WHEN six computing powerhouses stood together a month ago and delivered a promise of a truly unified and ''open'' UNIX operating system, the industry considered the proposal lazily and then yawned audibly.
The last thing users want right now is a new consortium promising a ''new'' standard operating system.
The UNIX environment - which is touted by vendors as virtually synonymous with ''open systems'' - at last count had several hundred variants.
For customers, buying into UNIX presents the same degree of political confusion as the United Nations buying into conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
The much talked of ''UNIX wars'' over the past five years, between UNIX International (UI) and the Open Software Foundation (OSF), have all but petered out, with both sides now seemingly patting each other on the back as if they were both winners in the standards conflict.
The truth is, though, that the UNIX wars produced no winners, only casualties.