Where’s the beef? Rival showcases for Open Network Computing and Distributed Computing Environment were scheduled for the US InterOp show in San Jose, California this month. No surprise there, that’s their kind of venue – except that the Open Software Foundation has turned into an eleventh-hour no-show, muttering things like not enough critical mass – whatever that means. The Open Software Foundation’s withdrawal – and the real reason behind it – has of course set the gossips renewing the allegations that the Distributed Computing Environment is nothing but vapourware. The InterOp crowd’s a savvy audience, the critics say. Would the Environment’s slip show somehow? Foundation chief David Tory, we understand, has been on something of a re-affirmation campaign, making personal telephone calls to Distributed Environment-converted OEM customers asking for additional letters of support. Maybe it’s because the Distributed Environment supporters IBM Corp, Digital Equipment Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co, the Foundation’s biggest wheels, have all gone out and bough the latest Open Network Computing upgrades for re-supply to customers.
