The Cole Digest, June 14, 1995

With NEXPO (the Newspaper Association's annual technology trade show and conference) looming (it starts a week from Saturday in Atlanta), it seemed like a good time to talk about "open systems."

What is an "open system"? The concept is simple: An open system is one that allows you to replace anything at any time with something new from any supplier.

Our man Chris Feola (the newsroom computer wizard at the WATERBURY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN in Connecticut) has some thoughts on open systems, which we'll share with you this week and next:

In the bad old days, you bought a complete system from a single supplier who provided everything: hardware, software, support -- even headaches. A year or so later, when you decided you needed to add more seats or fonts, you had to go back to that supplier.

Such follow-up conversations often ended with the newspaper folks counting their beans and muttering to one other, "You know, we can get along for a couple of years more with the seats (or fonts, or whatever -- you name it) that we have now."

On paper, an open system ends all that. If your original supplier wants $1000 for a new keyboard (that's not a preposterous figure), you can pick up a computer magazine and order one by mail. For $45. This illustrates the point that the more open a system is -- the more parts that can be replaced by a similar part from multiple suppliers -- the better.

As always, reality interferes with practice. Operating systems provide a good example.

In theory, we want an operating system produced by lots of reputable suppliers. In theory, we want a copy of the source code -- the program that drives the system -- so we can keep going even if the whole world is so shortsighted as to change to something new (and different) next year.

In theory, we want Linux.

Linux is a new version of UNIX, which is itself an industrial-strength operating system mutated into variants by lots of solid suppliers like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun and Novell. Unlike those, Linux is free -- including the source code. You can get the whole shooting match from Tiger Software on a CD-ROM for $24.90, then make as many copies as you like.

A few flies have settled in this ointment, which the Tiger ad openly points out: "Because Linux is almost completely Posix compliant, most programs written for UNIX tend to compile with few or no modifications."

That's right -- you'll be compiling your own word processors, layout software, etc. Translation: You're pretty much on your own when it comes to support. (That's why this stuff is free: It was built by a bunch of chipheads on the Internet.)

That's just the lede on the bad news.

Consider that few suppliers want to run ads saying, "Exactly the same as everybody else's UNIX, including the stuff you can get for free!" So, everybody "improves" their version, and after a couple of decades of improvements, they are all pretty much incompatible.

This makes installing your Sun UNIX software on a DEC VAX running Ultrix -- DEC's UNIX -- so exciting. If you want Ultrix stuff, you have to go to DEC.

Say, isn't this where we started?

Much of the software referred to as open -- Apple System 7, MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, for example -- is actually one kind of proprietary system that has become an industry standard, chiefly because they pretty much come from a single company.

Onward.

\dmc

[THE COLE DIGEST is written by consultant David M. Cole, editor and publisher of the industry newsletter THE COLE PAPERS. The DIGEST is made available to PressLink subscribers every Wednesday at no extra charge. Send comments by e-mail to cole@plink.geis.com. The COLE DIGEST is the property of The Cole Group, a California sole proprietorship. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of The Cole Group is prohibited. Copyright (C) 1995, The Cole Group. Opinions expressed are those of The Cole Group, unless otherwise noted.

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