BOSTON (10-27-95) - Oracle Corp. is expected to raise the stakes here today in the Internet game with the debut of a free World Wide Web browser and software that adapts its relational database management system to Internet use.
Analysts and users said the products in Oracle's WebSystem suite, and similar products from competing vendors, are significant enough to herald a major change in client/server computing.
That change will be the shift toward using the Internet instead of conventional networking software, which may culminate in the replacement of PCs with inexpensive, simple Internet-access devices.
Oracle's PowerBrowser, formerly known as WebStation, will lead the way to more interactive Web sites, users and analysts agreed. Free of charge, it is scheduled for delivery by years end and appears to exceed the capabilities of market-leading Web browsers from Netscape Communications Corp., NetManage Inc. and other vendors.
"Oracle has done some very, very cool things here, making the browser able to be a local server and to create a home page on any machine," said Robert Martin, vice president of network programming services for HBO Inc. in New York.
PowerBrowser has its own Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) server software that can host a Web site allowing any PC or Macintosh to function as a server and a browser. It can develop applications graphically using the standard Hypertext Markup Language, and it adds Database Markup Language (DBML) for data validation. DBML is a Basic-based scripting language. PowerBrowser also will run applications written in Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java language.
WebServer Option, a second product in the WebSystem suite, allows Oracle's Oracle7 Enterprise Server RDBMS to be used as an HTTP server. WebServer Option is available immediately for Sun's SPARC Solaris. It is promised for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT and major Unix platforms by early November. The list price is US$4,995.
The third WebSystem product, WebServer, operates like WebServer Option but includes a copy of Oracle7 Workgroup Server. It is set to ship by the end of November for SPARC Solaris, SCO Inc.'s Unix and Windows NT. The list price is also $4,995.
Aron Dutta, a principal at Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc., a consultancy in New York, said his firm would evaluate the Oracle products.
"If they give us more than Netscape's [products] in terms of interoperability with other vendors, scalability, ease of management, ease of integration and security, we'll think about buying them," he said.
Dutta said he was particularly impressed with the virtues of using the Internet as an intracompany network.
"It is a miracle" how easy it is to develop and distribute secure, reliable, reusable Internet applications, he said.
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