Stung by criticisms of the non-appearance of its first operating system component, and faced with the ever increasing momentum of the now available Unix System V.4 from AT&T’s Unix Software Operation, the Open Software Foundation attempted to claw back some ground at UniForum last week with the introduction of its first source-code snapshot of the OSF/1 environment to its members. The snapshot, which was demonstrated running at various member company stands at the show, includes many of the features the Foundation points to to differentiate its implementation from Unix V.4 – including the Motif interface, the Mach multi-processing kernel said to be the first implementation of Posix threads, transparent libraries, and modular, micro-kernel design. Foundation technical director Ira Goldstein criticised System V.4 as too complicated, pointing at the intended inclusion of distributed technology, multi-processing and security features all in the V.4 kernel. The snapshot should allow early development for Foundation members in preparation for the OSF/1 launch, expected to take place at the end of the year. At the event, the Foundation announced that it had signed up SecureWare Inc to provide the B1 security technology component for OSF/1, and member companies including IBM, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, Bull and Nixdorf re-endorsed support for the environment. Only Hewlett-Packard, however, committed itself to shipping OSF/1-based machines during the first half of next year.
