Novell Outlines OpenDoc Support At Brainshare '95

Press Release

Five Point Plan Furthers Long Term Commitment to OpenDoc

Salt Lake City, UT--March 20, 1995--At the company's annual Brainshare conference, Novell, Inc. today announced a five point plan for incorporating the OpenDoc component software architecture across the company's broad product lines, including both operating systems and applications. OpenDoc is a software development architecture designed to reduce the complexity of today's software and provide for the creation of distributed, cross-platform components.

"There is a growing demand for components that can be mixed and matched to meet customer's diverse and increasingly specialized needs," said Joe Firmage, vice president of strategic planning for the NetWare Systems Group. "OpenDoc gives developers a powerful model for creating these components and end-users a more effective, modular work environment."

Novell presented the 5 point plan to nearly 6,000 attending developers and industry partners. The key points are outlined below:

Component Development

Novell is committed to supporting OpenDoc and the System Object Model (SOM) in its component development activities. Novell currently supports OLE 2.0, and will continue to do so. OpenDoc's Component Glue technology will give developers who write to OpenDoc transparent support for OLE 2.0. Novell customers will gain the benefits of OpenDoc in their applications, including multiplatform operation, faster performance, a seamless work environment, and task centric computing, while maintaining OLE 2.0 interoperability.

OpenDoc to Ship With NetWare

Novell will ship OpenDoc client system files with NetWare as a primary delivery vehicle to reach customers of all popular desktops. This gives NetWare client users the ability to run component-based OpenDoc applications. This also provides developers who build OpenDoc applications with a huge installed base of potential customers.

Applications

Over time, Novell Applications Group will support OpenDoc parts in its applications and groupware products. This will take place in an evolutionary manner beginning in 1996 and continuing through 1997.

"As we build network-based functionality like communications and collaboration into our applications, portability and cross-platform interoperability become vital," said Mark Calkins, vice president and general manager of Novell Business Applications. "At the same time, customers want applications that are simple, sensible and intuitive. OpenDoc will let us deliver a cross-platform, task-centered computing environment while maintaining support for OLE 2.0."

Compound Document Service

Novell is developing a new service for NetWare called the Compound Document Service (CDS) that will provide comprehensive, network-centered compound document functions for workgroups and enterprises. This service will greatly improve the productivity of customers using OpenDoc and OLE applications by giving them better control of documents on their network. CDS will provide transparent support for OpenDoc and OLE storage models, with attributed content searching and indexing, robust security, and link management and administration as a result of tight integration with NetWare Directory Services.

Ware Development Tools

Over time, OpenDoc will be implemented on UnixWare, Novell's application server operating system, as the primary component model for building UnixWare applications. In conjunction with OpenDoc on OS/2, MacOS and other application operating systems, UnixWare support will further extend OpenDoc's comprehensive multiplatform coverage.

Doc Availability

The OpenDoc for Windows Developers Release One, a pre-release version containing the full OpenDoc 32-bit feature set, will be available by the end of March, 1995. General availability of the OpenDoc for Windows 1.0 SDK will be in fall, 1995.