Announcing Kermit 95 2.0 GUI
Frank da Cruz
An HTML version of this announcement is here:
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95_20_ann.html
Kermit 95 2.0 is released:
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html
(Be sure to clear out your Web-browser cache before looking at the
updated website -- many pages have been replaced.) The most noteworthy
new feature of the new release is that:
* It runs in a GUI window rather than a Console window.
(A console version is available too for those who prefer it.) The GUI
version of K95 includes a menu bar, tool bar, scroll bar, status bar:
a selection of essential dialogs and popups. The tool bar includes
Combo boxes for selection of font, font size, and character set. The
K95 window can be resized by stretching, maximized, and restored.
Unicode UTF-8 terminal sessions are supported in all Windows versions,
allowing mixtures of Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and other scripts to
appear simultaneously on the same screen.
The primary benefit of the GUI version of K95 is freedom from the
booby-trapped Microsoft console window environment with all its bugs
and limitations, especially in Windows 95/98/ME: inability to choose
fonts or use scroll bars, cursors disappearing, Caps Lock with a mind
of its own, the "incredible shrinking window", extraneous or
out-of-order characters on screen, inability to use Input Method
Editors, ghost images on the screen, and on and on and on.
Other new features of K95 2.0 include:
* InstallShield installation.
* HTTP Proxy support for SSH connections.
* FTP TLS support added to Dialer, along with a sample template.
* A new font, Everson Mono Terminal, is included.
These are in addition to the new features of version 1.1.21, which was
announced just 8 weeks ago:
* An integrated SSH v1/v2 client
* Integrated FTP and HTTP clients
* Automatic highlighting of URL hotspots
* A new Windows-based Internet Kermit Service (Windows NT, 2000,
and XP only)
The Everson Mono Terminal font is licensed from Everson Typography in
Ireland for inclusion with Kermit 95 to give you access to scripts you
would not be able to see with standard Windows monospace Unicode fonts
such as Courier New and Lucida Console. It Latin, Cyrillic, Greek,
Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, Armenian, Georgian, Runes, Ogham, Canadian
Syllabics, Cherokee, Katakana, Hiragana, Tibetan, Math, Symbols, Line
and Box Drawing, Dingbats, and APL. This is not a free font; it comes
with Kermit 95 2.0 but may not be further redistributed.
The new InstallShield installer allows us to offer a new (fee-based)
service: production of custom installers for academic site and bulk
licensees. The details and pricing have yet to be worked out, but the
possibilities are interesting: custom-tailored option selection or
directory layout, preconfigured Dialer entries, site-specific Kerberos,
PKI, or public keys; custom keyboard maps, site-wide initialization
files, special banners or text, etc. If you're interested, send
inquiries to kermit-...@columbia.edu.
A more complete description of version 2.0 can be found here:
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95gui.htm
Kermit 95 2.0 is available as an upgrade to all earlier versions:
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95upgrade.html
Kermit 95 2.0 is not yet available for OS/2. We hope it will be soon,
but can make no promises. If it is released for OS/2, it will be only
in Console form (because GUI code is not portable) and will not include
SSH (because OpenSSH libraries are not available that are compatible
with the OS/2 K95 development tools).
All new bulk right-to-copy, omnibus, and academic site license orders
will be fulfilled with the new version, but the retail shrinkwrapped
package still contains the 1.1.20 CDROM; those who order shrinkwrapped
copies can, of course, upgrade to version 2.0 after they install 1.1.20.
Our US Department of Commerce export license application is still
pending, which will allow us to ship the secure version outside the
USA and Canada. Until the license is obtained, orders from outside the
USA and Canada will be fulfilled by a non-secure version, as with past
releases. Version 2.0 will be available in shrinkwrapped retail form
once the export license is granted, and non-secure versions will be
upgradeable to secure ones in whatever countries are covered by the
export license.
As announced here earlier, Kermit 95's price will rise as soon as we
are able to get version 2.0 into our distribution channels; details to
be determined but the increase will most likely range between 20 and
100 percent, depending on the license. New pricing will be announced
on June 21st. Until then you can order it at the current prices:
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html#order
Jeffrey Altman Christine Gianone
Max Evarts Frank da Cruz
The Kermit Project - Columbia University
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/