OS technology combines a small 1.5MB footprint UNIX operating system, TCP/IP networking, with Netscape Navigator client software, and Java software to provide a truly open NC operating system that can run on most popular Intel hardware platforms. By utilizing SCO's NC/OS in combination with their hardware expertise, OEMs, System Integrators and large VARs can create a low-cost, reliable NC based on proven, industry standard technologies. Additionally, the SCO NC/OS allows companies to enter this new market immediately, without waiting for proprietary operating systems to be developed and deployed.
A SCO spokesman said building on the 1.5-Mbyte Unix operating system will give access to Unix applications as well as to the Java applets that can be run with the operating system's Netscape Navigator client. The operating system also includes a TCP/IP stack for networking.
A SCO spokesperson said the company has "half a dozen"hardware vendors evaluating the operating system, and those that license it will begin building NCs based on NC/OS in September.