StarNet

 

StarNet Communications Corporation was founded in 1989 and incorporated in 1990. In typical Silicon Valley tradition, StarNet was founded by engineers working out part-time out of their home.

StarNet’s corporate mission was to create and market powerful, yet affordable PC-X server products for corporate, education and government markets.

StarNet's first X Server product, MicroX, was launched in 1991. It enabled users of 286 and 386-based Intel systems to access the X Window System from their personal computers.  Being self-financed, StarNet lack the resources for traditional sales and marketing operations. So the founders decided to utilize the Internet for delivering the product, providing tech support and communicate with prospective customers.  Quite possibly, back in 1991, StarNet was the first company to base its entire business model on the Internet. At the time, the Internet was mostly used by universities and government agencies. As a result, and aided by it low cost, simplicity and focus on the X server functionality, X-Win32 quickly because popular in these sectors.

In the late 1990s, StarNet, actively sought to broaden is share of the corporate sector, then dominated by half a dozen solutions costing two to four times as much and typically offering a suite of solutions, most of them non-X server related (FTP, NFS, terminal emulation, etc.). As the enterprise market shifted towards more focused solutions, many firms found X-Win32 nicely fit their needs and budgets. Today, X-Win32 remains as one of three leading commercial PC X server solutions along with Hummingbird Exceed and Attachmate’s Reflection X.

Aiding StarNet’s continued success in expanding its market share were four critical strategic advantages:

  • Adding value, rather than cost. Despite bringing many powerful innovations to market, StarNet has kept the cost of X-Win32 at around $200 for a single commercial copy, usually less depending on volume.
  • Innovation. As competitors died, merged or otherwise couldn’t keep up with the changing market, StarNet has grown its marketshare by bringing a steady stream of innovations to the market, starting in 2000 with integrating SSH and most recently with the addition of LIVE Sessions and Suspend/resume capability.
  • Ease of Use. Despite its continuous evolution and addition of productivity-enhancing features, X-Win32 remains extremely simple to operate. Even the most Windows-centric user can easily bring up a remote Unix or Linux desktop and start working with applications on those hosts.
  • Great Support.  Our free support services have always served as a great competitive advantage.  Our support team provides high-quality tech and engineering support at no cost by phone, email or via our self-service online Knowledge Database.

With Version 9 StarNet achieved its goal of delivering the ultimate PC X server in terms of performance, session stability and affordability. StarNet is looking forward to re-invigorating the PC X server market by offering compelling performance and feature advantages over competing solutions, including freeware such VNC.