Make Your Workstations Fit With Aptus

by Eric Foster-Johnson

May 9, 2002 —

Linux on the desktop has been a question for some time. Is Linux truly
fit for desktop usage? A few years ago, you could clearly answer no.
Linux was not yet ready for general desktop usage but with continuing
advances in the GNOME and KDE desktops, along with a host of Linux
applications such as AbiWord or StarOffice, Linux can now claim that
that it is indeed ready for the desktop.

The main problem remains convincing businesses to move from Windows,
though. In an interesting spin, Hong Kong-based ShaoLin Microsystems has
come up with a system they feel will take Linux into corporate desktops,
in a different form than most of us are used to.

ShaoLin's Aptus (http://www.shaolinmicro.com) provides a client-server
system to manage Linux desktops with very little administrative effort.
ShaoLin believes this is one way where Linux can succeed on the desktop,
by focusing entirely on business value for IT managers.

The Aptus product fits in the middle between the traditional "fat"
client desktop, a full-powered PC usually running Windows, and a
traditional thin client workstation such as the X Window terminals that
used to be popular. ShaoLin calls their solution a "fit" client, one
with more power like a desktop workstation but with the thin client
advantages for administrators.

The Aptus fit client server is a Linux server running Aptus software. It
manages fit client workstations, which are Linux workstations running
special software to connect to the Aptus server. In addition, the
clients can be less powerful boxes since the data and applications are
stored on the server.

You can download a trial version of the Aptus Server from
http://download.shaolinmicro.com/. The demo allows you to try the
software for 45 days with two clients.

ShaoLin has their work cut out for them in trying to sell Linux on the
desktop. Their clear focus, though, on business IT cost structures,
should allow ShaoLin to go farther than most efforts in this arena.

ITworld