As well as announcing the new pricing structure, the Open Software Foundation will release the next major implementation of the Distributed Computing Environment, 1.0.2, at UniForum in San Francisco this week. The Distributed Computing Environment 1.0.2 will include enhancements to its security services such, as single point of failure facilities and improvements to relational database security access. The Foundation has also refined the Distributed File System to enable it to handle things such as groups of files instead of single lines of files, as well as getting rid of a number of Distributed File System bugs. The Software Foundation will start shipping Distributed Computing Environment 1.0.2 developers’ kits in the next 90 days. It claims that over 1,000 independent software vendors have already signed up for the new version. The Software Foundation also outlined the Distributed Computing Environment roadmap for the year. The next release, version 1.1, will incorporate internationalisation specifications and initial integration requirements for the Distributed Management Environment Distributed Management Services – which is due for release in September. It will include hierarchical cell and audit trail services and provide provisional Open Systems Interconnection specifications. The fourth release of the Distributed Computing Environment is scheduled for the end of the year, when the Foundation will offer integration specifications for the companion Distributed Management Environment’s Management Framework services. It will also include object-oriented support, conforming to Object Management Group specifications and on-line transaction processing facilties. Final Open Systems Interconnection requirements will also be included. The Software Foundation will also introduce a suite of validation tools for the Distributed Computing Environment this week, at the cost of $20,000.
