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In Segment Two – Cool The Kompany
We are joinded tonight by CEO Shawn Gordon of theKompany.com, and we will be talking about the entire family of theKompany products for the Zaurus. The impressive list of available apps can be found at the URL http://www.thekompany.com/embedded/
Shawn has been programming since 1978 and prior to founding theKompany.com had
founded S.M.Gordon & Associates which specialized in utility software for
the HP 3000 series of mini-computers which is the platform he worked on
from 1983 to 1999. Shawn has developed in over a dozen languages and worked
in every area of I.T.(he’s a geek). Shawn has also worked (corporate) for major companies in virtually every area of business which provides for a good understanding of what businesses and users expect from software and how they will use it.
theKompany.com
was founded in August of 1999, with the original goal to build developer
applications for KDE. Since that time they have expanded our mission statement
and now also include desktop software with developer tools as well
as multi-platform support by using Qt. Most products are now
available on both Linux and Windows, and they are starting to release some
Mac OS X versions now as well. Late last year they got involved with
embedded software with the pre-release of the Linux based Sharp Zaurus PDA,
and now focus about half their attention on that platform.
Please join us on the show, and check our IRC
Chat(irc.thelinuxshow.com
#linuxshow).
Remember tune in at 6pm pt, 7pm mt, 8pm ct, and 9pm et. NOTE: we are now on
Daylight Saving Time in the US.
Catch the Linux show at
www.thelinuxshow.com“
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Author: JT Smith
Product names can be a problem. Especially in today’s global
marketplace. Four years ago, the 11-year-old Finnish company, Suomen OhjelmistoTyo (Finnish Software Engineering Company), began marketing its own Linux distribution, SOT Linux, throughout Scandinavia.
However, the company’s marketing gurus decided a name
change was in order because SOT in Swedish has a negative connotation,
meaning “disease” or “soot.” So they rebranded it “Best Linux.”
Now, with Scandinavia no longer its primary market, having gone global
in a big way, the company has rebranded itself again, back to SOT Linux. Of course, “sot” in English means “drunkard,” but well, you can’t win ’em all. Or as Jon
“maddog” Hall, executive director of Linux International says, “The next time that
someone compares ‘SOT’ to the English word ‘soot,’ remind them that
soot is carbon, and carbon lubricates fine machinery.”
As part of its renaming, the company is also launching its first new
release in more than two years, SOT Linux 2002. The new distribution comes in both a desktop and a server set and includes full
support for the IPv6 Internet protocol, a new Windows migration tool, near-
complete Linux Standard Base compatibility and support for various Winmodems. “And,”
says company CEO Santeri Kannisto, “the entire OS has been fully
compiled using the new GCC 3 compiler.”
When I interviewed Kannisto at CeBIT 2000, he’d said the company’s “main
target is home users. Caldera and all the others — they think business.
They are trying to make something for everyone, and I think that’s a bad
idea.”
So why the change to a server focus? “We are targeting more and more businesses right now, because of the market and failure with the original business model,” he said. “We delivered over 500,000 downloads of that version with close to zero revenue, and that has forced us to the change. (It’s) the same good old problem of how to make money with free product.”
In addition, Kannisto hopes for income production from a “download key
scheme” the company is setting up. “It’s a system in which we give the
base product free,” he said. “If customer wants the maintenance/updates he has to
pay for agreement. After that he gets a download key for installing them
and unpacking their sources. This is how it works in SOT Office.” SOT Office is an
office productivity suite the company is introducing.
A slightly different version of the scheme is implemented in SOT Linux.
There, “the download key enables users to install commercial software
from the CDROM,” Kannisto said. “That software is mostly licensed by third parties and we are not allowed to distribute it freely. Therefore, the packages are
encrypted on the CDROM and cannot be installed without download key. In
SOT Linux, there is special product called the Download package, it includes
the registration fee, technical support for installation and download
key.”
The company is also setting up a “pay for maintenance” scheme with SOT
Office. “If either of those work, we can return to the original strategy,
otherwise we have to turn more and more to business users,” Kannisto said.
Kannisto explained the original marketing strategy to me at CeBIT 2000. He said it was “easy.”
“You look at what Microsoft was doing in its early
days and do the same.” Is that still SOT’s strategy?
“Yes, exactly but not that strict anymore,” Kannisto said. “SOT
Office supports migration to Linux, and we had to release it because
Sun pulled out StarOffice from Linux users. We have been working with
SOT Office for past 1.5 years, as I was expecting something like this to
happen when Sun bought Star Division and released its source code.”
Asked if the company is still looking to equal or overcome Microsoft’s
lead on the desktop by imitating its marketing strategies, Kannisto answered: “Yes, but the path has proven to be longer and require more
money. Anyway, the aims still exist, and the strategy is the same.”
One of SOT Linux’s big selling points has always been an easy
installation. Back in 2000, Kannisto said, “Also important is the
installer. We are making it better and able to detect more devices all
the time.” Which, of course, is all well and good, but all
distributions claim to do that. So I asked how SOT is doing it
differently than the other distributions.
“Our current special expertise and spearhead is the IPv6 technology,” he said, “and a readiness for future mobile solutions on mobile
phones, mobile PDAs and mobile phone stations. Reasons to this might be
obvious because of our origin and location, but unfortunately I am not
able to comment this any further. Time will tell.”
Kannisto added: “We have taken two years to craft a well-tested and
stable Linux distribution. It has been long and sometimes even
frustrating period of development, especially seeing others go through a
number of releases during this time and having our customers ask when
our new version would be ready.” Wasn’t he
afraid of losing at least some of SOT’s customer base?
“For sure yes,” he said, “but on the other hand a well-prepared and
tested distribution is what customers have been asking from us. Many
Linux users are frustrated by too early released distributions and a too
fast update cycle. I am convinced it has been worth spending the time
and effort for this release, because we can now present to the community
a rock-solid distribution.”
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“Red Hat has provided the Creature Shop with a highly functional, easy-to-use
operating system that also happens to be the production industry’s de facto
standard,” said Steve Rosenbluth, control systems designer at Jim Henson’s Creature
Shop. “In addition, we had no idea how much time we could save on management until
we began using Red Hat Network. Now we spend our time getting work done rather than
trying to get our systems and applications to work.”
With HDPS, the Academy Award-winning Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has created the next
generation of puppetry and computer graphics–a system that makes a digital
character as instantly performable as a puppet. The Company uses Red Hat Linux as
the operating system on both the HDPS and the animatronic Henson Performance Control
System (HPCS).
In addition, Red Hat Network is utilized for crucial updates and management, and
commercial applications certified on Red Hat Linux for its design needs. With Red
Hat Linux powering its systems, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has completed successful
design and performance work for major motion pictures, video games, Web events and
other projects.
“Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is changing the way digital production works, so it
makes perfect sense that Red Hat Linux would be at the base of their innovative
systems,” said Mark de Visser, vice president of marketing at Red Hat. “We’re
thrilled that the company which brought us Kermit and Miss Piggy is using Red Hat
technology, and we’re glad to be part of this growing trend within the digital
production industry.”
The HDPS was awarded the 2001 Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement Award
for Media, Arts and Entertainment. For more information about Jim Henson’s Creature
Shop and the HDPS, please visit www.henson.com.
About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat is the world’s premier open source and Linux provider. Red Hat is
headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Please visit Red Hat on
the Web at www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Gabriel Szulik at Red
Hat, (919) 754-3700.
About Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Inc.
Academy Award-winning Jim Henson’s Creature Shop ™ is one of the pre-eminent
character-building visual effects facilities serving the international film,
television and advertising industries, with a reputation for creating memorable and
moving film stars in such films as Cats and Dogs, Babe, Lost in Space, Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dr. Dolittle, among others. Located in London, Los Angeles
and New York, with a subsidiary workshop in Australia, The Shop has worldwide
capabilities. A leader in digital as well as physical visual effects, The Creature
Shop is unique in its ability to provide a total service from concept design through
film production to post production. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is a subsidiary of
The Jim Henson Company.
# # #
LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red
Hat, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors
are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical
statements, including, without limitation, management’s plans and objectives for
future operations, and management’s assessment of market factors, constitute
forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and
uncertainties include, without limitation, reliance upon strategic relationships,
management of growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, the risks of
economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat’s industry specifically, the risks
associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the
Internet, and other risks detailed in Red Hat’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC’s Web site at
http://www.sec.gov.
For more information: Melissa London Red Hat, Inc. (919) 754-3700 melissa@redhat.com or Brian Willinsky or Laura Sexton Schwartz Communications for Red Hat (781) 684-0770 redhat@schwartz-pr.com
After evaulating responses on the gradebook discussion, I have determined the gradebook effort to be a poor use of resources at
ETC; therefore, we are withdrawing from the gradebook effort.” More at seul.org.
