AT&T Co and Sun Microsystems yesterday duly announced their Open Look graphical user interface for Unix – but at present it is no more than a written specification covering the look and feel of applications, and will go in front of the Sun X11/NeWS graphical display system. Sun says that all the technology has been traced back to before Apple introduced its Finder user interface, on Lisa – and in order to ensure no copyright infringement trouble from Apple, the pair went back to the originator of icon-driven user interfaces, Xerox Corp, for licences to the technology, to which Apple also took licences before it developed the Finder for Lisa and Macintosh. AT&T will come out with product at the end of the year for use with the 80386 version of Unix System V – and Open Look will also take on the IBM-Microsoft Presentation Manager, because it is being designed for use with the OS/2 operating system as well as Unix. Open Look is not yet cast in concrete, and comm ents from the industry are invited.
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