Also on the user interface front, Sun Microsystems Inc has unveiled its migration path to AT&T Co’s Open Look graphical interface and X11 Window standard. OpenWindows integrates Open Look, X11/NeWS and a new XView toolkit, the latest generation of the SunView toolkit, which now implements Open Look on X11. Sun, which wants to pursue Apple into the high-performance personal computer market with its next generation Sparc-based machines, also has a suite of Mac-like applications, Sun Write, SunPaint and SunDraw that are based on the Open Look specification and designed to give users a low-cost, window-based environment for preparing WYSIWYG documents on a workstation, and the XView toolkit is designed to enable developers to create applications that use the Open Look specification. Sun is also giving XView to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for release as part of its X source code tape, so that anyone will be able to develop applications to the Open Look specification. A handful of evaluation copies of OpenWindows are available now, release to developers is set for spring, and full availability is scheduled for July. SunWrite, $695, SunPaint and SunDraw, each $495, $1,000 the lot, use core technology from Island Graphics Corp of San Rafael, California.
