X/Open Co Ltd is planning to announce at UniForum next week a greatly expanded project to define specifications for a framework that will govern the behaviour of whatever people use to interact with their computers. The group has been prompted by the work of its user-driven desktop interface requirements group over the last nine months, which has been examining the relevance of Common Open Software Environment’s Common Desktop Environment to the computer industry. It has also had input from vendors, including it’s believed, Microsoft Corp. The ambitious plan will seek to define an interface that can inte-rate all types of information delivery services and be adapted for use across the spectrum of computer devices, from Personal Digital Assistants to personal computers, workstations and the set-top boxes that will deliver interactive television to homes. Everything changes, said X/Open, speaking from its user interface requirements meeting in New Orleans – especially true now that Microsoft Corp is expected to climb aboard the effort too. X/Open is to establish a full-scale project with a high-level strategic group and lower-level requirements initiatives. The existing workgroup and desktop focus has been dropped. Although it seems to have provided the catalyst for this grandiose scheme, the future of Common Desktop still remains unclear. X/Open says that the Common Desktop effort can continue under the auspices of the new project – it has not received a final submission from the Common Open Software Environment vendors in any case. They will now likely re-group and work out how Common Desktop, or a son of Common Desktop, can exist within the wider framework.
