The Open Group, a standards body which owns the rights to the UNIX name, has begun work on UNIX 98. The goal is to make UNIX applications easily portable among the various versions of the operating system-with the same look, feel, and functionality. However, applications must still be recompiled for each UNIX version and vendors will remain free to add features that will not be portable. All major UNIX vendors-including HP, IBM, and Sun-have endorsed the program.
The major UNIX operating system software vendors have also joined forces to create a Universal Service Bus (USB) Driver Interface Device Working Group. The founding members include Digital, IBM, Phoenix Technologies, Sun, and SCO. The goal would be hot-pluggable interfaces for peripherals. Such interfaces would allow peripherals such as printers, scanners, and keyboards to be hot-swapped in and out of UNIX systems. The expectation is that vendors of all of the major UNIX operating systems will offer USE support within a year.
