You might call Neoware a company on a mission. One of many companies struggling to carve out a profitable niche for itself in the market of selling Linux-based products, Neoware has tuned its efforts to what CEO Mike Kantrowitz dubs “Appliance Computing.”

“The key to Neoware's Linux strategy, can be summed up in two letters: e and z,” says Kantrowitz. According to Kantrowitz, a handful of Neoware “e-z” products is largely responsible for differentiating the company's NeoLinux operating system from the other Linux implementations that are available today, allowing Neolinux to uniquely satisfy the needs of a broad spectrum of “appliance computing” applications.

NeoLinux 2.0, the latest version of Neoware's Linux for appliance computing applications, was introduced earlier this week at Comdex Fall 2000 (Las Vegas, NV). NeoLinux is basically a tailored version of Red Hat Linux targeted at a broad range of “post-PC” information appliances and net-connected devices including such applications as cash registers, firewalls, routers, web kiosks, thin clients, security devices, web kiosks, and email terminals.

The core operating system components of NeoLinux are derived from standard Red Hat Linux. To that, Neoware has added the “ez” products — a set of utilities and capabilities oriented towards appliance, rather than personal computing, applications. These currently include:

• ezOff — allows an appliance running NeoLinux to be powered down simply by pressing the on/off switch.
  
• ezSecure — allows the Linux operating system to run “read-only,” securing it from viruses or other unauthorized changes.
  
• ezCompress — streamlines the Linux operating system, allowing it to operate in as little as 8 MB of Flash memory.
  
• ezManage — allows large numbers of NeoLinux-powered appliances to be discovered across the net, as well as centrally managed, configured and updated in groups.
  
• ezConnect — a control system for Linux based appliances that configures what the device does at startup; e.g., establishes connections to local or remote servers, starts and initializes local processes; based on an easy-to-use graphical interface.
  
• ezSnap — allows administrators to easily add software to, or upgrade, designated remote devices running NeoLinux.

The last two of these functions, ezConnect and ezSnap, are newly available in NeoLinux 2.0.

ezConnect, probably the most significant new feature of NeoLinux 2.0, provides a highly customizable user interface designed specifically for appliance computing applications. Kantrowitz calls ezConnect “a computing appliance user interface for Linux that shields users from the complexity of the Linux operating system.” “Neoware ezConnect 2.0 allows people with no Linux experience to customize a Linux appliance and to launch virtually any application on a server or the Internet,” adds Kantrowitz.

Using ezConnect, users and administrators can easily create connections to run Microsoft Windows applications on servers, UNIX applications via the X Window protocol, terminal connections to mainframes and minicomputers, Netscape Navigator Internet sessions for applications such as kiosks, and custom connections to launch virtually any Linux application. A unique “lock down” feature lets Administrators control the user interface to prevent unauthorized modifications. Unlike traditional Linux interfaces, ezConnect requires no Linux programming experience, and can be customized without training to completely tailor the Linux desktop, automatically launch new applications at startup, and create custom computing appliances for a wide variety of markets.

NeoLinux 2.0 is available immediately, bundled at no additional cost with Neoware's Eon family of computing appliances. As a stand-alone product, NeoLinux 2.0 is available for $60 per appliance, which includes one year of technical support and upgrades.

Many of the core operating system components of NeoLinux are available for free public download, under the GNU General Public License (GPL), at www.neolinux.org. With respect to Neoware's open source philosophy, Kantrowitz says “I think that a balance is appropriate. For example, not everything that we do is open source. We keep certain really unique and proprietary technologies as non-open-source technologies. But things that are based apon open source we are obligated to provide back. And we also contribute things that we don't have an obligation to provide back, because we think that open source is an important phenomenon. I think it's important to do, it's a way to keep this environment moving forward . . . and a reason why people in the commercial world are interested in this environment. We're a public company, and we have shareholders, and they expect us to make money. But I absolutely believe in the open source phenomenon, and believe that anybody who benefits from it should contribute to it.”

Neoware's products are on display at Comdex this week in the National Semiconductor Pavilion, Booth #L1909, in station NS404.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.