As reported (CI No 2,240), IBM Corp has finally agreed terms with Sun Microsystems Inc’s SunSelect personal computer interconnection unit for Wabi, and will put the Windows-under-Unix software up on its RS/6000 machines. Wabi, which when complete should ideally enable users to run many out-of-the-box Microsoft Corp Windows applications on their Unix systems without needing MS-DOS or Windows itself, was announced back in May, and has been winning a steady stream of supporters. Hewlett-Packard Co licensed Wabi back in July. The only surprise here is the fact that IBM, which has been very enthusiastic about the project, has also licensed unidentified technologies to SunSelect that the pair will integrate into Wabi and make available in some future Wabi release. The two are being very hush-hush about exactly what these technologies are. SunSelect refuses to say anything at all and IBM will say only that the aim is to improve the Wabi’s performance running Windows applications. Word is that the development work will be done by both IBM’s corporate research department and its Austin-based RISC and software development team. Unix System Laboratories Inc is also a co-developer. Our sister paper Unigram.X learns, however, that IBM has been working for some time on an emulator for the RS/6000 that will be at least on a par with the Microsoft Corp-blessed Insignia Solutions Inc SoftWindows system. It is this that IBM is bringing over to SunSelect. IBM says it will run Windows and MS-DOS applications faster than native. Wabi, meanwhile – described politely in some quarters as not the fastest emulator in the world – is expected to be released to OEM customers at some unspecified date in the next few weeks. After that, it’s up to the OEM customers to time their Wabi release with their operating system releases, SunSelect said. SunSelect denied reports it would ship Wabi with a Windows emulator or any Windows code or that it has, or is, changing the face of Wabi to look more like Motif because of inquiries in the field by Microsoft lawyers. It also said that it was currently impossible to predict whether Wabi would be able to run the next iterations of Word and Excel, expected out this autumn and likely to be popular. Observers claim Sun could be embarassed and Wabi discredited if it doesn’t.
