Splinter Unix?

[Phil Hughes]

In article <556 at n8emr.UUCP>, lwv at n8emr.UUCP (Larry W. Virden) writes:
> 
> Sigh!  For those of you who are as behind as I typically am, let me clue you
> in on a couple interesting articles which were passed on to me by a friend
> here at work (Hi Tom!).
> 
> Digital News, May 16, 1988 Front page:
> 
> DEC and IBM Ponder Alternate to AT&T Unix.  Olsen says counter to Unix is 
> possible.
>... 

Sigh was my first comment too.  Then I talked to a person at Apollo and
at least see why it is happening.  (This is basically info that will be
in my September column of MicroSystems Journal but that's a long wait.)
Anyway, the claim is that AT&T and Sun are off making the ultimate version
of UNIX while the other vendors just watch.  Once the AT&T/Sun development
is done, they will release the standard to the world.  From a marketing
point of view, AT&T and Sun will have a working product to sell and all
the rest of the industry running around attempting to get caught up.

The alternative, called Open Software Foundation involves a whole bunch of
vendors (about 9 so far) and they are doing joint development on the
standard and the code.  The best thing that could happen is that AT&T and
Sun could say, "Ok, you win" and join in.

-- 
Phil    uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl