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[Oracle]
[Bath Profile]
[3M RFID]
[iii on Linux]
[Ex-Libris]
[LASER]
[Geac sales]
[Endeavor]
[Sirsi sales]

Millennium on Linux                              April 2000

Innovative have become the second major supplier to announce their product’s availability under the open source operating system Linux. (see announcement from Ex-Libris).  Millennium is running under Linux at Santa Clara University.  The key implication for this move is in driving the cost of the workstation licenses down which, for a large site running Windows products can be very significant.  Other suppliers will need to move fast to cover this trend if they are not to find themselves in a “total cost of ownership” trap during the sales process.  For more information on Linux see BTR article and the latest items in the news feeds on Linux.

Innovative introduces Linux for Millennium as an alternative to Windows - Press Release.

26 April 2000, Emeryville, California - Innovative Interfaces, a leader in information technology for libraries, announce that it has now installed Linux on its Web- and Java-based Millennium integrated library system.

According to Jerry Kline, Innovative's President and CEO, "Linux benefits our partner libraries because it provides a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows, and demonstrates our commitment to offer libraries a choice of operating systems. Linux and other alternative desktop solutions will ultimately reduce the total cost of ownership for thousands of workstations."

Running Millennium under Linux is a satisfying validation of both Java's success in achieving platform independence, and the unlimited potential of the Linux community in rapidly providing state-of-the-art software such as the Java Runtime Environments.

Doug Randall, Innovative's Technology Product Manager, said, "Java is evolving so rapidly that commercial vendors can fall behind in delivering the latest Java features in their proprietary environments.  However, the Linux community has really delivered, with support of the latest Java features in an open, stable operating environment."

Randall added, "Linux is really shifting into the mainstream. Instead of using one of our lab systems, we picked a system from a magazine ad preloaded with Red Hat Linux, and ready to go. Loading the latest and greatest Java for Linux was no trouble, with both a commercially supported version available directly from Sun, and another from the Linux community's Blackdown project."

Contacts Gill Carter, Marketing Co-ordinator Innovative Interfaces (UK) Tel: +44 117 975 1025 Email: gill.carter@iii-europe.com Barbara Cassidy, Marketing Director, Innovative Interfaces (USA) Tel: +1 510 655 6200 Email: bcassidy@iii.com

"Java-based Millennium really looks and runs the same whatever the hardware or operating system is underneath. Once they've started Millennium from the desktop or browser, the user really sees the same application whether they're running the Java environment under Windows or Linux.  It's all Java from the Millennium side of things."

The Santa Clara University Library is currently running Millennium with Linux.  Fred Gertler, Santa Clara's Library Coordinator said, "It has certainly been our experience to date that once in the Millennium Circulation module, one cannot tell which operating system is running underneath it. Millennium Circulation could be running on the Windows OS, Linux OS, or whatever else, but functionally, it really makes no difference. That's the way it should be."

Innovative's Linux development not only demonstrates the benefits of Java as a multi-platform tool, but also reinforces Innovative's position as the industry leader.