Fusion Development Announces Wilbur Public Beta

RELEASED AUGUST 4, 1997

For more information contact

Ben Kimball
fusiondev@mindspring.com

Fusion Development
P. O. Box 81462
Austin, TX 78708-1462
512.339.4309
http://www.mindspring.com/~fusiondev/

FUSION DEVELOPMENT ANNOUNCES WILBUR PUBLIC BETA

(Boston, MA - August 4th, 1997) Fusion Development is extremely pleased to announce the beta release of Wilbur for the BeOS. Wilbur is a multi-user File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server, allowing users of the BeOS to share files across their local network or the Internet at high speed. Wilbur will be demonstrated at the Be Developer's Conference today, and again at the Be booth (World Trade Center, #5119) for the duration of MacWorld Expo. Fusion Development will make a free public beta of the software available at the conferences to interested attendees.

"We started with just the FTP specification and a blank compiler window, and we've built an extraordinary implementation of this important protocol, designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the exciting capabilities of this new platform," said Ben Kimball, Fusion Development's founder and President. "Wilbur offers many advantages to its users over the BeOS' built-in ftpd UNIX port, among them the ability to define an unlimited number of user accounts with which to restrict access to the local file system, and an attractive, intuitive graphical interface for the management of those users and groups."

WILBUR FEATURES

Wilbur is the first application to support the definition of multiple user accounts on the BeOS. Not yet supported in the Be file system, this ability is a requirement for any server administrator who wants to grant controlled access to more than one person, and is especially crucial for file archive hosting and web serving. Faced with this pressing need, Fusion Development designed an intuitive, object-oriented multi-user file permissions system based on UNIX but with the ease-of-use of the Mac OS. And when native multi-user capabilities are included in the BeOS, Wilbur will fully support both solutions.

Another unique feature of Wilbur is its support for the proposed ZAP (Zero Archive Problems) file format. Most FTP servers today, including the UNIX port that ships with the BeOS, do not preserve the special file attributes of a BeOS file. These attributes can be very important, telling the operating system which application to use to open the file, for example. With the ZAP file format and an FTP client that also supports this standard, this information can be preserved through a file transfer, adding convenience for BeOS users without sacrificing compatibility with older FTP clients. "ZAP support even lets us preserve the Mac HFS resource fork of a file transparently to the user!" exclaimed Ben Kimball, adding that no changes will be necessary for Mac OS FTP clients to take advantage of this functionality. "Server administrators won't have to worry about what platform their clients are using and what file format issues might arise." Fusion Development will offer programming assistance to developers of FTP clients that currently do not support this file server option, in order to help accelerate its adoption.

Wilbur offers an intuitive, graphical environment for monitoring the file server's operation, as well as configuring its users database. Administrators can drag defined users into groups, easily granting them access to specific folders in the file system.

Wilbur's real-time server monitor allows administrators to see what's going on with the server at a glance, including server bandwidth usage, connected users, user idle time, and much more. Taking advantage of the pervasive multitasking of the BeOS and its high-speed messaging system, this window displays all user activity as it happens, so the administrator is never presented with out-of-date data.

Wilbur makes the perfect complement to a BeOS web server, such as Purity Software's Charlotte.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing for the Wilbur FTP server has not yet been determined. At the shows, Fusion Development will be making a time-limited public beta version of the software available to interested parties.

Fusion Development was founded in 1996, and offers custom Mac OS and Be OS software development, as well as corporate intranet consulting. Fusion Development can be contacted at P. O. Box 81462, Austin, TX, USA, 78708-1462; (512) 339-4309; fusiondev@mindspring.com; or through their web site at http://www.mindspring.com/~fusiondev/.