Press Release: UniForum Applauds Announcement from HP, Novell, and SCO

New Relationships Should Further Open Systems

New York--September 20, 1995--UniForum, the International Association of Open Systems Professionals, today voiced strong support for the collaboration announced by Hewlett-Packard Co., Novell, Inc., and The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. Under the agreements, the three vendors will work together to produce a series of merged Unix products that will span desktop, server, and network computing environments, and provide an evolutionary path to 64-bit processing.

"We endorse this further effort at collaboration in the Unix industry," said Richard Jaross, executive director of UniForum. "It typifies the spirit of shared development that characterizes the open systems community. Competitors each focus on what they do best yet work together for the benefit of the industry and its customers."

The relationship seems likely to answer customer calls for more unified Unix systems that are optimized for particular platforms and price points yet share data and applications easily. This effort in effect furthers the mission of UniForum, which advocates choice and interoperability among computing solutions for users.

HP, Novell, and SCO are active Corporate Sponsors of UniForum, and executives of all three serve or have served on its Board of Directors. The UniForum '96 Conference and Exposition, to be held in San Francisco on Feb. 12-16, 1996, is the premier gathering of the Unix and open systems community. UniForum expects this venue to be an ideal opportunity to learn about the progress of the important new industry relationship.

For further information, contact UniForum at (408) 986-8840.