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Air Force move seen boosting Windows NT sales
Reuters Story - July 06, 1997 12:52
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By Martin Wolk
SEATTLE, July 6 (Reuter) - An Air Force decision paves the
way for the potential sale of tens of thousands of computers
running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system,
a software company executive said.
Douglas Miller, chief executive officer of Softway Systems
Inc. in San Francisco, said in an interview the Air Force will
announce Monday its approval of the company's OpenNT software
as a substitute for the UNIX operating system.
The Softway software runs on Windows NT servers and
workstations and allows users to operate UNIX and Windows
applications on a single terminal.
Windows NT has been gaining share in the market for
high-end workstations and for business and enterprise networks.
But UNIX and similar systems sold by vendors including Sun
Microsystems Inc. and International Business Machines
Corp. remain hugely popular particularly in large
enterprises, including the U.S. government, the world's largest
UNIX user.
Miller said he and his colleagues founded San
Francisco-based Softway in 1995 to exploit the growth in
Windows NT by providing a way to integrate the Microsoft system
with UNIX applications.
"The challenge has been, "How do I move to Windows NT but
exploit and maintain my investment in UNIX technology?'" Miller
said. "This offers them the solution where with one hardware
platform they can host both classes of applications."
The five-year Air Force contract allows Softway partner
Hughes Data Systems to supply up to 37,000 workstations, but
Miller said the total number could end up far higher if other
government agencies take advantage of the approval. Hughes is a
unit of Hughes Electronics Corp.
A Hughes executive said he expected the Air Force decision
to give the company a competitive edge over Sun, which also has
the right to supply computers to the government under the
previously awarded contract.
Last month the Softway system was approved on a similar
basis by NASA under a contract the space agency has with Compaq
Computer Corp.
Mary Hubley, an analyst with Datapro Information Services
Group, said she expected the government moves would cause UNIX
users to take notice of the new software solution.
"A lot of UNIX users are uncomfortable using NT because
they've been using UNIX so long," she said. "How can you go
wrong with something that does both?"
Miller said privately held Softway expects revenues of
about $10 million over the next year as a result of sales to
the government and other customers. He said he hoped to double
sales in the following 12 months.
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