Between now and Unix Expo, the Advanced Computing Environment Initiative’s renegade Apache Group, also known as MIPS/Open, is set to come out from behind the curtain and formalise its existence, probably as MIPS/System V.4. It is believed it may add to its ranks with some new adherents from the Santa Cruz Operation Inc-Open Software Foundation-Digital Equipment Corp side of ACE. It’s been proselytising among independent software vendors for months now and should turn up with a support programme and a shrink-wrap plan. Oracle Corp, Informix Software Inc, Ingres Corp and perhaps even WordPerfect Corp should announce their participation. Sources inside Apache, a name from which they would now like to distance themselves, indicate a fracture of ACE was averted by the Initiative’s decision two weeks ago to accommodate Unix System V.4. Luckily it never came to an ultimatum.
