AT&T; Moves to Ease Use of Its Unix Computer System

AT&T; on Monday announced changes to make it easier for customers to use computers based on its Unix operating system.

The new Open Look feature of Unix software will allow users to manipulate the computer with graphic symbols instead of written commands, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. said.

The changes represent another step toward acceptance of Unix in the business world. Until recently, Unix was seen as mainly for science and engineering.

Open Look was designed for AT&T; by Sun Microsystems Inc., the burgeoning maker of engineering workstations based in Mountain View, Calif.

Sun’s design is based on original work, contributions from AT&T; and technology licensed from Xerox Corp., which originated many of the ideas for graphic screen symbols, the companies said.

The Open Look screen somewhat resembles that of Apple Computer’s Macintosh. Apple, famed for the ease of use of its computers, has been fighting to protect its turf and recently sued Microsoft Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. over a software copyright issue.

Apple spokeswoman Brooke Cohan said the company had no comment on the AT&T; announcement.

Unix is a base layer of software in a computer that serves as a traffic cop for its internal operations. Open Look is a “user interface,” which determines the look and feel of a computer to someone sitting at the keyboard.

A wide range of companies endorsed Open Look, including software makers such as Lotus Development Corp., Ashton-Tate Corp. and Oracle Corp.; computer makers such as Unisys Corp., Amdahl Corp. and NCR Corp., and chip makers such as Motorola Inc. and National Semiconductor Corp.

AT&T; will circulate specifications of Open Look for comment starting this summer and will make the available in the year’s third quarter. Software that is written to use Open Look will be available mainly in 1989 and after.