Although the Open Software Foundation is likely to make political hay at Unix International Inc’s expense when a public announcement of the latter’s demise is made, Unix International can at least claim that it has carried out a goodly portion of its original aims, notably establishing Unix System V.4 as a market standard. As one source observed, it’s time to move on from the operating system to middleware technologies – these are the issues that need to be sorted. The closure of Unix International may free up some of the processes towards establishing NewOrg, but creation of that body is held up while the future of the Open Software Foundation, its technologies, the personalities and issues raised by the anti-trust case that the organisation is still facing are decided. NewOrg, it is hoped, will be a home for all open systems players and is seen as the natural home for many of the middleware technologies now emerging from the Software Foundation. It is the mechanisms that are proving difficult, commented one source. Whether NewOrg becomes a development organisation is too early to tell at present – but there certainly is a need for it, said another source. NewOrg, it is hoped, will be everything that the Common Open Software Environment currently is not. It will have an infrastructure and a formal, complementary and clearly-defined relationship with X/Open Co Ltd, and will provide for multiple implementations of technology.
