Despite the delay, Walter de Bcker, director of informatics at the Commission of the European Communities, last week confirmed that it will go ahead with its planned adoption of Distributed Computing Environment technology for use at the EC, as opposed to distributed software endorsed by the rival Unix International organisation. De Bcker says that the environment will be used to create a new raft of distributed applications for its heterogeneous computer environment which currently supports around 10,000 users. However this doesn’t mean the Commission will be buying its equipment and software solely from vendors within the Open Software Foundation camp in future – de Bcker expects the environment to be readily available from Unix International suppliers. Meanwhile de Bcker has moved firmly to quash rumours circulating recently on the continent that his position at the EC may have been in doubt following a proposed internal re-organisation: he said that a plan to de-centralise the running of his section is only one of many being studied throughout EC departments, and that in any case those studies have not yet been completed.
