Not entirely true. If you want to mess around with this stuff
using unencumbered technology, check out ILU:
ftp://parcftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html
What's ILU?
The Inter-Language Unification system (ILU) is a multi-language object
interface system. The object interfaces provided by ILU hide
implementation distinctions between different languages, between
different address spaces, and between operating system types. ILU can
be used to build multi-lingual object-oriented libraries ("class
libraries") with well-specified language-independent interfaces. It
can also be used to implement distributed systems. It can also be used
to define and document interfaces between the modules of
non-distributed programs. ILU interfaces are specified in ILU's
Interface Specification Language.
...
One of the implementation goals of ILU is to maximize compatibility
with existing open standards. As a result, ILU provides support for
use of the OMG CORBA IDL interface description language, and can be
thought of as a CORBA ORB system (though with omissions from and
extensions to the CORBA spec). As another result, ILU includes a
self-contained implementation of ONC RPC, and it is possible to
describe and use existing RPC services as ILU objects. ILU is
available free from `ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/ilu/ilu.html'.
Dan