Scheduled for release in the third quarter of 1989, AT&T’s Unix System V Release 4.0 aims to unify previous Unix system variants, including earlier releases of Unix System V and its Berkeley and Xenix derivatives, as well as the SunOS version from co-developer Sun Microsystems. It’s impact has undoubtedly been affected by the industry rebellion […]
Scheduled for release in the third quarter of 1989, AT&T’s Unix System V Release 4.0 aims to unify previous Unix system variants, including earlier releases of Unix System V and its Berkeley and Xenix derivatives, as well as the SunOS version from co-developer Sun Microsystems. It’s impact has undoubtedly been affected by the industry rebellion that spawned the Open Software Foundation, but with continuing rumours of a reconciliation between the two factions before year end, and many either unconvinced by the Foundation or committed to AT&T’s software or Sun’s Sparc technology, interest remains high. Now the two companies are holding a series of seminars to explain Release 4.0 to software developers, value-added resellers and corporate end-users. We promised to tell the Unix system community about the features of Unix System V.4.0 as early as possible, says Robert Kavner, president of AT&T’s Data Systems Group. The first three day conference, co-sponsored by AT&T and Sun Microsystems, was held this month in New York, and the second followed last week in Los Angeles. Attendees are promised detailed technical information, and will be told how to adapt applications written for existing releases of Unix System V, SunOS, Berkeley and Xenix versions of Unix to use the new features of V.4. Issues covered include the new features, the operating system’s adherence to standards such as Posix and the X/Open Common Applications Environment, the X11/News graphics and windowing interface, and AT&T’s Open Look user interface. Also included will be an explanation of new networked computing capabilities, and Application Binary Interfaces, which AT&T hopes will create off-the-shelf markets for Unix system applications. Those who have missed out on the first two events can book for the remaining sessions; in Tokyo, October 12 to 14; London, October 26 to 28; Boston, November 9 to 11; Chicago November 29 to December 1; San Francisco, December 6 to 8; and Washington December 13 to 15.
