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| Caldera Hardening Linux for the Enterprise; Tried to "Guillotine" SCO Brand, "Kill SCO Product Line" |
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Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 08:13 PM EST
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Will you take a look at this? A reader, Graham Walter, has found another SCO/Caldera press release on the theme of Caldera encouraging customers and partners to use Linux instead of Unix. This one is from 2001, titled "Business Critical Linux®
Platform (BCLP) Initiative Delivers Industrial-Strength, Certified OpenLinux
Capabilities On Stable Intel®-Architecture Platforms". That places it, in SCO's timeline in its Memorandum in Opposition to IBM's Motion for Summary Judgment on SCO's Interference Claims, as post-IBM's early contributions to Linux in 2000. And it is announcing a joint effort by Caldera International and ICS, something the two called a "Business Critical Linux Platform initiative" which would "assure hardened Linux performance and
deployability for demanding network, Web and enterprise-level server applications." Well, well. Hardening Linux performance for the enterprise, as I live and breathe. What a concept. Isn't that what SCO charges IBM was wrongfully doing? But this press release shows Caldera did the exact same thing, and it did it in 2001, after it purchased Santa Cruz's Unix assets and after it knew IBM had begun making contributions to Linux. Not only that, but Groklaw member hardmath found this August 27, 2002 Linux Journal article by Jeff Gerhardt, about the name change from Caldera to The SCO Group. He wrote, "Over the last year or so, Caldera has tried to kill the SCO product line and get the channel to sell Linux." I'd say SCO has some 'splainin' to do to the court as to why it said it never encouraged customers or partners to use Linux instead of Unix.
Here's more from the article: Monday, during his opening comments, new Caldera CEO and President Darl McBride announced the name change of the company from Caldera to The SCO Group in dramatic fashion. Using a high-tech multimedia show, the Caldera image was shattered into shards by the new SCO Group logo, which is pretty much the same as the old SCO logo.
So why did Caldera morph into The SCO Group? It's business folks, just business. Let's look at the facts, and let's start with the channel-oriented ones.
Caldera obtained their reseller channel by purchasing SCO. The size of that reseller channel is somewhere between 12,000 and 16,000, depending on how you quantify the reseller. These 14,000 (let's split the difference) resellers of Caldera/SCO products around the world were still selling SCO UNIX products in preference to Caldera Linux products. Why? Simple: they made more money and it was easier. Their existing client base had some two million SCO servers installed, and they were happy. Over the last year or so, Caldera has tried to kill the SCO product line and get the channel to sell Linux. But the channel was built upon a momentum of SCO UNIX and would not stop. Bottom line, the change was driven by the pressure created by the channel itself.
I originally thought it was a great move on Caldera's part to purchase SCO and create a new revenue branch. But the attempt to transition the SCO channel into a Linux channel was pushed too quickly. It should have been driven by customer demand, not marketing. And here's confirmation, from a Desktop Linux article, "Revenge of the UNIX Nerds: McBride Shoots, Will He Score?," on the same date, about the same name change announcement and the reason it happened:
Unseen by the outside world, SCO's customer base just kept going, and going, and going.Despite Caldera's vigorous efforts to guillotine the SCO brand, revolutionary fervor was not contagious. While Caldera Linux was losing three dollars for every dollar earned, SCO's UNIXes were making a profit. Safely flourishing in several vertical markets (MacDonalds, NASDAQ), they have a loyal customer base and active consulting community.
Once his work to establish UnitedLinux was done, Ransom Love closed the circle by announcing his successor, Darl McBride. McBride has lost no time in taking a hard look at the company's assets. The result is that voices long calling for a revived emphasis on SCO products have won the day.
So, what have we here? Caldera tried to kill off SCO's Unix products, in favor of Linux, these two articles tell us, but it didn't succeed. So it flopped over to pushing Unix instead of Linux in 2002: Just as Borland earned a standing ovation from its community for dumping Inprise, the meaningless monicker which cost $2 million, SCO's community came to its feet when McBride told them that SCO is back, and bigger. Dressed in a Harley jacket, black jeans and wraparound sunglasses, he compared the new SCO Group's strategy to the same formula which brought the American motorcycles back to world renown.
SCO's revived relationship with its users assures them that its UNIXes will receive regular updates. But McBride's slides dropped the name 'Caldera Linux' for SCO Linux, a point which clearly caused confusion among the Caldera/SCO executive ranks. Some executives were clearly under the impression that the Caldera name would be retained, and others were convinced that SCO would soon return to the desktop in a big way.
The result is that while the SCO name has been retained to benefit from the heritage and solid reputation of its products, the Caldera brand has been damaged, if not dumped. Caldera Linux was the first widely recognized distribution with a friendly, intelligent installer, the first to gain acceptance as a business desktop.
The thing about history is, you can't actually change it, as SCO is finding out the hard way. But what about its "experts"? Did they explain all this to the court? Do their calculations include this history?
Not only that, but the 2001 press release announces that Linux was already the second most popular operating systems in the server market, "second only to Microsoft". In 2001.
And who was SCO Group in 2001? It was Caldera, actively promoting Linux in the enterprise, and therefore perfectly positioned to benefit directly from any and all contributions IBM made to Linux. And look at it from IBM's point of view back then. It had to think it was helping Caldera, not hurting it, because it was helping them by improving their products, since the contributions were made under the GPL. How could IBM know that later Caldera would later pull a switcheroo and emphasize Unix while deprecating Linux? How can IBM be fairly accused of trying to destroy Unix to Caldera's harm, when Caldera itself was trying to do that very thing? And the press release says clearly: Caldera’s products based on the 2.4 Linux kernel offer superior
robustness for multi-tasking and an inherently small footprint that provides
an ideal alternative for implementing dedicated network servers and
application-specific communications platforms. They call their product "an ideal alternative" ... to what? Windows and Unix, presumably, so is it true that SCO Group, then Caldera, never encouraged customers and partners to use Linux instead of Unix? Did Caldera benefit from IBM's Linux contributions, would you say? If IBM was helping Linux to be useful in the enterprise, how could that not dovetail with Caldera's marketing goals, which were to sell Linux to the enterprise and kill off SCO products and brand? What kind of experts could miss that? It's like shooting goldfish.
The press release is still on SCO's site, although for how long is yet to be seen. The quickest way to kill SCO content, in my experience, is to put it on Groklaw.
Now, SCO also told the court in its Memorandum that in 1999, prior to IBM's 2000 contributions, Linux didn't compete with SCO Unix: 14. The reason for this swift impact on SCO’s business was that IBM’s disclosures to the Linux community enabled Linux to be used within corporations for the same functions as SCO’s UNIX operating systems. (Ex. 284 at 52; Ex. 286 at 31, 39; Ex. 281 at 54-56.)
REDACTED
15. In 1999, prior to IBM’s disclosures, Linux had not been used for these functions and did not compete with SCO’s UNIX operating systems. The truth is, this uncovered evidence shows Caldera moved mountains to make it do exactly that. Here's an interview Groklaw member IANAL found, speaking of 1999, from that very year, an interview with Lyle Ball, who had moved from Caldera to Lineo when it was spun off: Lyle: Well, one of the reasons was Caldera Systems has been very effective in building a solid brand around OpenLinux. OpenLinux is known as "Linux for Business", and it's got this corporate and trusting feel to it. There may be weaknesses the product has, as all products have strengths and weaknesses, but its strength is that it has a solid name in the business community. Caldera has spent--I don't know if they have ever disclosed how much--an insane amount of money in advertising and other promotion to build Linux itself and OpenLinux as acceptable in a business setting. Folks, this is too easy. With that, here's
the press release, so you don't have to visit SCO's website unless you want to, with more quotable quotes: ******************************
Business Critical Linux® Platform (BCLP) Initiative Delivers
Industrial-Strength, Certified OpenLinux Capabilities On Stable
Intel®-Architecture Platforms
Joint Efforts of Caldera International and ICS Advent Provide “Bulletproof”
Linux On Intel Architecture Bundled Solutions that are Ideal for Hosting
Edge/Access Point Solutions in Network, Web & Enterprise Server Deployments
Joint Efforts of Caldera International and ICS Advent Provide “Bulletproof”
Linux On Intel Architecture Bundled Solutions that are Ideal for Hosting
Edge/Access Point Solutions in Network, Web & Enterprise Server Deployments
Santa Cruz, CA – August 20, 2001 – Caldera International Inc. (Nasdaq: CALD)
and ICS Advent announced an on-going joint development and marketing effort
focused on providing certified Linux OS, server and network management
software running on ICS Advent Omnix LS industrial PC platforms optimized to
take advantage of the performance, stability and scalability of Intel®
Architecture. Known as the Business Critical Linux Platform (BCLP) initiative,
the joint effort brings together industry leaders in open-systems software and
applied-computing platforms with state-of-the-art microprocessor and
communications I/O technology, to assure hardened Linux performance and
deployability for demanding network, Web and enterprise-level server applications.
The recent explosion of interest in open operating system software and the
widespread development of Linux-based applications have turned Linux into a
major mainstream force in the computer and communications industries.
According to International Data Corporation, Linux has already become one of
the most widely used operating platforms in the server market, second only to
Microsoft. Caldera’s products based on the 2.4 Linux kernel offer superior
robustness for multi-tasking and an inherently small footprint that provides
an ideal alternative for implementing dedicated network servers and
application-specific communications platforms.
“The BCLP initiative complements Caldera’s established leadership in providing
rigorously tested, certified and fully-supported Linux and UNIX software
products,” said Ransom Love, CEO of Caldera International, Inc. “Linux has
achieved phenomenal success because of the global open-systems development
model, which allows multiple developers to access, modify and generally
broadcast improvements in the source code. However, for business critical
applications, it is equally important to proactively manage revision levels to
assure on-going stability and to provide comprehensive support for fully
productized software distributions. Caldera’s OpenLinux operating system and
integrated applications, along with our unique Volution networked management
tools, create an ideal software environment, which has been fully tested and
certified on ICS Advent’s Omnix LS hardware platforms.”
According to Chris Rezendes, ICS Advent vice president and general manager,
“The pressure to find new sources of revenue and productivity is driving a
fundamental shift in investment and development emphasis from the network core
to the network edge. Companies working at the edge of the enterprise and
infrastructure networks have extreme pressures to quickly deliver new revenue
and profit-generating services, which require high performance, stable,
scalable platforms backed up by the best software migration and hardware
integration services available. These are primary factors driving interest in
and demand for Linux on Intel Architecture bundled solutions and support
services. The BCLP initiative is designed to meet the needs of infrastructure
OEMs, independent systems integrators, next generation service providers and
enterprise end-users developing on and deploying at the edge. Essentially, the
BCLP initiative is all about providing Linux on Intel Architecture standard
products, certified solutions and world-class professional services within the
framework of a single source environment.”
“We believe the rapid growth of Linux applications represents an opportunity
for deployment of embedded Intel Architecture solutions,” said Joe Jensen,
general manager, Embedded Intel Architecture Division. “As market demand for
high-performance, reliable and scalable Linux servers continues to escalate
across a wide range of applications, Intel intends to provide the fundamental
processor technologies.”
Having worked closely together for a number of months to define market
requirements and develop product specifications, Caldera and ICS Advent will
be demonstrating initial product capabilities at Caldera Forum in Santa Cruz,
CA during the week of August 20, 2001. Formal product introductions are
planned for the near future.
About Caldera International, Inc.
Caldera International (Nasdaq: CALD) is the leader in "Unifying UNIX with
Linux for Business." Based in Orem, UT, Caldera has representation in 82
countries and has 15,000+ resellers worldwide. For more information on Caldera
products and services, visit http://www.caldera.com
About ICS Advent
Founded in 1985, ICS Advent has been the premiere supplier of
industrial-strength applied computing solutions and comprehensive integration
and support services for more than 15 years, serving customers in the
networking, telephony, computer, medical and industrial automation & control,
and industrial test & measurement. Building on this rich heritage, ICS Advent
has expanded its market focus to become a leader in Open Communication System
(OCS) solutions, such as IP telephony, telecommunications, voice processing
and broadcasting/convergence.
ICS Advent products, solutions and services are available through the
company’s worldwide distribution network of authorized integration partners
and its direct sales channels. Customers can also order products online at
www.icsadvent.com or by calling an ICS Advent sales representative at (800)
523-2320. The company has ISO-certified facilities in San Diego, Calif. and
Chichester, UK.
For More Information, contact:
[redacted]
Caldera, OpenLinux, UnixWare, Open UNIX, Caldera Volution and “Unifying UNIX
with Linux for Business” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Caldera
International, Inc. All other products, services, companies, events and
publications are trademarks, registered trademarks or servicemarks of their
respective owners in the U.S. and/or other countries.
LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
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| Authored by: UncleVom on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 08:27 PM EST |
| b
roadcom_csr_bluetooth_lawsuit [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: ohc on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 08:33 PM EST |
I continue to be amazed by how short-sighted (and clueless?) Caldera/SCO have
been.
Never mind the fact that they must know that someone, somewhere will have a copy
of everything that they have published. But to keep something like this on their
publicly available web site is completely bonkers (for them, but fantastic for
the rest of us).
I'm reminded of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, methinks SCO should find
something else to wear.....
ohc
Engineer and Linux user (and proud of it)[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Ed L. on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 08:34 PM EST |
| "To err is human. To really foul things up requires... oh,
wait."
---
"Just what part of 'Final Disclosures' do you not understand?"
~ The Hon. Brooke C. Wells in a Nutshell [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 09:35 PM EST |
Did IBM ask for all Caldera press releases?
Did SCO provide them?
Can they be introduced as evidence now? If they have not
already been submitted?
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 09:49 PM EST |
SCO appears in its own words, as Corel, to exonerate and encourage IBM behavior
and cast aspersions on its own. Is this getting close to fraud, extortion or
some other criminal act? [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: pooky on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 09:53 PM EST |
So this is what I see:
Caldera pushed Linux, tries to get everyone to stop using SCO Unix.
Ransome Love hands company to Darl McBride.
Darl reverses this course and pushes SCO Unix over Linux to make money. Renames
Caldera to The SCO Group.
Except, the business community starts to adopt Linux more readily since the OS
is gaining in features and reliability.
SCO starts making less and less money on their products because their own
customers start doing what Caldera wanted them to do.
Darl says "hey what's this Project Monterrey thing and why aren't we
selling it?"
TSG is now losing money again, Darl decides they need to get rid of Linux as a
competitor. Microsoft agrees.
So, SCO threatens Linux users, sues IBM, gets funding for this from Microsoft,
and convinces an unknown number of Linux users to pay for the priviledge of not
being sued by SCO.
SCO convinces the RBC (with Microsoft's help) to get a huge influx of cash to
fund the lawsuit. Says it has mountains of evidence and there are millions of
lines of direct copying. Supposedly shows this to RBC and some "industry
analysts" who signed an NDA and agreed to stump for SCO in exchange for
who-knows-what.
The entire affair becomes a legal quagmire and very emberassing to SCO and their
supporters, who start reversing their positions.
RBC pulls out of the investment. SCO cannot obtain more investment because no
one is convinced any longer that SCO can win.
Some analysts just go away entirely. Some resort to wholly inappropriate and
personal attacks against Groklaw's founder for reporting the truth.
SCO has long past the point of being able to back away from the lawsuit as it is
their only hope for a future as a business.
And now we are here, with proof of all of this.
---
Many Bothans died to bring us this information.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 10:03 PM EST |
SCO is toast. Burnt toast.
How responsible are SCO's lawyers for making the claims they have done? Did they
not sign the claims made by SCO. Could they get into trouble?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 10:26 PM EST |
Has Lyle Ball, Caldera's CEO (before it changed its name to SCOg) ever been
deposed by IBM?
As Caldera's CEO and founder, it would seem the Lyle Ball's testimony would kill
many of SCO's lies to the court.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 10:26 PM EST |
...that the current (mis)management at The SCO Group really and truly didn't
know what Caldera had been up to? I mean, McBride had been at Franklin Covey,
PointService, etc. companies where his duties may not have kept him up-to-date
with the goings-on of Linux/Unix.
Although, I would have thought Ralph Yarro would have been paying attention,
given all the money they were giving Caldera.
And it must be remembered that press releases and analysis by "industry
analysts" are not always in agreement with the facts, as we have seen many
times in this case.
If the whole thing was Darl's idea, I might could see him going off on this
thing without doing any research into just what Caldera's business activities
had been in the past. I might, if not for Yarro's knowledge of Caldera's
activities. He could have stopped this whole thing, but has let it go on.
McBride might wish to re-think his friendship with Yarro. It seems like he's
been sold down the river.
I don't think I would trust Yarro in any business venture. Obviously the
Noorda's didn't.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: cr on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 10:29 PM EST |
Dressed in a Harley jacket, black jeans and wraparound
sunglasses, he compared the new SCO Group's strategy to the same formula which
brought the American motorcycles back to world
renown.
Harley-Davidson went to Congress crying that
American motorcyclists were buying Japanese bikes, with their superior and
innovative engineering, over Harley's (the ones with the oil-drip pans placed
under the engines of the bikes in the showrooms), and got a tariff enacted on
imported bikes 700cc and over, thus jacking up the sticker price on their direct
competition.
Caldera/NewSCO didn't quite have the 'Americana' cachet for
that, so they had to resort to gaming the courts instead of
Congress. ---
GROKLAW: "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if
not for you meddling kids!" [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 06 2007 @ 11:02 PM EST |
>>
Caldera International (Nasdaq: CALD) is the leader in "Unifying UNIX with
Linux for Business."
Caldera, OpenLinux, UnixWare, Open UNIX, Caldera Volution and “Unifying UNIX
with Linux for Business” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Caldera
International, Inc.
<<
Gotta love scox's old *trademark* "Unifying UNIX with Linux for
Business"
>>
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other
countries.
<<
What? I thought scox was the owner of the Unix operating system? How can this
"open group" own the trademark?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: crs17 on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 12:49 AM EST |
I'm a little confused. We at Groklaw have gone on a spree the last few days of
tracking down SCO's (and its predecessor's) past statements about the future of
linux and unix.
On one hand, this is great for fleshing out the public record and exposing SCO's
FUD against linux.
But on the other hand, I imagine none of this can be used by IBM's (or Novell's)
lawyers because discovery is over in both of those trials. Am I right or is
there a way these past statements can get into the trial record?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: kawabago on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 01:59 AM EST |
First SCO failed as a linux vendor.
Then SCO failed as a unix vendor.
Now SCO fails to blame it's failures on anyone else.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 02:01 AM EST |
This may have been reported one or more times before, but
http://www.c
omputeruser.com/articles/2202,2,1,3,0201,03.html
is a Feb 2003 interview
with McBride in (and others) in "Computer User," where he is also pumping
Linux
WB[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 03:29 AM EST |
http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2007/01/mozillas_529m_i.html
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: IMANAL on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 03:35 AM EST |
IIRC, SCO had a contract responsability to market and sell
Novell's UNIX as their, Novell's, principal agent to the
market.
Then, to state publicly that they have tried to kill it...
That doesn't make sense.
(But, on the other hand, they soon enough did start market
UNIX actively again.)
---
--------------------------
IM Absolutely Not A Lawyer[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: stomfi on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 03:49 AM EST |
Caldera also supported Linux on the AI64
<a
href="http://news.com.com/Caldera+joins+Linux-on-Itanium+race/2100-1001_3-2
44167.html">Caldera on Itanium</a>
Here is a 2000 press release with an interesting <a href=
"http://ir.sco.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=38479">Forward
Looking Statement</a>
And here is another article where Caldera Linux ships with IBM E-Commerce
features
<a href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2318.html"Caldera
Linux eServer To Feature IBM E-Commerce Products</a>[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: gwalter on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 04:14 AM EST |
It's not just Caldera. Old SCO were at it as well.
"We're the leading provider of UNIX server systems and a longtime supporter
and supplier of Open Source technologies," said Mike Orr, senior vice
president of Marketing, SCO. "We look forward to furthering the
relationship with Caldera by working together on initiatives that bring Linux
and UNIX closer together."
Since at that time old SCO were the "owners" of the Unix IP
(according to new SCO), they don't seem to have had a very responsible attitude
to it :-)
INDUSTRY LEADERS INVEST IN CALDERA SYSTEMS, INC.
Sun, Citrix, Novell, SCO, Egan-Managed Capital and Chicago Venture Partners Take
Equity Positions in Linux Company
OREM, UT January 10, 2000 Caldera Systems, Inc., today announced that it has
received $30 million in private equity financing from technology and investment
leaders including:
* Sun Microsystems, Inc.
* Citrix
* Novell
* SCO
* Chicago Venture Partners
* Egan-Managed Capital
Caldera Systems will use the capital provided by these investors to fund
operations and accelerate the growth and acceptance of Linux. "We are
encouraged by the support of these technology leaders which we take as an
endorsement of the Linux industry as a whole and the Open Source movement in
particular and we look forward to their strategic counsel," said Ransom
Love, President and CEO of Caldera Systems, Inc. "Given our strategic goal
of enabling access to any application on any platform with any device, an
investment in a Linux company such as Caldera makes perfect sense,"
according to John Cunningham, Citrix Chief Financial Officer.
"Sun's investment in Caldera is a testament to our support of Open
computing," said Jonathan Schwartz, vice president of Sun's Equity
Investment Portfolio.
"We're the leading provider of UNIX server systems and a longtime supporter
and supplier of Open Source technologies," said Mike Orr, senior vice
president of Marketing, SCO. "We look forward to furthering the
relationship with Caldera by working together on initiatives that bring Linux
and UNIX closer together."
"Novell is the broadest supplier of Net infrastructure software," said
Carl Ledbetter, Novell senior vice president for business and corporate
development. "We look forward to working with Caldera in the Linux market
to create new platform options for our customers and new opportunities for our
business."
Caldera Systems Board of Directors
With these investments, Caldera will be adding four seasoned executives to its
Board of Directors, including: Ed Iacobucci, chairman and chief technology
officer of Citrix and John Egan, former executive vice president of EMC
Corporation and current general partner of Egan-Managed Capital.
"Caldera's position in Linux market attracted us to this investment,"
noted John Egan of Egan-Managed Capital. "We look forward to broadening
their presence in this emerging market."
Caldera Systems, Inc.
Caldera Systems, Inc. designs, develops and markets Linux-based business
solutions, including OpenLinux, NetWare for Linux, Linux technical training,
certification and support. Caldera Systems is a leader in, and supporter of
Linux Standard Base (LSB) and Linux Professional Institute (LPI). Caldera
Systems offers a comprehensive line of services including on-site consulting,
24x7 support-up to and including-on-site board swap. Caldera Systems Authorized
Linux Education Centers (ALECs) offer distribution-neutral Linux training and
certification based on LPI certification standards. For information on Caldera
Systems education and training, visit www.linuxeducation.com. Caldera Systems,
Inc. is based in Orem, UT., with offices and 950+ resellers worldwide. Please
visit Caldera Systems at www.calderasystems.com. In the US, please call
888-GO-Linux (888-465-4689). In Europe, please call (801) 765-4999 or contact us
via E-mail at linux@calderasystems.com. To become an OpenLinux reseller, please
visit www.calderasystems.com/partners/var.
About Chicago Venture Partners
Chicago Venture Partners (CVP) is a venture capital firm investing in growth
stage technology companies in the United States. CVP is licensed as a small
business investment company and, together with affiliated entities, manages more
than $45 million. The technology emphasis includes the Internet, software, IT
Services and telecommunications industries. During its first five quarters of
investment activity, CVP provided expansion capital to seven companies,
including Caldera Systems, IKANO Communications, PowerQuest Corporation,
Streamline Solutions, Perceptual Robotics, Alert Cellular and OpenOrders.
Chicago Venture Partners is actively seeking additional investment
opportunities. John Fife, its founder and managing general partner, can be
reached by telephone at (312) 297-7000 or via e-mail at
info@chicagoventure.com.
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. is the global leader in application-server software and
services that offer "Digital IndependenceTM" - the ability to run any
application on any device over any connection, wireless to Web. Citrix's
solutions enable organizations of all types, from major enterprises to emerging
Application Service Providers (ASPs), to reach more users, with more
applications, in more locations - and achieve this with record speed, greater
predictability and lower costs. Founded in 1989, Citrix today is one of the
world's fastest-growing software companies, with more than 100,000 customers
worldwide, including 99 of FORTUNE 100 firms. Its products, including
MetaFrameTM software and Independent Computing Architecture (ICAâ), a core
application-server technology, have been widely adopted by the corporate
mainstream to achieve key business goals. The firm, which markets its solutions
through value-added resellers, system integrators and OEM licensees, is
headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Citrix is traded on the Nasdaq National
Market under the symbol CTXS and was recently named to the Standard & Poor's
500 Index. For more information, please visit the Citrix Web site at
http://www.citrix.com
About Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL)
Novell, Inc. is the broadest supplier of Net infrastructure software used to
manage and integrate the diverse resources of private business networks and the
Internet. Novell's consulting, developer, education and technical support
programs are the most extensive in the network computing industry. For
information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact
Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's
Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and
company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom.
About SCO
SCO (NASDAQ: SCOC), is a global leader in server-based software for networked
business computing. SCO is the world's number one provider of UNIX server
operating systems, and the leading provider of network computing software that
enables clients of all kinds - including PCs, graphical terminals, NCs, and
other devices - to have Webtop access to business-critical applications running
on servers of all kinds. SCO designed Tarantella software, the world's first
web-enabling software for network computing. SCO sells and supports its products
through a worldwide network of distributors, resellers, systems integrators, and
OEMs. For more information, see SCO's home page at www.sco.com.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - The Network Is The Computerä --
has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a
leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that
power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to ".com" their
businesses. With $12.4 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than
170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Caldera Systems, Inc. is a Canopy Group holding under the Ray Noorda/Canopy
Group Investment Company. Ray Noorda is the former CEO of Novell, Inc.
(NASDAQ:NOVL)
Caldera is a registered trademark of Caldera, Inc. All other products, services,
companies, events and publications are trademarks, registered trademarks or
servicemarks of their respective owners in the U.S. and/or other countries.
LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
SCO, The Santa Cruz Operation, the SCO logo and Tarantella are trademarks or
registered trademarks of The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. in the USA and other
countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other
countries.
Press Only Contacts:
(redacted)
Graham Walter (thought I'd better get an account..)[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 05:40 AM EST |
But how much chance of this to be seen by the judge/jury whatever who could
shove Darl McBride and his happy company into the prison?
They lied in court, afterall.
If they managed to pull this off, it would have damaged lots of businesses.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 06:26 AM EST |
| At the end of the article:
Tonight's episode of The Linux Show will
feature Opinder Bawa, the new senior VP of technology from Caldera/The SCO
Group, to discuss the announcement.
Jeff Gerhardt is the host of The Linux
Show.
It would be interesting to hear what Opinder Bawa had to say. Are
the Linux Show podcasts still available?
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: gbl on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 07:36 AM EST |
| I found this little jem when researching Novell and Unix.
ANALYSIS
OF THE ACQUISITION OF USL BY NOVELL
The article points out
that Novell got USL for nothing down and nothing to pay. AT&T may have
ended up with $100M worth of Novell shares, but essentially, that cost
Novell almost nothing.
It is also pointed out that at the time USL was
hardly making any money and AT&T were desperate to get rid of
it.
Finally, the question is asked, what on earth did Novell, and hence Ray
Noorda, want with USL or Unix? What plans did Novell have?
Nobody who
knows is talking.
---
If you love some code, set it free. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 08:03 AM EST |
PJ, you forgot to quote the best part of the press release:
The
statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties. The Company wishes to advise readers that a number of
important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in
the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the failure of the
products described above to operate as designed due to incompatibility with some
platforms or other defects; our reliance on developers in the open source
community; new and changing technologies and customer acceptance of those
technologies; the Company's ability to compete effectively with other companies;
failure of our brand to achieve the broad recognition necessary to succeed;
unenforceability of the GNU general public license and other open source
licenses; our reliance on third party developers of components of our software
offerings; claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights;
and disruption in the Company's distribution sales channel. These and other
factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially, are also
discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including its recent filings on Form 10-Q.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 11:51 AM EST |
There's always some factionalism in any sufficiently large organization, but now
I wonder if that can explain the vehemence and doggedness of TSG's war on Linux.
Once positions have hardened, the campaign no longer has to make sense; it's
driven by emotions, not facts. Many have asked all along, "can't TSG see
that they don't have a leg to stand on?" Maybe they really can't.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: ExcludedMiddle on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 02:10 PM EST |
I see these press releases as the most important for a jury. The quotes directly
from TSG and predecessors are more directly usable, but ones that were written
by the press might have a little less standing. This article was written by a
journalist, and they can always claim that the writer just got it wrong, and
that they were NOT doing this.
It's more help for a jury for IBMs defense of their actions, where they would
show via various means that they had not done as TSG suggested. And uses this in
addition to their own body of evidence, along with the formal quotes from TSG
execs that it was not the case. If I were on a jury, and saw enough articles
like this one along with the other evidence, I would have a hard time being
convinced of TSG's case.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: sproggit on Sunday, January 07 2007 @ 05:25 PM EST |
Although The SCO Group's love affair with software patents has been very much of
an on/off thing in this case, we are seeing more and more FUD being generated
around this subject, as well as tireless attempts to dress this up in different
clothes and then get it legislated in various parts of the world.
So
maybe, as patents tend to be legally enforced and as this is a forum that by
it's nature cares about both software freedoms and the law, we could consider
starting to contribute some arguments against what one might say is patent
nonsense. I believe we have enough technical specialists and enough legal
specialists here to help Groklaw develop something that might be of use
worldwide.
Now, there are numerous web sites in existence today that
have the aim of coordinating people against the idea of software patents - an
anti-lobby, if you like. I'm not suggesting replicating that. What I'm asking
here is whether or not the specialists that frequent Groklaw might be able to
make some valuable contributions to this argument by refining and publishing the
logical reasoning that shows why patents are a bad idea...
There are
some oft-repeated comments out there in the pro-patent lobby. For example, that
patents promote innovation. It should be relatively easy for us to provide both
theoretical and real-world examples that show why the opposite is true. If we
collect this material together in one place, we add the resources that can be
used, worldwide, to counter the pro-patent FUD.
Just a
thought.
For example, in 2004, David Kaefer of Microsoft said, "Innovators are
rewarded and the customer wins because they get more products to choose from
that have more similar feature sets."
Now I happen to think that
there is a hole in that argument big enough to sail an ocean liner through...
For example, what happens when an overly-broad patent is granted. Remember when Microsoft was awarded a patent (No.
6,727,830) for the double-click of a mouse? At first we all laughed, because
to the technically aware, Apple were the first company to introduce the use of
mice. Except, I think, that their mice were more efficient and only required one
click to initiate a task... Then it quickly became apparent that, with this
patent awarded, Microsoft could legally - and easily - go after developers of
any major, competing graphical user environment that uses mouse-click operations
and demand a patent tax. Not funny.
Patents have to be non-obvious to a
technician working in the field. The above example fails at that
hurdle.
Patents should be innovative and not duplicate pre-existing
technologies. This example definitely fails at that one.
And so
we could go on...
There are at least two ways that we could tackle
this. The first would be to develop the logic and reasoning that demonstrates
why software patents are a bad idea. The second might be to find examples of one
or more awarded software patents to illustrate each of the points we make. If we
can produce the kind of "summary judgment" level of evidence that we've seen
discussed recently, then perhaps we're making a positive contribution to this
aspect of our lives.
This might be something to consider for the future -
another variation on the "GrokDoc" idea. Oh, wait. Hang on. Isn't that prior
art? Darn...[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, January 08 2007 @ 01:36 PM EST |
If they really wanted to kill SCO's product line, they did the right thing in
bringing in the current management. I can't imagine a better way to
"guillotine" SCO than to keep doing what they're doing now... :-)[ Reply to This | # ]
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