In a confusing preview of what is due be announced at the InterOp show in Atlanta later today, Novell Inc chief executive Robert Frankenberg talked to analysts and press in a telephone conference late on Friday to address Novell’s future strategy (CI No 2,498). Cutting through the verbiage of Novell’s vision of the network as pervasive computing, there was really very little new in the announcement. The main initiative is the common SuperNOS kernel for both UnixWare and NetWare, the basis for a three-phase move towards what Novell describes as a fully distributed fault-tolerant object-enabled network operating system by 1997 – but there are few details so far of just what technology will be used to underpin this. The other new product area is Advanced Client, described as a three-dimensional graphical user interface-based desktop system for proactive network users, featuring an Internet browser and World Wide Web connection. This initiative comes out of the much-rumoured Corsair and Expose efforts that once seemed likely to evolve as a separate desktop operating system. Other than that, the main interest was centred around what Novell is not continuing with. There will be no more developments to DR-DOS, UnixWare Personal Edition (as opposed to the server version) will be de-emphasised, and the development of AppWare Foundation, the cross-system application tool set, will be halted: Visual AppWare, which provides applications programmers with access to network resources, remains as part of Perfect Office, the network-enabled office suite derived from Borland International Inc due next month. Frankenberg also hinted that Novell would be looking to provide common networking facilities to connect up a wide variety of office equipment, including facsimile and photocopiers, and said the company would also be looking to provide networking infrastructure to control interactive entertainment systems such as television set-top boxes. Some of the developers currently working on the nearly-completed NetWare 4.1 and UnixWare 2.3 development efforts will be transferred to the SuperNOS effort, though a separate team working on UnixWare 3.0 will be maintained. Frankenberg confirmed that NetWare 4.1 and UnixWare 2.0 will be in fully available by the year end.
