The development of UNIX needs to be taken to a new level, supporting new technologies and applications over a broader range of industries, Robert Frankenberg, Novell president and CEO, told UniForum '95 attendees in the final keynote address on Mar. 16. "I think that UNIX has a very exciting set of opportunities ahead and also some difficult challenges," Frankenberg said. "UNIX plays a much more central role in our lives than most people think. When you pick up the telephone, withdraw money from an ATM, or make an airline reservation, you rely on UNIX."
UNIX is the choice of downsizers and "the enterprise choice for moving to client/server computing," he noted. "The advent of high-volume microprocessor-based UNIX servers places powerful business computing within the grasp of any business, large or small. This brings us much closer to a world of pervasive computing. But it also means we need to improve the ability of UNIX to match the requirements of those customers."
Pervasive computing, as Frankenberg defined it, is a Novell vision of connecting people together and giving them "the power to act on information wherever they are. UNIX is ideally suited to providing several aspects of that." The most important aspect is the ability act on information, he said. "It isn't just delivering it but providing the ability to communicate, to purchase, and to interact with others."
As an example, he cited a retailer's ability to collect sales statistics every day from hundreds of stores, scattered across the United States. "This data helps the company determine its future inventory mix and purchases," Frankenberg said. If store managers had access to the information, they could track individual customer preferences and trends, and manage sales promotions to meet customer needs. "Cost-effective UNIX servers provide that information and access to everyone in the organization that needs it," he said.
Challenges faced by the UNIX industry include bringing a broader range of business solutions to the UNIX platform, as well as making those solutions easier to install and deliver, the Novell CEO said. "We must implement and support a business model that drives the growth of the overall UNIX industry." Frankenberg criticized what he called the two existing models for UNIX development. The committee model, relying on standards bodies and technology initiatives to drive industry "puts the cart before the horse. [Standards bodies] can codify technical interfaces, and it is essential that they do that. But they should not be used to define technical direction."
He called the second model "the Redmond model." That one "holds that a single vendor should drive the technology. We don't think any one vendor can do it all, and those vendors following such a model will not be able to meet the rapidly evolving needs and conflicting needs of the user base." The two models "do not foster the wide range of solutions and rapid technical innovation" that the industry needs, he said.
Novell wants a combination model, supporting open systems and standards, but also encouraging development of value-added services and applications for end-users, ISVs, and VARs, Frankenberg said. "We also maintain that the industry must develop those innovative new capabilities and technologies that open new venues and markets and increase opportunities for all of us.
"Our goal is to make UNIX the best platform for business-critical applications built on industry-standard hardware," he said. "We're working with other companies to create application compatibility, for example, the Intel application binary interface."
He said Novell is working with industry groups to help accelerate the acceptance of standards, through membership in X/Open and Open Software Foundation. "We need to have much greater standardization in the core and innovation over and above that," he added. "I think we must move new capabilities forward and bring them into the standards bodies even more quickly. Novell will do all we can to help with the unifications.