Tenon Intersystems Corporate Information

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Corporate History

Tenon Intersystems was founded in 1989 to create software that combined PC functionality with the sytem-oriented benefits of workstation technology.

Tenon strongly believed that PC and workstation technologies could and should be fused into a single, seamless environment. Tenon's efforts at integrating workstation-class applications and UNIX system software into "mouse and menu" PC software and hardware gave rise to a Mach kernel-based UNIX for Mac OS. This unique product, MachTen, was selected by MacUser Magazine as a Best Connectivity Finalist in 1991. In 1994, MachTen was selected by Open Computing Magazine as a "Best Product of the Year". Two years later, XTen, Tenon's X Window Server for Mac OS, was selected as the Macworld Editors' Choice.

For many years, Tenon's UNIX for Mac OS gave Macintosh administrators the strength they needed to fully integrate Macintoshes into the corporate enterprise. Likewise, University system administrators made good use of Tenon's UNIX-style file and printer sharing and full suite of UNIX-style networking capabilities. The strength of UNIX, the beauty of Mac OS, Tenon's banner cry that was later embraced by Apple when they debuted their new Mac OS X.

Because Mac users for the most part hated UNIX, Tenon very creatively hid UNIX under-the-floorboard when they introduced their world-class Apache web server in 1997. Even back then Apache was the most popular web server in the world and Tenon's (albeit invisible) UNIX execution environment enabled Apache to run on Mac OS. Not satisfied to simply bring Apache to the Mac, Tenon enhanced Apache with a browser-based configuration and administration tool and improved Apache's performance with caching and an optimized TCP stack to make Apache on Mac OS faster than Apache on Solaris or Linux. In 1998 Tenon's point and click Apache, WebTen, was heralded as the easiest-to-use and fastest Apache in the world and awarded "Best Server Software" by Macworld Editors.

Interestingly enough, at the same time that Tenon was choosing the Mach kernel to strengthen Mac OS, Steve Jobs at NeXT was making the same OS choice. Now Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, is based on the same underlying foundation as Tenon's original MachTen introduced over two decades ago.

In 2006's, Apple's introduction of the Intel Core Duo Mac Mini, with its blazing performance was the perfect complement to Tenon's powerful and easy-to-use web & e-mail software (iTools and Post.Office). Tenon has continued to extend and enhance its Mac OS X products.

Internet Consultancy

In addition to a series of retail products, we also have a healthy Internet Consultancy offering deep expertise in the areas of networking, operating systems and embedded systems. We have experience in building internet systems dating back to some of the original internet work that involved attaching UNIX to the Arpanet in 1974. Since then we have gained a lot of high-end network and operating system expertise.

Most recently Tenon engineers have been helping industry leaders to define the communications protocols and deploy the core elements (smart meters) for the country's next-generation electrical grid.

In parallel, we have been working with state-of-the-art companies using Linux-based embedded processors to forge next-generation, thermal imaging applications.

Tenon's expertise encompasses a broad scope, from requirements definition, to architectural design and development, to systems integration and testing.