Phil Tonnellier (phil@linuxcanada.com)
Wed, 07 Apr 1999 18:53:25 +0000
Hi
Linux Canada Inc. is a Canadian organization dedicated to Linux. We have
recently announced an international project to develop point of sale
software for retail stores. Our model is very unique. While remaining a
commercial enterprise we are making our source code available to our
customers, dealers and developers. We are encouraging development by
providing licenses in exchange for work on the project. Complete details
can be found on our web page at http://www.linuxcanada.com. An immediate
need is to translate our LinuxPOS and LinuxRETAIL application along with
manuals to German.
I have included a copy of our press release in hopes that you will post
this on your news page and/or mention it at your user meeting. We are
looking for customers, dealers and developers in the Linux community who
want to take advantage of this exciting opportunity with us. We are also
interested in talking with people who have, or want to create products
which can enhance or be sold in junction with LinuxPOS.
Thanks in advance for your courteous attention.
Sincerely
Phil
Linux Canada Inc. have been working with Linux since 1994. Their SCO Unix based application, Retailer's Choice, was converted to run on Linux and the first Linux installation was in 1995. The feature set, quality, and reliability of Linux make it an excellent O/S for the mission critical retail environment.
Over the years retail organizations have been plagued with the comings and goings of small software companies. The product offerings have been extremely expensive as have been the support and maintenance contracts. Source code has been extremely over-protected as if it were a sacred treasure. Many software companies have gone by the way-side leaving their retail customers without support, service or source, forcing them to look for alternatives.
POS Development Project
The main reason that no retail point of sale product has emerged as the de-facto standard world wide is because of the vast differences that exist in language, currency and taxes. Until now it has been impossible for any one company to develop and keep up with the ever changing retail environment. Consequently, retail applications tend to be targeted to finite geographic areas and specific retail verticals.
The POS Development Project unveiled by Linux Canada Inc. will change all of that. Rather than the developers in Alberta, Canada trying to build a product for the world, the source code will be released to the world allowing the resources of the world to develop what is needed. All development projects will be registered with Linux Canada Inc. Developers will check in source code with Linux Canada Inc. who will ensure quality and reliability. In addition developers will provide a log of their hours spent on the project. Linux Canada Inc. will provide, in return, a credit to the developer which can be applied to the purchase of LinuxPOS and LinuxRETAIL licenses.
This is believed to be a very unique commercial endeavor. The model allows Linux Canada Inc. to maintain ownership rights to their software while providing value-added resellers, dealers, and retail chains the following:
LinuxPOS is a revolutionary point-of-sale application, bringing tremendous functionality and a dynamic user interface to the retail market place. LinuxPOS was written in Tcl/tk which has excellent GUI capabilities, a strong feature set, and which comes complete with source code. In a true client/server relationship, LinuxPOS queries the server on a real-time basis. However LinuxPOS also maintains a complete database of its own. Should the server happen to fail, LinuxPOS continues running using its internal data and will automatically synchronize with the server when it returns.
LinuxRETAIL is a new inventory control software package written in Java. Java provides strong GUI capabilities through the Swing API and also provides important features such as threading and networking which are vital for a server product. This package is still under construction and will be released for beta testing in the May/June time frame.
Linux Canada Inc. is a privately owned corporation based in Sundre, Alberta, Canada. Dedicated to Linux, the company is also a Red Hat distributor, and is the Canadian distributor for Cyclades port cards, routers and terminal servers.
Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
For further information please contact:
Philip Tonnellier
President
Linux Canada Inc.
Phone: (250) 344-3085
Fax: (250) 344-3086
email: phil@linuxcanada.com
web: http://www.linuxcanada.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Apr 08 1999 - 03:01:57 CEST