The New Internet Computer Company (better known by its acronym, NIC, and perhaps best known as the creation of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who owns it personally) has teamed up with Menta Software to offer the equally inexpensive and ironic combination of Windows apps running across the Net on a $199 Linux "thin" client. The NIC, which was shown running Menta's "thin server" WinToNet at Linux World Expo in New York, is designed for schools and other "price sensitive" networked environments.
We asked Gina Smith, NIC's CEO (and a former high-profile journalist) to give us the skinny on adding value to extra-thin devices. "It is really cool," she said. "Basically, our system is a super-affordable hard disk-free Linux client. We have 56K modem and Ethernet connections built in. Using Menta's Java app, we can run Windows apps from a server over the Internet." Adds Menta's Bruce Fryer, "Why put fat apps on a thin client? When people see WinToNet running on the NIC, they are blown away."
What are their chances? Consider these two facts: 1) Their sole stockholder is worth a few dozen billion dollars — give or take a few billion a day; and 2) Their home page features a prominent link that reads "GNU General Public License."
— Doc Searls