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X/Open

X/Open group (also known as the Open Group for Unix Systems[1][2] and incorporated in 1987 as X/Open Company, Ltd.[3][4]) was a consortium founded by several European UNIX systems manufacturers in 1984[3][5] to identify and promote open standards in the field of information technology. More specifically, the original aim was to define a single specification for operating systems derived from UNIX, to increase the interoperability of applications and reduce the cost of porting software. Its original members were Bull, ICL, Siemens, Olivetti, and Nixdorf—a group sometimes referred to as BISON.[6] Philips and Ericsson joined in 1985,[6] at which point the name X/Open was adopted.

The group published its specifications as X/Open Portability Guide, starting with Issue 1 in 1985, and later as X/Open CAE Specification.

In 1987, X/Open was incorporated as X/Open Company, Ltd.[3][4]

By March 1988, X/Open grew to 13 members: AT&T, Digital, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Unisys, NCR, Olivetti, Bull, Ericsson, Nixdorf, Philips, ICL, and Siemens.[7]

By 1990 the group had expanded to 21 members:[8] in addition to the original five, Philips and Nokia from Europe; AT&T, Digital, Unisys, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NCR, Sun, Prime Computer, Apollo Computer from North America; Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC from Japan; plus the Open Software Foundation and Unix International.

In October 1993, a planned transfer of UNIX trademark from Novell to X/Open was announced;[9] it was finalized in 2nd quarter of 1994.[10]

In 1994, X/Open published the Single UNIX Specification, which was drawn from XPG4 Base and other sources.[11]

In 1996, X/Open merged with the Open Software Foundation to form The Open Group.[5][3]

X/Open was also responsible for the XA protocol for heterogeneous distributed transaction processing, which was released in 1991.[12]

  1. ^ Kornel, Amiel (3 February 1986). "Unix advancing in drive toward European market acceptance". Computerworld. p. 51.
  2. ^ Sandholtz, Wayne (1992). "Spinoffs". High-Tech Europe: The Politics of International Cooperation. University of California Press.
  3. ^ a b c d "The Daemon, the GNU and the Penguin, Excursus: UUNET & Ch. 11". Groklaw. 2 June 2005.
  4. ^ a b McKinnon, Linda; McKinnon, Al (2004). Installing and Administering Linux. John Wiley & Sons. p. 5. ISBN 9780471453994.
  5. ^ a b "The UNIX System -- History and Timeline -- UNIX History". unix.org.
  6. ^ a b Tottenham, John (August 1987). "X/OPEN - What, Who, Why, When". Australian Unix systems User Group Newsletter. Vol. 8, no. 3–4. p. 158.
  7. ^ Ackerman Jr., Robert (March 21, 1988). "X/Open Makes Bid for Common Applications Environment". InfoWorld. Vol. 10, no. 12. p. S9.
  8. ^ Pasquali, Virgilio (Summer 2005). "ICL and Europe". RESURRECTION, the Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society (35). ISSN 0958-7403. Contains more on history of X/Open.
  9. ^ Karish, Chuck (October 12, 1993). "The name "UNIX" is now the property of X/Open". Newsgroup: comp.std.unix.
  10. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". unix.org.
  11. ^ "The Single UNIX Specification". unix.org.
  12. ^ Kleppmann, Martin (April 2, 2017). Designing Data-Intensive Applications (1 ed.). O'Reilly Media. p. 361. ISBN 978-1449373320.

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