Unix International Inc is expected to concede a victory to the Open Software Foundation this week when it publicly endorses the Distributed Computing Environment and embraces it as a core technology within its Atlas framework. Unix International will also finally recognise OSF/Motif as a acceptable alternative to Open Look, its bitter rival, with the introduction of prototype software that reportedly produces an independent look and feel encompassing both programs. The Distributed Computing Environmnet’s runaway success in the marketplace, a psychological stampede Unix International never acted to counter other than to dream up the Atlas superspec, has forced Unix International to put it on a par with and acknowledge it as an alternative to Sun’s Open Network Computing. What provisions Unix International will make to acquire and pass on Distributed Computing Environment code to its members was undecided at press time. While the Open Software Foundation appears to have gained ground in this skirmish, a battlefield Sun Microsystems Inc has yet to relinquish, Unix International seems to have won the clash of the operating systems and may also be accorded laurels for transaction processing, Open Systems Interconnection and object orientation.
