observer@cs.utexas.edu (03/14/89)
The following is my first impressions of Sun's Feb. 28 press breakfast here at Uniforum in San Francisco. Because I've used stories (with permission) from SunSpots before, I believe it right I repay the favor. Feel free to add this to an upcoming issue. Mark Cappel The Sun Observer (Feb 28) -- Sun Microsystems executives here in San Francisco at Uniforum 89 said the company will soon start shipping a product called "OpenWindows," a graphical interface application environment that combines Open Look and X11. According to Sun, OpenWindows includes AT&T's Open Look, Sun's X11/NeWS, and Sun's XView toolkit, the "second generation" of the SunView toolkit. Scott McNealy and Carl Wolf, VP of Sun's Software Products division, made several references to the alleged 2,100 applications available now on SunView, and how they can, in an afternoon or less, port their applications to OpenWindows. Sun demonstrated OpenWindows on its three product lines, a 680x0-based 3/60, a SPARC-based Sun-4, and a 80386-based 386i, as well as a DEC workstation. In a shrewd move, Sun will be donating the XView toolkit to MIT for release in its X source code tape. Sun said the OpenWindows Application Environment is built on the following model: [Please bear with me, I did this on a small-screen laptop.] Graphical-----------------Specification User l Open Look l AT&T and Sun Interface---------------- ----------------- XToolkit l XView l MIT ----------------- Window ----------------- Sun & System l X11/NeWS l AT&T SV.4 Platform ----------------- Sun said OpenWindows' specifications are available now for "the reproduction cost of the documentation," while a limited number of software copies are also presently available. Full release is scheduled for July. Sun execs also mentioned that it is working with Toshiba, Fujitsu and Xerox Japan to develop a Kanji version of OpenWindows. In the quotes department, Scott McNealy apologized for the new name of its product, "OpenWindows", because of the word 'open.' He said 'open' is becoming overused, much like 'lite' and 'plus.' Not to be out done, Bill Joy later cause OSF's Motif interface a knock-off of PM, and that Sun never wanted NeWS/ OpenWindows to be as good as the Finder or any other interface, Sun wanted it to be better. # # (Feb 28) -- Sun showed today here at Uniforum 89 three new low-end personal productivity applications for users of 3, 4 and 386i Sun workstations. Dubbed SunWrite, SunPaint and SunDraw, the applications are based on Open Look, and are immediately available for Sun-3s, and are expected to be available for 386i's and 4's "in a month.". In its booth on the Uniforum display floor, Sun showed the Macintosh-like applications to curious attendees who spilled out of Sun's booth and clogged walkways. The applications share a common clipboard, have consistant Open Look user interfaces, and seemed quite easy-to-use and friendly from your humble narrator's Macintosh-user perspective. The products are based on "core technology" from Island Graphics, a San Rafael, CA firm. Write, listing for $695, allows multiple columns of text, various fonts from 4 to 72 points, style sheets, leading and kerning control, a Merriam-Webster dictionary, and automatic text flow around imported SunPaint, SunDraw and EPSF objects. Sun executives said third parties are developing filters to allow importing and exporting of SunWrite files to and from popular PC and Unix word processors. SunPaint, $495, appears to be a clone of Apple's original MacPaint. As a raster editor, it can edit scanned images. SunDraw, $495, appears to have most of MacDraw's functions, plus the ability to edit text that has been rotated. Draw is an object-oriented graphics tool. All three can be purchased for $995. Scott McNealy said Sun is releasing these products primarily because it drives him crazy to go into a customer site and see a Mac or PC sitting on a desk next to a Sun. The users need the Macs or PCs because Suns don't have simple word processing or graphics applications, the story goes. The company stressed it was not getting into applications development and sales in a big way, it merely needed to establish a basic software need it perceived as unfilled. # # The above are the on-the-spot perceptions of Mark Cappel, editor of The Sun Observer. (c) 1989 Publications & Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Mark Cappel The Sun Observer cs.utexas.edu!pcinews!observer