Another Linux distribution...

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Caldera's Love Speaks Of OpenLinux - Profile


September 9, 1998


OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., Newsbytes via NewsEdge Corporation :
Ransom Love, president of Caldera, Inc.'s new Linux operating
system (OS) subsidiary, Caldera Systems, says he does not want
to be a giant-killer, he just wants to take the giant's toe. The
giant would be Microsoft. 

Caldera Systems, like other Linux distributors, believes the
Windows NT network operating system (OS) can be beaten, at
least in specific markets. 

Caldera spun its Linux group off last week into a wholly owned
subsidiary partly to sharpen the group's focus during what it
believes is the coming Linux boom. The Linux group was fighting
other Caldera groups for resources, groups that develop
products for thin client and embedded devices likke DR-DOS,
DR- WebSpyder and the ICA thin client for DR-DOS. 

The Linux group publishes OpenLinux and NetWare for Linux.
Love, the former marketing manager, says he wants to help turn
Linux into a contender in the business arena now, not years
down the road. 

He told Newsbytes Caldera will soon announce a new
"distribution," the term for collections of Linux-plus-software
that commercial Linux houses sell. Caldera's new version of
OpenLinux will include a fully integrated graphical desktop. It will
also be easy to install and work with, Love pledged. 

If he actually makes Linux easy for non-Unix experts to work
with, he believes he can broaden Linux market appeal and with it,
Caldera's market, he told Newsbytes. 

An associate of Love's commented that "Ransom Love" sounds
like a romance novel name but the man himself knows exactly
where he wants to take the new company. A conversation with
Love bore out that assessment. Love comes across as a
businessman, not, as one humorist described the popular image,
"a longhair Linux geek on the Internet." 

The "toe" Love wants to lop off Microsoft's giant is the niche of
value-added resellers (VARs) that serve companies in vertical
markets like medical buildings and hotel chains. VARs usually install
and maintain such companies' networks and Love wants to woo
the VARs, not the vertical markets. It's a matter of focus. 

According to Love, a properly tuned Linux OS can give such
VARs conveniences they never dreamed of, having to do with
flexibility, tweakability, stability and the remote management
capabilities built into Linux at very deep levels. 

One step toward attracting VARs was Caldera's port of NetWare
to Linux, a product announced a couple of months ago
(Newsbytes, July 31, 1998). Love says NetWare on Linux gives
any VAR the means to manage remote NT or other network
architectures at, for example, hotel chains, without leaving the
office or sending technicians out on the road. 

"The key to Linux, like every other technology, is -- it has to be a
total solution," Love says. "It has to be focused on a specific
customer to meet their specific needs. This open source
phenomenon is different because it has become so widely
accepted, but is still a broad, early adopter's market." 

Caldera's OpenLinux does not target early adopters and other
technophiles who have made Red Hat's Linux 5.1 the largest US
distribution. Love would rather appeal to customers who think
about business, not technology, and that, he says, takes a solid,
conservative approach. 

"To make it a real business solution, it has to focus in on a target
customer with a solution that really meets their needs," he says. "
We're going to make Linux the best choice for a VAR who wants
a turnkey solution for customers." 

Love spent years championing Linux and knows the system well.
His battles inside Novell to take Linux into commercial space were
near legendary, and seemed Quixotic to many. Novell was pushing
a commercial Unix version of its own and an upstart freebie like
Linux hardly thrilled the other Novell managers. They didn't want
to hear about Unix-like source code that nobody owned. 

Says Love, "What they (Novell's managers) didn't recognize was,
Linux was a tremendous, powerful tool to level the playing field.
But I will say this -- since then, Novell has, maybe not externally,
but... We know there's interest, let's just say. And I think things
are going to happen on the Novell side in support of Linux soon.
So stay tuned." 

Asked where Caldera will go next, Love says only that Caldera
Systems will announce the improved Caldera distribution formally
in the near future. 

"There are a couple of areas that we're focusing on -- ease of
use, easier to administer, easier to install. Those are the key areas
that will drive our next distribution. It will have more of a business
focus, where we do a lot of the testing, like a kind of partner." 

Love says Caldera will focus in on three areas. First, the
distribution itself, with the easy interface that is about to be
announced. 

Second, Caldera will concentrate for now on the vertical business
server, targeting small to medium sized businesses, work groups
and the turnkey VAR suppliers who must support a variety of
networks. 

Third, says Love, Caldera will offer hands-on training to its
customers. 

"With so many people using Linux in so many locations, we believe
training and related products will be a major portion of our
company moving forward, " Love told Newsbytes. "That includes
24 (hour) 7 (day) support options, training in place and soon,
hands-on support around the globe through the VARs." 

Love says VARs provide and service networks for about 80
percent of small businesses. He believes if he can win over the
VARs, Caldera will be the one for other Linux distributors to try
to catch. 

"There is method to our madness," he declares. 

Caldera Systems and the other Caldera companies are on the
World Wide Web at http://www.caldera.com . 

Reported by Newsbytes News Network:
http://www.newsbytes.com . 

(19980908/WIRES ASIA, NETWORK/CALDERA/PHOTO) 

<<Newsbytes -- 09-08-98>> 


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