[302] in DCNS Development
Re: "Common software being pushed"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dan Geer)
Fri Mar 19 08:37:06 1993
To: tjm@MIT.EDU (Tim McGovern)
Cc: developers@MIT.EDU, dcnsm@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 18 Mar 1993 11:30:33 EST."
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 08:37:02 -0500
From: Dan Geer <geer@GZA.COM>
Can anyone shed any useful light on this Reuters report that found
its way out as a little blurb on 3/17 Boston Globe biz pages:
Leading computer workstation makes will announce a common
operating system platform to head off new competition by
Microsoft Corp. in their high-end comuting environment,
analysts predicted. Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Sun Microsystems,
and other companies plan an announcement of a new version of
UNIX system software at the opening oof the UniForum Conference
in San Francisco. Industry sources say the companies will
announce they will develop a unitied operating system to
replace a patchwork of incompatible UNIX software. ...
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
this also made the front page of the wall street journal,
which opined that this is the end for NeXT (and their COO
dutifully resigned...)
my sources say that SUN's condition for coming in was
that DEC was out
--dan
------- Forwarded Message 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNIX LEADERS ANNOUNCE COMMON OPEN SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT
Six Companies Agree On Software Technologies And Common Desktop
Reinforce Commitment to Open Systems
SAN FRANCISCO, CA., UNIFORUM, March 17, 1993 . . . Worldwide UNIX system
leaders Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corp., The Santa Cruz Operation,
Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., Univel and UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.,
today announced their intent to deliver a common open software
environment across their UNIX system platforms. This announcement is in
response to increased customer demand for consistent technologies across
multiple platforms, greater technology choice, increased cost savings
and quicker time to market.
HP, IBM, SCO, SunSoft, the software subsidiary of Sun Microsystems,
Inc., Univel and USL have defined a specification for a common desktop
environment that gives end users a consistent look and feel. They have
defined a consistent set of application programming interfaces (APIs)
for the desktop that will run across all of their systems, opening up a
larger opportunity for software developers. The six companies have
each decided to adopt common networking products, allowing for
increased interoperability across heterogeneous computers. In
addition, they have endorsed specifications, standards and technologies
in the areas of graphics, multimedia and object technology, and have
announced a working group in the area of systems administration. All
of the new specifications, technologies and products will be designed
to preserve compatibility with the companies' existing software
application environments.
Today's announcement is a strong endorsement for the premise of open
systems. Under open systems, unencumbered specifications are freely
available, independent branding and certification processes exist,
multiple implementations of a single product may be created and
competition is enhanced. To this extent, the Open Software Foundation
(OSF) has agreed to submit the Motif specification and associated
support materials to X/Open for incorporation into a future release of
X/Open's portability guide, including licensing of the trademark and
the branding process. In addition, Novell/Univel have agreed to submit
the specification for the NetWare UNIX client to X/Open.
Common Desktop Environment
The six companies have defined a specification for a common desktop
environment that will provide end users with a consistent computing
experience and software developers with a consistent set of programming
interfaces for the HP, IBM, SCO, SunSoft, Univel and USL platforms.
This advanced environment will enable users to transparently access
data and applications from anywhere in the network.
The companies plan to publish a preliminary specification for the
environment by the end of June 1993 and will periodically release
updates to the industry. They have agreed to submit the specification
to X/Open for incorporation into the X/Open portability guide. HP,
IBM, Sun and USL will make available an implementation for the common
desktop, based on X/Open specifications, in the first half of 1994 that
will be openly licensable to the industry. SCO and Univel will
strongly participate in the evolution of this common desktop
environment. The six companies will host a developers conference in
early October to give users and software developers details on products
and direction.
The common desktop environment will incorporate aspects of HP's Visual
User Environment (VUE), IBM's Common User Access model and Workplace
Shell, OSF's Motif toolkit and Window Manager, SunSoft's OPEN LOOK and
DeskSet productivity tools and USL's UNIX SVR4.2 desktop manager
components and scalable systems technologies. Specific technologies to
be used by the six companies include the X Window System, Version 11,
the Motif toolkit and interface and SunSoft's ToolTalk interapplication
communication product with an incorporated HP Encapsulator. As most of
this environment exists today, the companies will integrate key
technologies available in the open marketplace and innovate where
appropriate to give users and software developers a consistent UNIX
desktop environment. The common desktop environment was demonstrated
here today running across five hardware and software platforms.
The companies' goal is to preserve compatibility of existing
applications written to HP-UX, IBM AIX/6000, SCO Open Desktop, SunSoft
Solaris, Univel UnixWare and USL UNIX SVR4.2 as they are evolved from
their current desktops to the common desktop environment.
Networking
In furthering support for heterogeneous computing, HP, IBM, SCO,
SunSoft, Univel and USL will sell, deliver and support OSF's DCE,
SunSoft's ONC+ and Novell/Univel's NetWare UNIX client networking
products. The companies will offer customers greater choice while
providing them with a consistent level of support and integration.
Users will gain increased interoperability across multiple platforms
while continuing to protect their current investments.
Individual companies will announce pricing and availability for each of
their products at a later date.
Graphics
To enable consistent implementation of high-performance graphics
software and promote wider availability of applications in the
marketplace, the companies plan to support a core set of graphics
facilities from the X Consortium as part of their overall graphics
offerings. These include Xlib/X for basic 2D pixel graphics;
Pexlib/PEX for 2D/3D geometry graphics; and XIElib/XIE for advanced
imaging.
Multimedia
The six companies will submit a joint specification for the Interactive
Multimedia Association's (IMA) request for technology. This will
provide users with consistent access to multimedia tools in
heterogeneous environments and enable developers to create
next-generation applications using media as data.
Object Technology
HP, IBM, SCO, SunSoft, Univel and USL are working together to
accelerate the development and delivery of object-based technology.
They are supporting the efforts of the Object Management Group (OMG)
that has developed the Common Object Request Broker Architecture
(CORBA) standard for distributed object management solutions. The
companies will comply with the CORBA specification in their future
product implementations.
In addition, the companies will work with the OMG to establish common
guidelines to simplify developer transition, specify core capabilities
for object construction and development, and further the adoption of
common testing and certification.
Systems Management
As more customers move to distributed heterogeneous computing
environments, enterprise systems management becomes a critical
requirement. To this extent, the six companies will form a working
group to facilitate the rationalization and rapid acceptance of
industry specifications in the systems management arena. The companies
will initially focus on the areas of user and group management;
software installation and distribution management; software licensing
management; storage management; print spooling and distributed file
system management.
# # #
Trademarks: AIX/6000 is a trademark of International Business
Machines Corporation. All other products or service names
mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
03/15/93
------- Forwarded Message 2
IBM PERSONAL SOFTWARE PRODUCTS DIVISION SUPPORTS MOVE BY UNIX LEADERS TO
FORM COMMON OPEN SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT
SOMERS, N.Y., March 17 . . . IBM's Personal Software
Products (PSP) division enthusiastically supports the actions
outlined today by IBM's Advanced Workstations and Systems
division, Hewlett-Packard Company, The Santa Cruz Operation,
Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., Univel and UNIX Systems
Laboratories, Inc. The six UNIX** leaders announced their intent
to deliver a common open software environment.
This announcement is consistent with IBM's Personal Software
Products' previously outlined strategy to extend the OS/2
Workplace Shell, DCE (Distributed Computing Environment), DME
(Distributed Management Environment), and OMG/CORBA-compliant
object technology across a broad range of industry platforms.
The success of OS/2, IBM's award-winning operating system, has
been due in no small part to the Workplace Shell, IBM's
easy-to-use graphical user interface. Extending the Workplace
Shell to DOS and the leading UNIX environments will allow users
to truly operate in a multi-platform, seamless environment.
"The common look and feel our customers have been asking for
across the PC and UNIX platforms can now be a reality," says Lee
Reiswig, president, IBM's Personal Software Products division.
"We are pleased this effort supports and reaffirms our vision for
the future of enterprise computing."
IBM is the first vendor to deliver a product based on the
OSF**'s DCE technology standard. It delivered AIX/DCE in
December 1992 and is currently offering a DCE beta version for
use with its OS/2 product. In addition, its DCE technology will
provide coexistence with and migration from the LAN Server
product and is intended to provide interoperability with NetWare
clients. PSP's LAN Systems' DCE products provide users with
transparent access to data and applications through standardized
services such as remote procedure calls, directory services and
distributed file access while maintaining security. PSP will
address systems management solutions through its LAN NetView*
family of products which will comply with OSF's DME industry
standard.
IBM's distributed system object model (DSOM) currently being
beta tested for use with OS/2 and AIX, is the industry's first
cross-platform, multi-language distributed object manager and is
also 100 percent CORBA-compliant. Developers will find that DSOM
dramatically simplifies the creation of applications whose
functions are distributed across networks and systems. DSOM is
based on the system object model (SOM), currently available in
OS/2 2.0. Several language vendors including IBM, Borland,
Digitalk, MetaWare and MicroFocus have announced support for SOM
and DSOM.
Lee Reiswig added, "Today's announcement further underscores
our long-term strategy and commitment toward delivering products,
solutions, training and support in an open computing environment
to customers."
# # #
* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of the
International Business Machines Corporation
** Indicates trademark or registered trademark of the following
companies: UNIX, UNIX System Laboratories; OSF, The Open
Software Foundation
------- End of Forwarded Messages
