Microsoft Corp and Apple Computer Inc are two obvious hold-outs from the Uniform Driver Interface initiative, which gave its first public demonstration of its portable device driver technology earlier this week (CI No 3,476). Although it’s currently a Unix only affair, the specification is operating independent. Apple was in fact one of the early supporters of the effort, which began in 1993 as the Common Device Driver Environment, led by Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and Digital Equipment Corp. Apple joined the effort in 1994 along with Adaptec Inc, Interphase Corp, Novell Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc, and the now defunct Taligent. The name changed to UDI the next year, but full scale development didn’t begin until 1997. Apple dropped out as its own troubles escalated and the Santa Cruz Operation joined in. The main problem is Microsoft. The UDI effort is intended to encourage hardware vendors to write just a single driver for multiple operating systems, and Microsoft has no trouble persuading them to write for Windows 98 or NT. It therefore feels no obligation to join. There’s a possibility that a third party might step in and implement the specification as a series of libraries for NT. But why is SCO interested? For years one of its main advantages over rival Unix versions, particularly Sun’s Solaris, has been that it has far better driver support. But now SCO has two operating systems of its own, the OpenServer business with a large installed base, and UnixWare, which now accounts for around 20% of its Unix revenues. It doesn’t want to have to persuade device manufacturers to support its software twice over. Proof of concept has now been completed on six operating systems. The core interfaces are due to be frozen in October 1998, with complete functionality scheduled for January 1999 and submission for public review and standardization. The first products could hit the market around that time.
