The need to be able to offer Unix System V to all those telephone companies that grew up with it when they were part of AT&T Co – and all the others that have always voted the AT&T systems ticket, is making it hard for members of the Open Software Foundation to stray too far away from the AT&T standard. According to Electronic News, DEC is in process of merging its Berkeley Unix-derived Ultrix with a version of Unix System V that it sells mainly to the telephone industry to create an implementation that will run applications written for both. It then intends to incorporate base technology from OSF/1, but the paper says it hasn’t ruled out continuing to offer its Unix System V on the VAX if customers demand that.
