The first salvos in what is threatening to develop into the Windows Wars were duly fired yesterday when Sun Microsystems Inc’s SunSelect formally announced its Wabi Windows applications binary interface which enables Windows applications to run under Unix without MS-DOS or Windows being needed, and Microsoft formally announced its alliance with Insignia Solutions Ltd, High Wycombe, to create Windows applications programming interfaces for the Apple Computer Inc Macintosh and Unix and other operating systems. Microsoft duly licenses Windows source code and associated intellectual property – the Windows user interface, Windows APIs, and the Windows trademark and logo to Insignia Solutions. It is also supplying tools that will provide developers with the flexibility to access interfaces specific to Mac System 7 to take advantage of unique System 7 features. Sun has the backing of ICL Plc and Fujitsu Ltd as well as Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp for Wabi and for its proposal for a Public Windows Interface specification that would bring the Windows applications program interface into the public domain and make it harder for Microsoft to alter it to trip up the competition.
