UW Gazette, November 12, 1997
     
     The computing system that's replacing UW's venerable
Watstar couldn't very well be called "Son of Watstar" - or
"Daughter of Watstar", as Dr. Beth Jewkes likes to say - but
finding an acceptable name did take a while.
     Last week the decision was announced: it's Waterloo
Polaris.
     Code-name for the project had been "Polaris" for
months. "The 'Waterloo' portion gives recognition to the
important contribution of the University of Waterloo in the
development of this integrated system," says Jewkes, who is
associate dean (computing) in the faculty of engineering.
     "The name Polaris, as ever, is the north star, our
'guiding light'," she adds.
     Many students encountered Polaris when they arrived
this term at computing labs in engineering and other
faculties, which have relied on Watstar for most of their
student computing for the past decade. Others will see it
soon, as the new computing environment "propagates" across
campus. The existing Watstar is used not just in engineering
but in arts, science, mathematics, and applied health
sciences, not to mention at the church colleges.
     Like Watstar, Waterloo Polaris was developed in the
engineering computing facility, with plenty of help from its
friends across campus.
     Jewkes explains more of the background: "On campus,
'Watstar' refers to a computing environment which has been
developed by Engineering Computing over the past decade with
the needs of an academic institution in mind. It is based on
the Watstar(TM) networking software, and also encompasses a
variety of applications which run on top of the networking
services: email, printing, accounting and auditing software,
login/off interfaces and a host of application software.
     "For the past eight years, the Watstar system has been
using Windows 3.11 and a variety of DOS and Windows 3.11
application software. Last fall, after an analysis of other
networks, Engineering Computing began the task of enhancing
Watstar to bring Windows 95 and other 32-bit application
software to our computing environment. Another key feature
added to the system during the development was the ability
to access both Windows NT and UNIX servers. - a feature that
facilitates its integration with other computing platforms
on campus.
     "The winter term will see the conversion of the
remaining student labs in arts and engineering, and the
addition of a new lab in math. Administrative and research
users of Watstar in arts, engineering, science, and the
federated and affiliated colleges have started a conversion
process which will carry on through the winter term."
     For creation of the new system, she gives special
credit to staff members Bruce Campbell, Erick Engelke and
Ray White.