The Open Software Foundation has, as expected, now released a full set of specifications and plans for OSF/1 to its membership for review, and revealed that full OSF/1 code will not be available by the end of the year, as originally promised. The specifications, which describe in detail the architecture, functionality, and development strategy for OSF/1, will be made fully public following Foundation’s forthcoming membership meeting between May 21 and 24 in Europe, where members will provide feedback that will be used to produce the final version. The first release of OSF/1 includes the IBM AIX-3derived operating system and OSF/Motif interface technology. It will be released in four stages, starting with a Vendor Kit to allow members to begin the process of implementing the OSF kernel for their hardware, available in October this year. Then comes the Application Kit, available in March 1990, which will provide software vendors with the complete application environment, adhering to both the IEEE Posix and X/Open XPG3 standards: this will enable developers to start moving applications across. The third stage, scheduled for May 1990, is the University Platform, which will be used for field testing OSF/1 functionality in university and other sites. Finally, the Commercial Platform will represent the general availability of OSF/1 to the industry beyond Foundation membership. This should be achieved by July 1990, declares the 120-member Foundation.
