Sun Microsystems Inc may now be a full member of the Open Software Foundation but when it comes to Distributed Computing Environment it is a less than semi-detached member. The Software Foundation rolled out DCE 1.1 last week at a member seminar in Newton, Massachusetts, and managed to make the whole presentation without once mentioning the name of one of its largest vendor members. At the press conference, the Software Foundation’s Roger Gourd was defensive and stamped on any questions that went outside the narrow scope of the DCE 1.1 launch. New features in DCE 1.1 include a consolidated interface for systems’ administration throughout Distributed Computing Environment with a capability for remote start-up and shutdown of services; a generic security service Application Programming Interface that enables non-Remote Procedure Call-based systems to use Distributed Computing Environment security, extended registry attributes for proprietary systems and security delegation and auditing facilities; and better internationalisation with standard Posix and X/Open Co Ltd interfaces and character code set interoperability. In deference to Sun there is now a secure Network File System-Distributed File System gateway that enables Network File System access to Distributed Computing Environment’s Distributed File System. The Software Foundation is hoping that the Distributed Environment can push Sun’s Network File System into the background and the vendors present, including Digital Equipment Corp, IBM Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co all echoed the belief of the Software Foundation’s Joe Maloney that release 1.1 will push Distributed Computing Environment over the top. A new pricing policy should mean that it will cost $2 per client instead of $75, says Maloney. A source code licence will cost $250,000; $100,000 for an upgrade from an earlier version, with no run-time charges. DEC plans to have DCE 1.1 incorporated into its products by mid-1995 and the other vendors are on similar time-scales. Mike Guidry of Phillips Petroleum said that DCE 1.1 addresses the problems of bringing all platforms together in a secure environment.
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