Microsoft Corp’s plans to set up an Active Group to house future development and licensing of its its ActiveX Windows object specifications and technology will have to wait a little longer. The board of the Open Group voted last Friday to defer acceptance of the Active Group Pre-Structured Technology proposals because it found there were still too many to be decided and open variable holes in the draft specification for many of the board members. Among the variables was the Open Group’s relationship with the Object Management Group and interoperability with its rival Corba object specifications. Microsoft, which agreed to turn the technology over to the organization at its meeting in New York on October 1 (CI No 3,012), needs a majority vote of nine of the 16 Open Group directors to get the proposal ratified and the Active Group actually launched. The deferral is likely to be in effect until the next board meeting on December 11.
