Unix International Inc has agreed in principle to a new charter that will significantly expand its role and give it an impact it has never had before with all Unix companies not just its own members, Unix International officials say. The agreement was apparently clinched by a vote of the Unix International executive committee, effectively its board of directors, meeting in Tokyo the last week in May. The agreement, described as substantial, is thought to be being kept under wraps until after Novell Inc formally takes control of Unix System Laboratories Inc on June 14. Until then, no one can officially sign off on the deal, which will replace and broaden the agreement Unix International has had with Unix Labs’ current owner, AT&T Co, for some years. Unix International is believed to have been anxious to renegotiate its charter with Unix Labs for months but could not catch its eye until the last few weeks. Novell is thought to have had input into the negotiations through Unix Labs. It will be interesting to see how Unix International’s reported new status meshes with the Common Open Software Environment. There are already suggestions circulating that COSE will be a one-shot deal, limiting its efforts to the Common Desktop Environment and then fading. It may be that Unix International has aspirations to pick up where COSE leaves off. The new charter follows an action by the Unix International executive committee, refocusing the Unix club’s energies from marketing to technical transfers and middleware. The existence of the renegotiated charter was offered as evidence to contradict reports published here last week claiming that support for Unix International is waning and that Unix Labs and Novell, personalities aside, are antagonistic to it (CI No 2,181). It does after all fund the Unix Labs requirements process. Unix International also attributed its recent shortfall in funds to members’ dues not coming in on time, a factor of the recession, rather than the accounting error it previously blamed, and said it is expecting to recruit a resident replacement to head up its Japanese operation. It also denied that staff were laid off without severence or accrued vacation. That was only true of contract people, it said.
