FrontBase runs much faster and more reliably than it did under Mac OS, thanks to OS X's modern superstructure. Frontline also develops vertical applications for law enforcement agencies and recently deployed an OS X database application using FrontBase, written in Apple's WebObjects. Frontline coded the application for the National Danish Police, an investigative agency similar to the FBI or Scotland Yard. Our primary attraction to OS X Server is its WebObjects development environment, which, combined with its NextStep roots, makes OS X very productive for developers. Up to now, WebObjects ran only on NT and Unix, primarily due to the stability and speed of those platforms.
Reliability is a key requirement in any law enforcement application.
Geert says OS X's reliability is on a par with Unix's and makes Apple hardware practical to use in mission-critical applications. Frontline's customers seem to share that opinion. None of the customers buying FrontBase for OS X have reported problems with the OS to us. Geert has found glitches in the development environment, but he says Apple is working on them and that they don't affect the application's stability. Geert's favorite aspect of OS X is the full-featured WebObjects development environment.