The Open Software Foundation no longer intends to implement a full version of the Object Management Group’s CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture in its Distributed Management Environment – because there is too much overlap between the two, it says. Instead, the Foundation will draw the Distributed Management and the Distributed Computing Environment closer together and develop a new version of DCE – version 1.1 – and add a CORBA interface to DME. The decision followed several months of discussion with IBM Corp on how it should implement CORBA – and both decided it doesn’t make sense to have two ways of doing it. Initially, the problem was that no-one had actually implemented CORBA, so potential teething troubles had not been identified. The Software Foundation subsequently thought about buying an implemented version from a manufacturer, but rejected the idea, even though Distributed Management Environment framework supplier Tivoli Systems Inc signalled its willingness to develop Common Object Request Broker Architecture compatibility into its product at an early stage. The Foundation then started talking to IBM, and decided on the latest course of action. Despite the delays and its diminishing band of acolytes, the Foundation is still confident about DME’s chances of success, and to make sure no-one forgets about it, has announced a pricing structure for the Distributed Services portion. All are due for release in the fourth quarter of this year except for the print management service, which is scheduled for the second quarter of 1994. Pricing is based on the DCE model customers will pay a single source code fee for the whole range of services to encourage widespread adoption, but source code will be distributed in two forms. A full distribution licence starts at $250,000 for three copies. This is aimed at users developing binary or object code-executable implementations for commercial shipment. A limited distribution licence starts at $25,000 and gives customers the right to include Distributed Services in in-house development projects. A university site licence costs $5,000 and an upgrade to a commercial site licence, $90,000. Furthermore, object code for use on client machines will be packaged together and sold as one copy, costing $25, although customers can also choose to pay annually for high volume deployment. For 20,001 copies or more, this would be $500,000. Object code for server technology will be sold individually, ranging from $50 for a personal computer service to $400 for a licence management service.
