System upgrade for Linfox warehouse links

By ADAM GIFFORD

Storage and delivery company Linfox is testing a Linux-based workstation developed by Auckland company Asterisk as a robust and relatively cheap way to link its warehouses.

Project manager Phil Walker said Asterisk's Firefly-X appliance would eventually replace about 80 Wyse green-screen terminals scattered around Linfox warehouses and those it runs for customers.

"PCs and the Microsoft software they need are expensive compared to green-screen terminals, and there are also support issues," Walker said.

"Linfox has a small IT staff and supporting remote sites becomes expensive."

The Firefly-X runs on Linux, so there are no software licence costs for the operating system.

"We have got Asterisk to seal the boxes and there is no floppy, so the only way guys can stop them working is to pull the plugs out."

The operating system and applications for the Firefly-X are embedded on a 32Mb or 64Mb RAM chip, depending on the size of the applications required. The Linfox workstations have been configured with X-Windows terminal emulation software to carry the Paperless Warehouse application Linfox that uses to manage its business, Microsoft Terminal Server for access to Windows applications, a browser and printer software.

Walker said the printers used in the warehouse to print bar codes and shipping dockets could be connected locally to the Firefly-X, rather than having to be connected to the network.

Asterisk chief executive Chris Hegan said the $1200 price tag for the Firefly-X included an hour of development time.

Chief technical officer Igor Portugal said Firefly-X grew out of Asterisk's Firefly firewall appliance, which it has been selling for about two years.

"The Firefly-X is a hybrid thin/fat client. It is thin in that no data lives on the client, but it is fat because you can run some applications locally," he said.

Asterisk won the Linfox site over competition from Compaq and Wyse.

Portugal said the Compaq hardware was cheaper, but it required a Citrix licence which would make it more expensive.

It also could not run the printer locally. The Wyse terminal had an embedded SUSE Linux operating system, but was more expensive and did not have local support.