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Power Tools 1993 November - Disc 2
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Power Tools Plus (Disc 2 of 2)(November 1993)(HP).iso
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1993-04-14
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNIX LEADERS ANNOUNCE COMMON OPEN SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT
Six Companies Agree On Software Technologies And Common Desktop
Reinforce Commitment to Open Systems
SAN FRANCISCO, 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 (rtm) 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 (tm)
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 (rtm) 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 on 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 (rtm) elements 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 (rtm)
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
(rtm) SunSoft Solaris, Univel UnixWare (tm) 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+ (tm) and Novell/Univel's NetWare UNIX client
networking products. The companies will offer customers greater
choice while providing them with 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 offering. 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 (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 system 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 specification 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.
###
1993 IBM is a registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corp. and AIX/6000 is a trademark of International
Business Machines Corp. NetWare is a registered trademark of
Novell, Inc. OSF, Motif and Open Software Foundation are
trademarks of the Open Software Foundation in the U.S. Univel
and UnixWare are trademarks of Univel. SCO and SCO Open Desktop
are registered trademarks of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. in
the U.S. and other countries. Sun Microsystems, Inc., SunSoft,
Solaris, ONC+ and ToolTalk are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX and OPEN LOOK are
registered trademarks of UNIX System Laboratories in the U.S. and
other countries. X/Open is a trademark of X/Open Company Ltd. in
the United Kingdom another countries. All other products or
service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective
owners.
CONTACTS:
Hewlett-Packard Company
Lynn Wehner
(508) 436-5017
IBM, Corp.
Kathleen Ryan
(914) 642-4634
The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Zee Zaballos
(408) 427-7156
SunSoft, Inc.
Shernaz Daver
(415) 336-0678
Univel
Melanie King
(408) 729-2342
UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.
Larry Lytle
(908) 522-5186(908) 522-5186