San Jose, CA Ð Common Open Software Environment (COSE) sponsors laid down the first major piece of the COSE puzzle here today by delivering sample implementation code of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), a graphical desktop environment and programming interface designed to run on multiple operating systems across multiple hardware platforms.
Representatives from Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Novell, SunSoft and the Santa Cruz Operation unveiled the CDE technology and reiterated their commitment to CDE as the interface standard for all five companies.
"This is a milestone along the open systems road . . . It represents the COSE effort at its best," said Don McGovern, vice president of corporate strategy for Novell.
The CDE specification includes technology from HP's Visual User Environment, IBM's Common User Access and Workplace Shell; SunSoft's DeskSet and ToolTalk interapplication messaging; Novell's NetWare client software; USL's UNIX SVR4.2 desktop manager and scalable systems; and Open Software Federation's Motif Toolkit and Window Manager.
With its proprietary user environment, NeXT has expressed no interest in the CDE standard, although the company is working with HP to provide some interoperability with CORBA, an object-services standard being developed separately from CDE by COSE participants.
The specification Ð known as Specification 1170 Ð will be submitted to the X/Open standards committee at the end of the year and is expected to pass the fast track process by the middle of next year. The CDE code released today represents "99 percent" of the full capability of the standard. When finally approved, the standard will be renamed UNIX, using the trademark transferred from Novell to X/open Company in October. The UNIX trademark was formerly held by AT&T Bell Laboratories.
Clair Whitmer is the U.S. correspondent for the IDG News Service.