Category:
Some of the companies and organizations that have already “gone Linux” include Toyota, Home Depot (NYSE: HD) Latest News about Home Depot, the U.S. Post Office and Cisco’s (Nasdaq: CSCO) Latest News about Cisco printing services arm. Government adherents of Linux include Germany and Mexico.” More at newsfactor.
Category:
JADE will run in any J2EE compliant container and with most of the popular database management systems. In addition we have integrated JADE with best-of-breed development and deployment tools such as Dreamweaver (4 and MX), IntelliJ IDEA, Tomcat and MySQL to create a full-featured, open WYSIWYG development environment for creating web applications.
JADE has actually been around for quite some time. It was started several years ago as a toolbox for an Enterprise Java consulting practice. At the time we wanted to start building Java web applications for our corporate customers but there was not much out there in the way of tools that was not vaporware. Some tools were starting to emerge but they were poorly designed, bug-ridden and completely proprietary. The J2EE spec was in flux at version 0.8 and IBM had a different one from Sun so we decided to stay away from that until the dust settled. The servlet spec looked pretty solid, but there was not enough there to really build an application unless you like having a million System.out.println’s. We therefore decided to build a class library of components similar to the Java AWT only for web applications. That worked out well and we were off and running.
Early on we stayed away from JSPs even after the spec firmed up because we really hated mixing Java code with HTML in-line. That is until they came out with custom tag libraries. We saw this as an opportunity to improve the JADE a lot. Any AWT or Swing programmer knows that creating a bunch of components and laying them out on a page takes quite a bit of code and that was true with JADE as well since it followed the same model. It is much easier to code a page in HTML with tags than with Java code. So we built a JSP tag library wrapper around our GUI components. That improved our productivity dramatically. But then we went a step further. We realized that potentially building a GUI painter that generated tags was much easier than a GUI painter that generated code. One of our developers noticed that the HTML design tool Dreamweaver could be customized to work with custom tag libraries. We jumped on this and a couple of months later we had a WSYWYG drag-and-drop environment for our tag library. Now we started to get really productive.
Until that point we were using IBM Visual Age Java for our development environment. Although it has many flaws, we considered it the best tool in a pretty pathetic field of offerings by the various Java vendors. But then IBM pretty much abandoned it for their Websphere Studio product, which we were not particularly impressed with. It amazed us because we thought that VA Java was the only good piece of software they had in the Java / web space and they dropped it in favor of all their other stuff, which we hated. So we went shopping around for another environment and we were once again disappointed by how pathetic the offerings were. One of our developers came across IntelliJ IDEA and really liked it, but it did not do web applications. So we combined IntelliJ with Tomcat, JADE, Dreamweaver and some homegrown utilities. Now we had a really great environment for writing the Java code, a really great WYSYWG painter for the JSPs, and a solid foundation to code from all integrated together. We started cranking out web code as if it were Visual Basic. But unlike VB code our code is built on a solid OO foundation, uses open standards and is vendor neutral.
We did not actually ever plan on releasing JADE to the public. It was our secret weapon. But then one of our clients asked us why we were not using Struts by Apache. We did not have an answer so we looked into it and found that to write the same program in Struts it takes about twice as much code as with JADE. And a lot of the extra code is of the mindless, tedious variety, which we really abhor. Moreover to get the same functionality with Struts that is built into JADE you have to integrate with and learn a whole array of different open source tools, all by different developers. And after all that you end up having to code the GUI in notepad. It did not sound too productive to us. We started thinking that we might have something here.
Then one day we went to a Microsoft.Net Studio demo. Our first impression was surprise because it looks a lot like JADE (not really surprising when you think about it because a lot of the concepts underlying both are the same). Next we were upset because it looks better then any tool that any Java vendor has come up with (at least at the demo). We figured that Microsoft understands a fundamental truth that the Java vendors do not: If you make something easy to use, people will use it. We figured that if the Java world does not get their act together in a hurry, Microsoft would start to win the hearts and minds of web developers and that would be it for Java. Having no desire to become Microsoft programmers we decided to release JADE as open source and at least do our small part in keeping Microsoft from taking over the rest of the world. And we actually do have something that even Microsoft does not. Like Dot Net Studio JADE provides everything you need to build web applications, but uses open standards, best-of-breed tools from different vendors and is open source and free of charge.
Jade is avaliable on for download on Source Forge
For more information check out The JADE Home Page
Ease of installation
The complete operating system requires only a few installation steps in a graphical, easy-to-follow environment. Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English instructions are provided.
Improved hardware detection
Our development team has worked hard to make sure that the product is available to the widest audience, including notebook users and users of non-standard hardware. A new 2-step installation setup is available to test the hardware compatibility before proceeding with the rest of the package installation.
Advanced Chinese Support
All aspects of Chinese usage are now fully supported. This includes input, printing and working environment in both simplified and traditional Chinese as well as various input methods. A lot of effort went into making sure that offices wishing to move to Linux can do so without much productivity loss.
Unicode and LSB 1.1 compliance
The use of Unicode fonts throughout the applications means that, for the first time, it is possible to mix different Asian character sets in the same document. Compliance with the Linux Standard Base recommendations is another great step towards compatibility with future releases and other Linux distributions.
Hardware compatibility
Our co-operative efforts with many local hardware manufacturers have resulted in a much improved compatibility testing. All modern processors, including Pentium 4 and AMD K7, most video cards such as Matrox, Nvidia, GeForce as well as 802.11b wireless modules and RAID arrays are now fully supported. Installation has also been tested and known to work on most notebooks.
About Linpus Technologies
Linpus Technologies, established in Taipei, Taiwan in 1997 is a premier Linux development company in Greater China. With offices in Taipei and Shanghai, the company is specializing in development of Linux embedded systems as well as Linux server and desktop operating systems. For more information please visit our web site at www.linpus.com.”
Hancom Office is a powerful office productivity suite for Linux that includes word processing, spreadsheet, graphics and resentation applications. The suite is compatible with Microsoft Office and is available in English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic editions.
Hancom Office 2.0.2: Unicode Support, Exporting MS Word, Squashing Bugs
The latest version of Hancom Office includes a number of important new features and bug fixes, including:
We recommend that all users
upgrade
to Hancom Office 2.0.2. Full release notes are
here.
This maintenance release is available as a free update to all registered users of previous versions of Hancom Office (including Hancom Office 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 Standard and Hancom Office 2.0 Professional. A free 30-day trial version is also available from our web site.
New users may purchase the software for $49.95(CD Case, Download edition) or $59.95 (Boxed set with printed documentation) from hacom shop.
LinuxLand : Bringing Hancom Office to German users
Hancom Linux also announced partnerships with LinuxLand to market Hancom Linux in Germany.
LinuxLand International, Germany’s leading distributor of Linux software, will be Hancom Linux’s distributor, and starts with distribution of English version. Rudolf Strobl, LinuxLand’s Managing Director, commented: “We are delighted to bring Hancom Office to market in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Hancom Office is a terrific product and we believe that, once people in these markets have a chance to try it out, they will love it.”
Hancom Linux’s partners program: Localizing Hancom Office to enter new markets
Today, Hancom Linux also launched its partners program, designed to create additional localized editions of Hancom Office and make the product available in at least 20 languages by Fall.
Thomas Sanghyun Park, Hancom Linux’s CEO stated “Hancom Office is already available in English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. Now that the software is double-byte and bi-directional and supports Unicode, it can easily be translated into any language. Every day, we get calls from customers asking for a local version of our product. Responding to this demand, we are reaching out to companies that want to work with us to bring Hancom Office and Hancom Linux OS to their markets.”
The company has launched a new web site for prospective partners, at http://en.hancom.com/partners.
The company is also inviting Linux users to send suggestions about appropriate partners and business opportunities in new markets to partners@hancom.com.
About Hancom Linux
Hancom Linux, headquartered in Seoul, Korea, is a leading provider of Linux-based productivity solutions for desktop computers and information appliances. Founded in 1999, the company employs more than 90 employees in 4 locations worldwide. Our flagship product, Hancom Office for Linux, is a powerful office productivity suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office and is available in English, Korean, Japan, Chinese and Arabic editions. In a major boost for the Linux desktop market, the Korean government decided in February 2002 to buy 120,000 copies of Hancom Linux OS and Hancom Office for its office workers. Sharp Electronics Corp. is bundling Hancom Mobile Office with its popular Zaurus SL-5500 PDA.
Hancom Linux, Hancom Office and Hancom Mobile Office are trademarks of Hancom Linux, Inc. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft Office are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. Sharp and Zaurus are trademarks of Sharp Electronics Corporation.
For more information :info@hancom.com“
At the heart of EasyDose is Transmeta’s Midori Linux, a distribution of the Open Source operating system created specifically to power small or portable computing devices. Such gadgets initially included MP3 players, Web appliances, and home DSL routers. Measuring radiation levels in a hospital setting is probably one of the more unique uses for the Midori embedded distribution.
Filling a niche
“There is a specific niche for Linux in the hospital environment,” says Norbert Bayer, founder and CEO of BMS Austria, “it’s a lot more practical to use an Open Source operating system.
“We started EasyDose about two years ago and we had a very long testing period,” says Bayer. “The device was tested in three Austrian hospitals for more than a year, to ensure that Linux was suitable and stable enough for the task.”
EasyDose is the first product from the Vienna-based company to use Linux. Primarily a Microsoft shop since its founding in 1994, the company discovered that it was nearly impossible to handle support issues related to Microsoft products without making significant investments in a support infrastructure, Bayer says.
“We still think that Microsoft has some benefits; however, if you’re designing a standard solution, a black box appliance like EasyDose, then it’s a lot easier to design that type of system with Linux. You can place the whole system into a 4MB media with a graphical user interface,” Bayer says.
Anatomy of a dosimeter
Roughly the size of a small hardcover book, the outer surface of the EasyDose device is bare save for a few small connecting ports and a 6.5-inch TFT touch screen that X-ray technicians use to enter patient data. Underneath the screen is a Cyrix GXM 233 MHz processor and a 6GB hard drive, used to store medical information in its SQL-powered database. Every time an X-ray is taken, two ionization chambers on the device record the amount of radiation that floods the room.
Even the user interface is Open Source. EasyDose uses ParaGUI, a cross-platform high-level application framework and graphical user interface library. Through this interface, or an optional Web interface that can be accessed from a traditional desktop computer, X-ray technicians can monitor the amount of radiation a patient is exposed to each time an X-ray is taken. Because EasyDose can be integrated into an existing hospital or lab computer network, that information can be easily merged into existing patient records.
The product comes just in time to meet the demand created by new European Union standards for healthcare providers. One of those New EU regulations mandates that X-ray procedures must be monitored.
The slow revolution
Ignacio Valdes believes envisions a bright future for Open Source medical technology, where hundreds of billions of dollars in cost savings could be realized with the use of open standards, like Linux. Since March 2000, Valdes has chronicled the ongoing ascent of Linux and Open Source technology in medicine through his Web site, LinuxMedNews.
“Medicine has a very low rate of computerization, with many places continuing to do things in an astoundingly inefficient way,” Valdes says. “Records-keeping software has remained larger under-utilized because there is no standard front-, middle-, or back-end clinical computing software. There are hundreds of incompatible medical software vendors and no incentive to inter-operate because it locks in the customer with prohibitively high startup costs and even higher costs to switch vendors.
“Even worse is that most practitioners don’t know the problem can be solved without spending big money. The saving grace of all this is that most clinical computing software works badly and isn’t used much. Every auto parts store I’ve ever been to is vastly more efficient and computerized than any clinical venue.”
Valdes also warns that the Open Source revolution will be a slow one: “Medicine being what it is, one can expect a 10-year delay before [Open Source software] becomes widespread.”
Recalling a presentation he gave about 10 years ago on “this thing called the Internet,” Valdes says that managers back then just didn’t quite understand the technology or its applications.
“This is where most people in medicine are with regard to Free and Open Source software. Most are trying to get any software to work, much less Free and Open Source. They don’t realize that many of the problems they’re having are because the closed model hasn’t worked very well in medicine.”
Waiting in the wings
There are dozens of Open Source software products being developed by community members, including Debian-Med. Announced in January by Andreas Tille, the project is an enhancement of Debian designed to meet the requirements of hospitals and medical research facilities.
Much of the product was adapted from Debian Junior, the project with the goal of creating a Linux distribution easy enough for small children to use. Instead of small children, however, Tille wants to make Debian-Med easy enough so that even users with minimal technical skills can use the operating system and its included tools.
Tille says the project is still in the starting phase. “I’m currently busy developing some kind of infrastructure for a menu system to enhance [Debian-Med’s] usability.”
One of the main goals of Debian-Med is to support all fields of healthcare with an interest in Free and Open Source software. If there’s a package that supports a particular need of the medical industry, Tille wants to ensure it’s bundled on Debian-Med for easy access.
Tille says some of the requests surprised him: “I never imagined that there would be an interest from people in pharmacies or physiotherapy when I started the project, but people asked for it specifically.”
Tille says Debian-Med probably won’t plan a separate release from the official Debian distribution. He expects the first usable version of the project to be available with the upcoming Debian 3.0/Woody releases.
Learning to play together
BMS Austria’s Bayer said his company is developing a number of Open Source-based medical products that can integrate with other hospital systems as well as each other. BMS Austria will focus on radiology hardware to automate many of the manual tasks that consume an X-ray technician’s day.
Debian-Med’s Tille says his goal is to bring authors of Free and Open Source medical software together. “We really do not compete with any software project — the aim is integration.”
If integration can be achieved and some significant hurdles — not the least of which is increasing medical practitioner’s technical knowledge — then there are huge benefits to patients and caregivers alike.
“For the first time, medical schools will be able to train their students on medical software because this software will be standard and readily available,” says LinuxMedNews’ Valdes. “The same software interface you see in school would be the one you’d work on as a resident, then as a private practitioner. The software can be studied and modified to make it ever more suited for use over the years.
“There is practically no chance this will happen if closed software is used in medicine.”
Category:
