Unix System Laboratories Inc is said to be planning implementations of its Destiny desktop Unix, described conceptually in yesterday’s issue (CI No 1,875), for all the widely-used computer architectures, including Apple Computer Inc’s Macintosh, MS-DOS personal computers, IBM Corp’s RS/6000, Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP 9000 machines, machines using Digital Equipment Corp’s Alpha RISC, and computers built to the Advanced Computing Environment specification. According to Systems & Network Integration, the sequence in which the implementations are produced will depend on the rate of acceptance of different architectures in the market. With Microsoft Corp preparing to de-emphasise MS-DOS in favour of Windows New Technology, the desktop is being seen as up for grabs in a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and there is a whole string of companies and alliances determined to make it as hard as possible for Microsoft to achieve the kind of dominance it is pitching for, with other leading contenders including Santa Cruz Operation Inc’s Unix, Sun Microsystems Inc’s Solaris, IBM Corp’s OS/2 2.0, even DEC with Open VMS. DEC, IBM and Hewlett as sponsors of the Open Software Foundation, are unlikely to welcome Destiny from the rival camp initially, but may feel they need to support it to keep Microsoft at bay. Unix Labs’ trump card in the marketing wars that are set to break out will be its alliance with Novell Inc in Univel Inc, which will be selling Destiny with NetWare via Novell marketing channels.
