Meanwhile, the User Alliance for Open Systems, perhaps better known as the Houston 30, appears to have decided against joining X/Open in favour of the Corporation for Open Systems. US press reports say that X/Open’s vendor-domination and lack of profile in the US were the main reasons for the decision, despite the group’s long-standing efforts to address those issues. The Corporation for Open Systems, a McLean, Virginia-based association of vendors and users, concentrates on the promotion of Open Systems Interconnection networking standards, and offers testing software for 802.4 Token passing networks, and MAP/TOP conformance, but it is difficult to see why the Houston gang should join only one organisation and not both – perhaps it can’t raise the membership fee for two clubs.
