Century Software Inc, Salt Lake City, Utah, is up to release 2.1 of its TinyTerm Plus personal computer-to-Unix connection software for Windows and MS-DOS, which now includes File Transfer Protocol and Wollongong’s TCP/IP stack. The terminal emulation software uses Century’s network transport system and, hoping to capitalise on the current wave of support for TCP/IP-based networking, the firm says TinyTerm Plus provides users with the ability to run Unix applications remotely from their personal computers over any TCP/IP network. With a number of firms now offering more than just terminal emulation in broad personal computer-Unix integration environments, including SunSelect and Locus Computing Corp, which bundles Tiny Term with its personal computer interface environment, Century is putting up a case for using its stuff as a low cost system – $400 for a five user licence as opposed to the several hundred dollars per user other environments can cost.
Graphical file transfer
Century is up against the likes of Esker Systems SA and James River Group Inc that have directly competing products, although president Greg Haerr believes that TinyTerm is complementary to systems offered by companies such as JSB Computer Systems Ltd, Beame & Whiteside Software Ltd and FTP Software Inc. There are Tiny Term Plus versions tailored for Network File System sites – $800 for five users, including network printer support – where the Unix server appears on the desktop as an additional network drive for use, plus Tiny Term X for X Window System. The entire market, Haerr reckons, is set to change with the arrival of systems such as NetManage Inc’s Chameleon – which he says is killing higher-priced systems from FTP Software, Locus Computing Corp and the like – plus the surge in the take up of TCP/IP and Internet technologies, and the increased role of the operating system vendors as providers of TCP/IP stacks. Century Software has added a graphical file transfer system, and plans Win32s supports and an electronic mail system sometime in the future. The privately-held 40-person outfit does around 35% of its less than $10m-a-year business outside the US and says it has distributors in 23 countries.
