[ale] [Fwd: Unix-on-Intel players work on a common binary format]

[Geoffrey Myers]

This is news to me, sorry if it's not to the list...

glen at substance.abuse.blackdown.org wrote:

> Forwarded-by: Simon Karpen <slk at acm.rpi.edu>
> From: Bruce Perens <bruce at debian.org>
>
> Dear Debian users and developers,
>
> Here's an announcement from the 86open project, a project to make
> binary compatibility across all Unix variants on Intel architectures.
> In short, it's an effort to support ELF LIBC6 executables on all of the
> platforms, so that vendors can build a single application that runs on
> all Intel Unix variants. As you can see from the announcement, this
> project already has a substantial amount of commercial support.
>
> I think this has much more of a chance to succeed where previous Unix
> standardization efforts have fallen short. Rather than produce a paper
> standard, the project will release a reference implementation that runs
> on the various platforms. Because this will be free software, the cost
> of implementing compatibility will be much lower than that of
> implementing new software to run a paper standard.
>
> The fact that commercial Unix vendors are turning to free software for
> this solution is a real triumph for the free software movement, and one
> I expect to see repeated. I'm happy to see the major Linux distributions
> represented on the steering committee along with the largest commercial
> Unix vendors, and I'm proud to represent Debian on this project.
>
>         Thanks
>
>         Bruce Perens
>
>                              The 86open Project
>
>                Unix-on-Intel players work on a common binary
>
>    A group which includes some of the key developers of Unix operating
>    systems on Intel architecture computers have agreed to work on a
>    common programming and binary interface.
>
>    At a meeting held mid-August at the head office of SCO, participants
>    achieved consensus on a way to create software applications which
>    would run, without modification or emulation, on the Intel-based
>    versions of:
>
>      * BSDI
>      * FreeBSD
>      * Linux
>      * NetBSD
>      * SCO OpenServer
>      * Sunsoft Solaris
>      * SCO UnixWare
>
>    The goal of this effort is to encourage software developers to port to
>    the Unix-Intel platform by reducing the effort needed to support the
>    diverse mix of operating systems of this kind currently available.
>
>    The specification, called "86open", will be published and freely
>    available to any environment wishing compliance. It involves the use
>    of a standardized libc shared library of basic functions to be
>    provided on all systems. This library will provide a consistent
>    interface to programmers, hiding the differences between the various
>    operating systems and allowing the resulting binary programs to run
>    unaltered on any compliant system. Whenever possible, it will be
>    consistent with The Open Group's Single Unix Specification.
>
>    Each participating operating system will be free to implement the
>    86open library specification on its own. However, the reference
>    implementation will be based upon GNU's glibc version 2, ensuring that
>    it will remain open and freely available. The actual list and behavior
>    of the 86open functions is presently being determined.
>
>    Participants in the meeting, who will be involved with the ongoing
>    evolution of the 86open specification, include people deeply involved
>    with the operating systems mentioned in this project. The 86open
>    steering committee, a core of this group which will assemble the work
>    and produce the final specification, comprises:
>
>    Marc Ewing, Dion Johnson, Evan Leibovitch, Bruce Perens, Andrew Roach,
>    Bryan Sparks and Linus Torvalds
>
>    For more information, contact 86open at telly.org.
> --
> Bruce Perens K6BP   bruce at debian.org   NEW PHONE NUMBER: 510-620-3502



--
Until later:
Geoffrey Myers   geof at abraxis.com