The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced that both Mac OS X Leopard and Mac OS X Server Leopard from Apple Inc. have been awarded a certificate of conformance to the UNIX 03 standard. UNIX 03 is the certification mark for systems conforming to the latest UNIX product standard developed by The Open Group Platform Forum for the Single UNIX Specification version 3. This certification is significant as it further broadens the installed base of UNIX systems in the marketplace to include a popular desktop platform. In addition, Apple's UNIX 03 certification is a milestone for the UNIX certification program since Mac OS X is the first operating system derived from the open source BSD base of historical UNIX products to meet the certification requirements.

The Single UNIX Specification is a set of open specifications that define the requirements for a conformant UNIX system. Operating systems that support the Single UNIX Specification provide a set of standard interfaces allowing the rich catalog of back office and other applications that comply with the specification to be easily ported between the compliant operating systems. With certification of Mac OS X, end users now benefit from such applications available on a range of certified UNIX 03 systems available from major vendors, including Apple, Fujitsu, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun Microsystems.

"For over ten years, the Single UNIX Specification has consistently provided both scalability and stability to end users - one hallmark of a tried and true technology standard," said Allen Brown, president and CEO for The Open Group. "Operating platforms conforming to the UNIX 03 standard assures enterprises with industrial strength products, as well as an opportunity to avoid limited choice in vendor partnership. In achieving UNIX 03 certification, Apple has shown true commitment to its customers in providing open solutions that are warranted and fully supported."