October 22, 1999 Web posted at: 10:27 a.m. EDT (1427 GMT) by Phil Hochmuth

From...

(IDG) -- Mainsoft this week announced it is releasing software that allows Windows NT applications to run on the Linux operating system.

MainWin for Linux will be available in the first quarter of 2000, and will run initially on Red Hat's edition of Linux, with versions for other commercial Linux brands likely to follow.

A demo of MainWin for Linux will be available in the next few weeks at www.mainsoft.com.

Mainsoft's offering will help remove one of the biggest drawbacks to the adoption of Linux in enterprise networks: the lack of Linux-compatible business software.

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Mainsoft's current MainWin product allows NT applications to run on Unix platforms. (An agreement between Mainsoft and Microsoft currently allows original NT source code to be incorporated into MainWin). Some corporate applications that can now run on Unix via MainWin are Computer Associate's Unicenter and Alcatel's X-Vision Enterprise management software, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook.

According to International Data Corp., commercial Linux software was the fastest growing server operating system last year, and should continue to be the fastest growing operating system of all other client or server operating systems through 2003.

IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky says the introduction of a product that enables NT applications to run on Linux "is an important step towards considering Linux as a mainstream commercial operating environment."