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Linux and Business


Caldera and SCO: it's official. Caldera Systems and SCO announced this week the purchase deal that has been rumored for some time now. LWN attended the "analyst conference call" on the merger; here's what we were able to pick up.

The deal itself is as follows. Caldera Systems will pick up the Server Software and Professional Services divisions of SCO. A new holding company, called simply "Caldera, Inc." will be created to take possession of the new groups. Ransom Love will be Caldera Inc.'s CEO, while David McCrabb from SCO will become the President and COO. What SCO gets out of the deal is 28% of Caldera, Inc., $7 million in cash, and an $18 million loan from the Canopy Group, the major stockholder in Caldera. SCO also retains the "OpenServer revenue stream", even though it is Caldera that "will have exclusive distribution rights for the SCO OpenServer product line, and is fully committed to servicing and supporting the SCO OpenServer customer base."

SCO will also hold on to its outside investments, such as the stake in LinuxMall.com.

Caldera's plan is to build a unified product line out of its current Linux offerings and SCO's products. They see Linux as being best suited to the lower end systems, while UnixWare works better at the high end, especially in clustering applications. In general, SCO's clustering seems to be Caldera's path into this very competitive area. Caldera also has high hopes for Monterey as the high-end system for the IA-64 architecture. In all of these cases, they emphasize that there will be a single API for developers to use - the Linux API.

Caldera also gets SCO's channels and its large list of customers. SCO's logos are also part of the deal, leading to the question of what the remainder of SCO will call itself. They had no answer to that, but pointed out that "Tarantella, Inc." already exists; since Tarantella will be the core of SCO's operation now, there is an obvious name change there.

Will SCO's products be released as open source? Caldera's answer was, at best, ambiguous. There was a lot of talk about "source access" licenses - meaning, perhaps, that if you license the products you can get at the source but not redistribute it. Caldera also devoted a lot of words to how it gives back to the community, so it's clear they feel some pressure there. But it's not clear how they will respond.

Needless to say, Caldera is upbeat about the deal. They claim that the company is now the first to show a truly coherent Linux business model with a clear path to profitability. Time will tell...

(For more information, see this SEC filing from Caldera, which covers most of the important parts of the deal. Also some of the less important points: "Both companies will continue to use the SCO Cafeteria in Santa Cruz. Ingrid and her staff will continue to produce their tasty creations.")

Linux on IBM's S/390. Here is the formal announcement from IBM of its new pricing structure for Linux on the S/390.

For those using Linux on the S/390, Computer Associates announced that it is making "a comprehensive suite of eBusiness management software" available, including Unicenter, MasterIT, Ingres, ARCserv, and eTrust, and BMC Software has announced that its "PATROL" and "Knowledge Module" system management tools are available with a free trial period offer.

More Red Hat News. Singapore based Donovan Systems will bundle Red Hat Linux on its 64 bit hardware systems.

Red Hat, Inc. completed the acquisition of WireSpeed Communications Corporation Inc.

Red Hat and Ericsson have announced a deal to jointly develop a range of consumer products oriented around home communications. The first such product will be Ericsson's "Cordless Screen Phone," due to be available by the end of this year.

Aug. 4 is Last Day for Nominations. A position is being made available, for the second year, to the Linux development/Open Source community on the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC), paid for by Vovida Networks. Nominations for the position are open until August 4. A list of nominees will be posted Monday, August 7, 2000 at Vovida's web site.

Set-top Boxes. Bluepoint Linux Software Corp. has announced the signing of a letter of intent to develop a Chinese Linux system for a new set top box to be deployed by Bridge Group.

Coollogic announced the availability of a new, Linux-based set-top box designed to enable Internet access via a television set.

Press Releases:

Commercial Products for Linux.

  • LinuxSolve, Inc. (SANTA CLARA, Calif.) announced the vHost secure server appliance, a secure Linux-based virtual hosting solution.

  • Loki Software has announced a deal with Epic Games wherein Loki will maintain and support the Linux version of Unreal Tournament.

  • SteelEye Technology has announced the launch of a high-availability version of the Apache web server. It includes fault detection and failover capabilities to keep a site up even when individual servers fail. It's supported on Caldera and Red Hat.

  • TurboLinux has announced the launch of "TurboLinux DataServer," a version of its distribution with IBM's DB2 integrated. Cost is $2500.

Products Using Linux.

  • RSA Security Inc. (BEDFORD, Mass.) announced that the NetMAX division of Cybernet Systems Corporation has licensed RSA BSAFE Crypto-C security software for inclusion in its NetMAX family of Linux-based Internet appliance software.

Products with Linux Versions.

  • Compaq Computer Corporation (HOUSTON) introduced the StorageWorks RAID Array 4100 SAN.

  • Digitex Technology Services, Inc. (St. Louis, Missouri) has a number of products with Linux versions, and will soon introduce 1U and 2U rackmount Linux firewalls. The line of Linux products can be found at www.digitex.cc/Products/.

  • Engineous Software Inc. (MORRISVILLE, N.C.) added Linux support for iSIGHT 5.5; integration, automation, and design improvement software.

  • Mentalix Inc. (PLANO, Texas) is now shipping Pixel!FX 2000, an imaging and scanning product line.

  • Piranha, Inc. (DALLAS) announced its streaming media technology, Piranha Stream.

  • Port25 Solutions, Inc. (ELLICOTT CITY, Md.) announced PowerMTA, a Message Transfer Agent (MTA) primarily for delivering large volumes of outbound Email messages.

  • ViewSonic Corporation (WALNUT, Calif.) announced it is unveiling Internet appliances that will be bundled with AT&T WorldNet Service.

Java Products.

  • FatWire (MINEOLA, N.Y.) announced the release of UpdateEngine 5, a platform for e-business.

Books & Training.

  • O'Reilly has released the third edition of the book Programming Perl. "Any Perl book can show the syntax of Perl's functions, but only "The Camel Book" is a comprehensive guide to all the nooks and crannies of the language."

  • Boston University Corporate Education Center has partnered with CIW to offer its clients the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) program.

  • Wave Technologies (ST. LOUIS) adds boot camps in IT Security, Oracle 8i Dba, Java, And Internet Technologies.

Partnerships.

  • Collab.Net (SAN FRANCISCO) and SkillsVillage.com announced a strategic alliance in which Collab's SourceXchange will link with SkillsVillage.com's solution.

  • Extended Systems (Boise, IDAHO), provider of Linux-based Internet access solutions, has been accepted as an Associate member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

  • Force Computers (SAN JOSE, Calif.) announced the "Running with Force" third-party alliance program to supply communications equipment manufacturers with a range of embedded solutions. Current Force partners include LynuxWorks and MontaVista Software Inc.

  • Inprise/Borland (SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.) announced that InterBase 6.0 is shipping with Cobalt Network's RaQ 4r.

  • InterLan Technologies (RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.) selected Caldera Systems to provide the Linux operating systems in its Internet Utility Center.

  • Linuxcare, Inc. (SAN FRANCISCO) has teamed with Compaq Computer Corporation through the Compaq Solutions Alliance program to simplify Linux installation on Alpha servers with the introduction of Linux Jumpstart! CD.

  • LinuxDevices reports on the merger of LynuxWorks, Inc. (Blue Cat Linux) and ISDCorp (Royal Linux). "It significantly increases the size and scope of the LynuxWorks' professional services organization, thereby enabling them to better support the needs of customers who choose to develop Linux-based products. In addition, LynuxWorks will now have Linux support for a wider variety of target processors including ARM and MIPS."

  • OnCore Systems Corporation (HALF MOON BAY, Calif.) announced support for International Business Machine's new line of PowerPC 405 embedded processors.

  • Qualys, Inc. (SUNNYVALE, Calif.) is integrating SecurityFocus.com vulnerability information as part of its QualysGuard service.

  • SiliconPenguin.com has announced a partnership with LinuxDevices.com; it seems to involve the use of news from LinuxDevices on the SiliconPenguin site.

  • SuSE Linux AG and Trustix (Nuremberg, Germany and Trondheim, Norway) announced a partnership to ensure that XPloy is compatible with SuSE Linux.

  • Syrinex Communications Corporation (BUFFALO, N.Y.) announced an agreement with Barrister Global Services Network. Barrister will provide field installation and support services throughout North America for Syrinex's Linux-based NexServer line of Internet server appliances.

Investments and Acquisitions.

  • Inprise/Borland has evidently been talking with another company about selling InterBase, at the same time that it has been open-sourcing the product. Now the company has announced that those talks are over, and InterBase will not be sold.

  • Linuxcare has announced the completion of a new round of funding: $30 million from Dell, Motorola, Sun and ITOCHU International.

Financial Results.

Personnel.

  • Data Mirror has appointed Mr. Wayne Howard as its new vice president and CFO.

Linux At Work.

  • 3Dgeo has purchased a 32 node linux cluster from NetworX for processing seismic data. "3DGeo Development, Inc., a leading innovator in 3-D advanced seismic imaging technology, has purchased a 32-processor cluster system from Linux NetworX to use in its high computation data processing application. According to 3DGeo, the high performance computing market is experiencing a paradigm shift from traditional supercomputers and large parallel servers to Linux cluster systems."

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.


August 3, 2000

 

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