Suspicions have been raised that Microsoft Corp may try to steer ActiveX into X/Open Co Ltd, the Unix standards body, at what is now called the ActiveX Working Group meeting set for today in New York City. A well-placed source close to the consortium reported that Microsoft was in Japan the week before last at a meeting of the Open Group – the umbrella organization over X/Open – sounding out the possibility. At press time the outcome was unknown. The Open Group’s spokesman, reached in Japan, declined to comment, saying that board meeting agendas are closely held. He denied that there were any technical meetings in Japan that Microsoft might have approached, contradicting the story we first heard.
Loggerheads
Microsoft’s first choice was believed to have been the World Wide Web Consortium but this is believed to have turned it down on the grounds that it was far too much of a political hot potato. There aren’t too many other places Microsoft can lodge the stuff. The European Computer Manufacturers Association for instance, is too head-strong and tainted by its association with the APIW Windows application programming interface effort. The Internet Engineering Task Force is also not particularly docile. Parties at loggerheads with Microsoft say that it wants a reference implementation of DCOM, Distributed Component Object Model, on Unix to give DCOM the aura of being multi-environment. Finding a way to silence all the criticism raised by the f act that ActiveX is only up on Windows systems is supposedly the whole rationale behind Microsoft’s decision to turn ActiveX over to a standards body in the first place. X/Open, it is said, might be ideal for Microsoft’s purposes, considering that X /Open is not exactly what one might call quick on its feet and the process could take two to three times longer than it might otherwise. X/Open could of course provide Microsoft with a branding mechanism as it does for Unix, and the Open Group could fast-track ActiveX under the Pre-Structured Technology process that is supposed to handle deployed technology seeking joint development. Of course, nothing of any significance has ever emerged from a pre-structured technology process, a Sun Microsystems Inc brainchild, in the two or three years it has been in place. Ironically, X/Open, as it is today, derives from the European group that was originally responsible for busting Unix out of its narrow academic confines and setting it on the road to widespread adoption by computer vendors back in the 1980s. It has subsequently grown somnolent.
Umbrella bureaucracy
Recent economy measures among the Unix set, ostensibly aimed at reducing the small fortunes they each pay to support industry consortia, have paired X/Open with the Open Software Foundation, the schismatics who originally fragmented Unix, under the Open Group’s umbrella bureaucracy. Of course the name Open Group has a nice ring to it and may be just the propaganda ticket for Microsoft while giving Open Group, which is losing members and could use the money, a reason for being. Rumors have Microsoft ready to spend $1m plus equipment to become an Open Group executive sponsor, something the organization has always wanted, even in its previous incarnations. Microsoft is currently only a $25,000 member. How Microsoft would deal with enemies like Sun and IBM Corp, who are already executive sponsors, remains to be seen and of course if the Open Group sells itself to Microsoft, some kind of rumpus is likely to ensue that could discredit it the whole exercise. A potential stumbling block is the Open Group’s existing tie-up with the Object Management Group, a rival to anything Microsoft might set up. Only the week before last – after a seemingly endless search for a permanent chief executive – the Open Group installed Joe De Feo, formerly of Barclays Group Plc, as its president and chief executive. As its new boss, sources report that one of his first moves was to try to put in a call to Bill Gates, suggesting that De Feo was anxious to pull off a coup at his inauguration and bring Microsoft into the fold. His timing may have been premature and maybe that’s why he didn’t get through to Gates. De Feo, however, is said to believe the Open Group’s future rests with Network Computers and the Information Superhighway. Meanwhile, however, X/Open looks to be in bed with Microsoft already on CIFS, its Common Internet File System, which X/Open’s fast tracking – at least the CIFS superset Server Message Block protocol 3, creating a potential problem for Unix stalwart Sun and it s Common Internet File System-opposed protocol – WebNFS. Oddly enough, Sun, it is said, made little or no appearance at the recent Open Group festivities in Washington DC – from which the press was barred – and a Microsoft representative was asked to answer questions – possibly trial balloons – posed by its Software Council as to why X/Open shouldn’t standardize Java and why for that matter it shouldn’t standardize ActiveX.
Informational
Going with an existing standards body would of course be cheaper and it some respects easier for Microsoft to do than creating one from scratch. An existing organization might also look less puppet-like. Meantime it looks as if those going along to the ActiveX meeting today get two tickets, and one of Oracle Corp’s pair is held by Steve Muench, director of product marketing for the tools business. It doesn’t look as if vice-president for servers, Mark Jarvis is going, as the tools guys are mor e used to dealing with ActiveX and the thinking is that Oracle is happy with Common Object Request Broker Architecture on the server side, but the details are about a week away still. Oracle described the meeting as informational. As to the burning issue of the day, where ActiveX might end up, Oracle thinks that the Internet Engineering Task Force may be the most likely bet.
