System?
[Last modified: July 96]

A. Yes it will, at the beginning of 1997. See the X Consortium's announcement
at:

        X Consortium to Transfer X Window System to The Open Group

It is reproduced _in part_ below for your convenience, followed by a related
announcement from The Open Group.

Cambridge, Massachusetts - July 1, 1996 - X Consortium, Inc.
today announced that it would transfer responsibility for the X
Window System to The Open Group at the beginning of next year. "X
is now mainstream technology, and since the first commercial release
in 1986 it has matured to the point where a dedicated consortium is no
longer essential to its on-going support," explains Robert W. Scheifler,
president of the X Consortium. "Our industry will benefit greatly by
continuing and accelerating the convergence of X, Motif and the
Common Desktop Environment (CDE) into a unified technology
stack. This is already well underway with the current CDE-Motif
PST project, operating under the auspices of The Open Group, an
organization that is well positioned to take this technology into the
future." The Open Group will continue their existing work of
publishing, testing and branding products which conform to
international standards, including X.

"As a long standing partner with the X Consortium in the Open
Systems industry, The Open Group supports this decision. On a
personal note, I want to add that the computer industry owes an
enormous debt of gratitude to Bob Scheifler and the X Consortium for
the service they have provided for the last eight years," commented
Jim Bell, CEO of The Open Group. "Their very positive impact on our
industry will continue to be felt for years to come."

As part of this change, X Consortium plans to wind down all
engineering operations at the end of this year. "I have made a
commitment to our members, and to the sponsors of the CDE-Motif
project, to oversee the entire transition process from now until our
current engineering projects are finished and the hand-off is
complete," said Scheifler. The X Consortium will work with its
members and The Open Group to determine whether the organization
should continue on in some reduced fashion.

Broadway, the code name for the next release of the X Window
System, will be completed as planned by the end of the year, and will
be made freely available to the public under the same terms as
previous X Consortium releases. Broadway enables interactive UNIX
and Windows applications to be integrated, unmodified, into HTML
documents and published on World Wide Web servers, using plug-in
technology, and includes network protocols for graphics and audio to
provide remote access to those applications from inside Web
browsers. The Broadway release is expected to be available from
current sources, including worldwide ftp sites and CDROM
distributors.

The X Consortium will fulfill its obligations as prime contractor in The
Open Group's Pre-Structured Technology (PST) project developing
the next release of CDE and Motif. "The plan has always been to
complete both the CDE-Motif project and Broadway by the end of
this year," says Jim Fournier, Director of Engineering. "We are
confident in our ability to deliver as planned."

                   ************************

A related announcement from corpcom@opengroup.com (The Open Group Corporate
Communications) was sent July 1, 1996, an excerpt of which appears below:

     The Open Group Continues to Expand Product and Services Portfolio

                 Leading Open Systems Consortium
                Absorbs X Window System Technology

The Open Group announced today as an addition to its growing portfolio of
products and services, it will assume custodianship for the X Window System
technology, currently owned and managed by the X Consortium.  In its
press release today, the X Consortium also declared that it will continue to
fulfill its obligations as prime contractor in The Open Group CDE Pre-
Structured Technology (PST) project, developing the next releases of CDE and
Motif, scheduled to be completed by year end, and then cease its internal
engineering operations.

"Since its first commercial release in 1986, the X Window System has
matured to the point where a full-scale, dedicated consortium is no longer
essential to the on-going support of the technology," said Robert W. Scheifler,
X Consortium president and founder.  "In light of our existing relationship it
makes sense to fold our ongoing work into The Open Group.  Furthermore,
given the overlapping membership of the two organizations, this move will
greatly streamline and enhance the process of defining open standards."