#SOFTWARE FOR ARCHERS SOFTWARE#
Timing his words to tie in with the announcement of the Archers, AT&T’s Data Systems Group president Robert Kavner re stated AT&T’s intention to spin off future development and licensing of Unix System V into a new Unix software division, separate from our computer business. And although AT&T itself is not strictly speaking a member of what is effectively the AT&T Unix fan club, it is re-enforcing the move by conceding some of the main points of contention that led to the original dissatisfaction of the Hamilton Group and directly on to the formation of the Open Software Foundation in the first place. The 18 members – Amdahl Corp, Control Data Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, Gould Computer Systems Inc, ICL Ltd, Intel Corp, Motorola Corp, NCR Corp, Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA, Prime Computer Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc, Toshiba Corp and Unisys Corp on the hardware side, joined by software companies Human Computer Resources Ltd, Informix Software Inc, Lachman Associates Inc, Micro Focus Plc and Unisoft Corp – claim to account for around 75% of the Unix systems so far sold. Although both AT&T Co and the Open Software Foundation insist that talks looking to resolve the conflict between the two rival Unix developments continue, it was fairly clear that negotiations were not going too smoothly last week when that group of 18 AT&T supporters – now known as the Archer Group – made a public commitment to pure Unix System V.4.