The Open Software Foundation’s recent wrestling with its internal structure, which is said to be occasioned by its continuing financial angst, has resulted in a reorganisation that separates OSF/1, the operating system that was its original raison d’etre, from the other technologies to which it has put its name. OSF/1 is now off on its own under vice-president of engineering Roger Gourd who has added the title of vice-president of corporate planning to his chevrons. As such, he reports to president David Tory. The organisation’s other technologies – the Distributed Computing and Management Environments and Motif – are now parts of a unit under a newly created vice-president, interoperability Jeanette Horan who had been director of Motif and OSF/1 engineering. Both engineering and marketing functions, the latter known around the non-profit Foundation as business area management, have been brought together under the new structure. The Foundation is said to be motivated in setting things up like this to see the technologies can stand on their own. The Open Software Foundation Research Company, which does advanced development of things like the microkernel, is apparently left unscathed because it operates on a different funding model. The consortium is breaking out education, customer support, computer facilities, corporate communications and sales. These functions will support all the others. The post of chief operating officer that the Foundation created a few months ago has been abolished. The incumbent is now off in hot pursuit of government funding for the much-enlarged interoperability lab.
