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From: korp@atlantis.ees.anl.gov (Peter Korp)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.news
Subject: OpenWindows finally Open!
Message-ID: <1990Nov4.165604.20966@mcs.anl.gov>
Date: 4 Nov 90 16:56:04 GMT
Sender: news@mcs.anl.gov
Distribution: comp.windows.news
Organization: Advanced Computer Application Center, Argonne National Laboratory
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Well... I saw a post about this in comp.windows.x so I assume I may now
break the news to others.

OpenWindows source is now available from Sun Microsystems for a one time
media charge of $995, (I hear it is totally free for Universities). Vendors
can distribute binary ports of OpenWindows for fees ranging from $4-40. The
price is half of this for potential OpenWindows terminal manufacturers. 

I don't know all of the rest of the details, but I have some suggestions
as to how to handle this newfound Openess.

- We need to establish an "MIT" of OpenWindows. By this I mean a place
  where PD ports of OpenWindows to various architectures would be held
  in some kind of Configuration Control and Management. This could be
  a group like Open Vistas, or some other organization.

- We MUST have people do PD ports of OpenWindows. Commercial ports are ok
  but to compete with straight X it has to be free.

- Remember that OpenWindows really competes with X with Display Postscript
  Create a number of benchmarks, like x11perf or xbench, that feature the
  unique capabilities of the OW server.

- We need to help promote the existance of products like FrameMaker 2.1 in
  NeWS and other products like it to follow. How about some of those
  highly talented individuals out there come up with a "killer" NeWS
  application. An app that makes people say they just have to have this
  NeWS stuff. This kind of app could be shareware or PD.

- Ultimately we need to inform the general public, clear up common
  misconceptions(NeWS does not use Display PostScript), and have some type
  of technical support for OW users(comp.windows.news).

Discussions about what a good killer app would be and how/who would implement
it are encouraged.

Cheers,

Peter

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It is amazing how "standard" features of NeWS are constantly showing up in
X with each new revision... just slower.

(Circular windows, PostScript capability, Shared memory for windows, etc....)