With Siemens AG ready to adopt Unix System V.4 for its upcoming Intel 80386 and 80486-based MX machines and IBM not committing to any time-scale for OSF/1 on any product more important – in a Unix context – than the PS/2, Hewlett-Packard Co has delivered a further blow to the credibility of the Open Software Foundation’s promised alternative Unix by saying that while it plans to offer OSF/1 next year, it doesn’t expect many prominent workstation applications for it until mid-1992 – and doesn’t expect it to be bought by the majority of its workstation customers until 1994 or 1995. The company will therefore, reports Electronic News, continue developing its HP-UX and Domain/OS versions of Unix beyond that date as well. With Motif the hands-down winner over Open Look in the graphical user interface stakes, and other promising Unix extensions emerging from the Foundation’s Request for Technology it looks increasingly likely that the future direction of Unix will be Unix System V.4 at the core, with the Foundation confined to providing some major extensions to the operating system.
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