X/Open Co Ltd’s UNIX brand became available for Unix 95- or Unix 93-compliant operating systems from Monday February 27, although it is touch and go whether that leaves enough time for any vendor to rig up a fully compliant operating system and complete the paperwork in time for UniForum. The announcement comes some 16 months after Novell Inc’s transfer of the trademark to X/Open in October 1993. The Spec 1170 Application Programming Interface set, testing suites, and licensing terms and conditions are now all in place. Royalty buyout licences are due annually for system software that must be re-tested for compliance every year. Prices are $25,000 per annum for companies with a turnover less than $25m, rising to $300,000 for firms with a turnov er greater than $10,000m. The logo is actually X/Open’s fancy X script underscored by the word Unix. Vendors who conform to the interim Unix 93 specification, that is XPG3 or XPG4, plus System V Interface Definition 2 or 3; hold a Novell Inc licence; pay their dues; and promise to move to full Unix 95 compliance within a year, can call their products UNIX, but have to indicate their Unix 93 stature. Unix 95 – X/Open calls the profile itself XPG4 Unix (effectively XPG 4 version 2) – demands compliance to the updated basic X/Open Application Programming Interface suite called VSX4, VSU4 Spec1170 Application Programming Interfaces, VSC4 commands and utilities and a demonstrated intent to meet the now shipping VST XTI networking interface and internationalised curses. With the major Unix vendors lining up compliant releases and some $3,500m of US defence procurements already tied to Unix-compliant products, X/Open’s challenge is to get the independent software vendor community developing to the application programming interfaces. If they do not, the long-touted benefits of Unixification, including common code and ease of conversion, will be forever lost to Win32. The problem is that right now most independent software vendors are heads-down trying to earn a living and have no proof that standards have or will ever make a difference, said one X/Open ISV Council member who also believes that the profile will have to be expanded to make it more attractive to independent software houses, despite X/Open’s claim that the UNIX application programming interface set will be stable for a couple of years.
