LINUX

With the release of Windows XP and its outrageous, oppressive copy-protection schema, Microsoft's anti-competitive crusade to dominate operating system software has caused a serious re-evaluation of the "Windows world" here at Skunkware. In short, we are convinced that Microsoft has shot itself squarely in the foot with XP. We think that XP is the begining of the end of Microsoft desktop operating system products. Therefore, Skunkware has redoubled its development efforts on Palm OS, and is focusing on helping customers migrate toward LINUX both on the desktop and as a server.

At the moment, Skunkware prefers Red Hat 7.1 and Caldera Systems eDesktop 2.4. All flavors of LINUX are wonderful and make sound business sense, however, in part due to Skunkware's close relationship with IBM Sports, those two are our preferred platforms at the moment because they have the best Thinkpad and notebook support. IBM actually markets a model of their Thinkpad "T" containing a gorgeous factory-built Caldera install.

Many Skunkware products have been, and are being, ported to LINUX. The 2001 US Open Tennis Championships marked a watershed for Skunkware's LINUX products as for the first time, a major international sporting championship ran Skunkware on LINUX. The deployment went extremely smoothly, with 100% up-time for the LINUX boxes.

Special thanks to the wizards at SAMBA.ORG for their spectacular Windows-to-LINUX migration tool, SAMBA Server.

Palm OS

In 1998, Skunkware started developing software on Palm OS. We are working very closely with various customers on developing custom application under Palm OS. And then of course there's CHUMP for Palm OS, one of Skunkware's flagship products.

This (rather bad) photo shows the World Team Tennis exhibition match held at the 2001 US Open, on Arthur Ashe Kids' Day. The four oncourt scoreboards displaying the complex WTT scoring were tasked by two Palm Vx units running an application developed for IDS called AlphaZ for Palm OS.

Because of their phenomenal portability, Palm units make fantastic hardware diagnostic tools. Skunkware has moved scoreboard manufacturer IDS, of Jacksonville Florida, entirely onto Palm-based hardware diagnostic tools for their entire line of scoreboards featuring Ferranti, IDS, and AES controllers.

An example of a Palm OS scoreboard diagnostic tool developed by Skunkware can be downloaded here.

IBM Match Update Center at the Australian Open. Hardware by IDS, software by Skunkware, powered by Red Hat LINUX.

Palm cradle installed in the umpire's chair at Arthur Ashe Stadium for CHUMP. 2002 US Open.

2002 US Open, Court 11. CHUMP in action.

2002 US Open.

Red Hat on Thinkpads, running the matrix display boards on Louis Armstrong Stadium, at the East Gate, and in the South Courtyard, as well as the IBM Match Update Center.

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