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Updates On The Caldera IPO
kerskine writes,"It seems that there's strong demand for Caldera's upcoming IPO CNET reported that they've raised their strike price to $10-$12. This news is in sharp contrast to more negative appraisals such as this article from Forbes.com." I only know of a small number of Linux Developers who got "The Letter" from Caldera on their IPO. Gotta wonder about that.
price may have been raised, but they also advised that this post should be moderated down to a -1.
I disagree. I am gonna IPO this post at 0 and hope to move up, once the day moderators starting trading this post.
does the Caldera logo look a lot like half of Mickey Mouse's head?
Maybe that should be a new poll topic: How many Caldera stories must be posted before people stop pointing out that the logo looks like half a Mickey Mouse head.
Quote from your own page:
Propaganda tiles can be used freely, provided they are not bundled with a product which violates any of the conditions specified in the GNU General Public License (GPL) . You can download them, use them wherever you like, even give some to a friend. Thats fine -- But personally, my thoughts are concerned with the advancement of Linux as a platform. All the graphics for Propaganda are drawn with GIMP, an excellent paint program also made available under the GNU GPL.
So now that someone is trying to make a money on linux, and they happen to include you little artwork, they owe you money. GPL allows people to make money on the software!! See the discussions about the differences between free speech/free beer! People have to feed their families... What GPL provides is the ability for others to take the code and provide better/cheaper versions of the software if the current people are not doing a good job.
If it wasn't for the enomous GIMP project being GPL, you won't have been able to do this artwork, so if they give you money, are you going to give some money back to the GIMP people.
Damn get over yourself, your graphics may look nice that they are NOT A CRITICAL part of the OS. I don't even think I wasted the space on my drive to install them...
And just because their Market Cap may be $11 Billion dollars, that does NOT MEAN CASH on hand. You need to investigate what market cap means...
If you don't like what they are doing why don't you start your own 'Bowie Linux' and do it Right. The GPL allow you to do that...
As someone connected to two projects with Linux
:)
since quite some time, I had emailed them before
the date limit and asked if they might include
me into the offer, but they didn't even respond.
I understand that they have other things to do
than fulfilling my stock pipe dreams.
So instead watching my Corel portfolio,
I'll have more time to do more Linux.
Money doesn't make you happier but it makes it
easier for you to cry... But as my beloved grandma
once told me: boys don't whine in the open.
Therefore: Go Linux! Go Corel! Shall the gods of
luck and success be with you and your users and
you shall prosper.
Amen.
Hey PoC, I would like to talk to you(today if you can), please e-mail me at red@users.sourceforge.net
Just like the RedHat IPO. I make 75-125K/yr, have 10-20K in liquid assets, and e-trade still says I'm not qualified for the IPO. I'd like to know who is?
I received the opportunity to buy IPO stock from both LNUX and CALD, and you know what it's meant? It means I can now afford to spend significantly more time working on my project. Bravo to all these companies who have found a way to direct money towards free software developers; in my case it has been directly beneficial to writing code (which I love to do, and presumably the linux companies can benefit from). Way cool that it works out this way. Thanks Caldera.
"I only know of a small number of Linux Developers who got "The Letter" from Caldera on their IPO. Gotta wonder about that."
Here we go... the greed is out now. It's not enough to make money, or do good work... now you have to send the right people "the letter" or you will get bad press.
Nice racket... journalism for hire. And you thought ADVERTISING corrupts?
&sign($AC[0]);
quite your whining! Whah!
a) Mandrake Linux has been smoking RedHat saleswise so RedHat's owning the name means (almost) zilch b) Mandrake the programmer is average at best. Point out what's so ingenious in his code (and I'm talking I want code samples from you) c) You have no experience with Caldera so you conceded this point rather than lying. I salute your integrity but poke at your skimpy sack. d) Slashdot unquestionably IS the freshmeat of the 00's. Other people do the coding and they get the hits.
aren't you the guy who was on the caldera user group list b*tching about this same thing not so long ago? if so you would know from there as the answer was told to you that at lilo type linux 3 which will put in the console mode so you could change the default run level.
Well, first of all, if you can't even spell prospectus, you shouldn't be investing in IPO's.
The law requires that a broker selling IPO stock provide a copy of the prospectus to each investor. It's up to the damn investor to read it before dropping 6 grand on a new company -- or to hire someone to read it for them.
Note the parallel with open source. My mom can't read C code. But she benefits from open source because she can run a system where everyone has access to the code so anyone who educates themselves can improve the system for themselves and everybody else.
Also note that you just found yourself a business opportunity: start a new web site, or write articles for an existing one, where you write all about these important things you find in the prospectus that you think other people aren't noticing. If you build a good track record then you'll get a huge number of hits.
Why are you working for the mega-corporations for FREE? These people are making BILLIONS off of your hard work.
The way it is SUPPOSED to work, is that Redhat (an 11 billion dollar corporation) gives you COMPENSATION (salary, stock options, etc). You then OWN a part of that company.
omeone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when theres money like that changing hands. This is VERY far from true. Linux developers are not cheap to keep working for comanpies. Second, If you want a Linux Distribution thats free, get one without any commercial software. Caldera uses Partition Magic, and I'm sure those guys don't let them use it for free. There are also a lot of other software packages that may not be free, and That is what raises the price. Also, trying to fight Big Software companies requires a LOT of money to get started, thats why so many companies fail. It's not cheap to be sponsers for projects. Also, The money to get developers to make RPM that RedHat has credit for, CAME from Caldera. RPM was not worth using Until Caldera gave them money... Once again, trying to make something so useful; isn't cheap.. Add in Marketing.. Every try to convinse the world that "This program made by a bunch of people in their spare time, or "hackers being paid to fix code"" is really better than another OS? Not Cheap.
Tanking?
You call being traded at 300%-800% of its IPO value tanking?
Hell, I'd like to have more of my stocks tank like that! You must be nuts!
As of now, the only two distros released by public companies are Red Hat and Corel. As of next week, we'll have Caldera too, and within a year SuSE and Turbolinux should join the bunch. TN
Are you stoned, or just stupid?
Product placement is a fleeting fad. It has never in the past worked, does not work now and will never work. Seeing that Pepsi logo in the middle of a game of Quake would just remind me to go grab a Coke after my next frag.
This is great! More billions of dollars for people who are profiting off of your hard work.
Marx would be so proud...
Please explain how a market (NASDAQ) can continually smash into now record highs (up 2% today alone) and can be in a bear market. I haven't noticed a lack of confidence in any American market.
Forbes is right about Calderas complete lack of branding, compared to Red Hat or Turbolinux etc. Check out for www.caldera.com for some bad assed blandness
...is just pissed he didn't get offered any shares. As if he's not rich enough already.
Buy low, and sell high. That's it. That said, I try to buy some at opening, and sell them before lunch.
Looks like the days of the community getting letters from companies going public is over. Caldera only sent a couple out, and Linuxcare as far as I know did not send any. It was fun while it lasted.
Caldera doesn't own DR-DOS. Lineo does. Get the companies straight, please. They are not the same.
Gee, what a surprise, Caldera only sent the letter to a few select people (probably only Linus and maybe Alan). It really does not seem like Caldera ever helps the community. They seem to be self-serving and quite greedy.
Caldera is actually one of the most influential Linux distributions around, and has had a more profound affect on Linux than what many people realize. Originally, Red Hat was an outsourced engineering team for Caldera. RPM was developed by Red Hat, under contract from Caldera. Red Hat then decided to go rogue with some of their new technology and turned their back on Caldera. This explains some of the animosity between the two companies that you see behind the scenes. I'll admit that I haven't heard this direct from any of the principals, but I'm in the Linux industry and I've heard it from several CEOs of several major Linux companies and other people who were involved...
The fact is, however, they're one of the oldest Linux distributions with one of the most well developed internal organization. They've been doing Linux professionally longer than just about anyone else. Furthermore, they have *the* best and most developed channel strategy, with over 900 VARs backing them. Red Hat is still mainly a retail product, and not a corporate product. Their positioning of Linux for business alone has been a tremendous benefit to the community and to Linux.
If you care about things like this, then you shouldn't be an open source developer. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Do you want the benefit of having a community of users either help you with the development, help you with the testing, or use your product... or do you want to be a commercial developer producing your product for a commercial market? The needs, expectations, and requirements of each segment are totally different.
Deciding later that you want to make money off of something you open sourced sounds a little bit shallow. What would we say if suddenly Linus decided he was sick of getting screwed out of royalties and wanted compensation for his work? (Granted, it would be hard because of his license...)
With all this IPO frenzy, we should remember the reasons we're in the open source community. We want to produce good software that's useful to users, of a high quality, and availble to all who need the functionality. At one point in time, this was a community of friends... hopefully the money doesn't pollute this (further).
Caldera, Inc. is the parent company of both Lineo and Caldera Systems. Caldera Systems is the company in question. Just to clear up the confusion.
Caldera is actually one of the most influential distributions in the market, for several reasons. Being in the Linux industry, you hear things that aren't generally known. For example, Red Hat was originally an outsourced engineering team for Caldera. Supposedly, Red Hat was originally contracted to develop technologies for Caldera UNIX (such as RPM). RH realized some of the value of their work, and decided to keep it. This explains some of the animosity between the two companies. Although I haven't heard this from any of the principals, it's been said by numerous high-level linux industry executives that I've met
and known.
Beyond that, Caldera is one of the oldest distributions around and has been, up until recently, the only distribution focused on Linux for business. Their main focus has not been on retail products or on developers, as has been RH's strategy. Rather, they have the best developed reseller and VAR channels in the industry with over 900 VARs signed up. Basically, they've been focusing their efforts on making money from the people that pay rather than getting good sentiment from a segment that doesn't necessarily pay.
If Caldera has a major fault, it's that they began positioning Linux before Linux was really ready. They've been doing this for years, and they may have jumped the gun a bit. They still have one of the best VAR channels in the industry, however.
It can't be revenues ($3 million in '99) or profits ($9.4 million loss in '99).
Caldera Systems' products would appear to be proprietary Linux ports of Noorda's, I mean, Novell's successful and fast-growing Netware line plus Red Hat-based OpenLinux distro. The Lizard installer (co-developed with TrollTech) seems to have been finally open-sourced last September under TrollTech's QPL but the only reference to COAS licensing seemed to imply that the source will only be released after the administration tools are developed , whatever that means.
Offering only approximately 5% of the stock to the public is a time-tested method of increasing demand by artificially restricting supply. Ray Noorda (holding 73% after IPO) will be laughing all the way to the bank even if the IPO tanks. Even Sun, SCO, Citrix etc. got their pre-IPO shares at $6 a few months ago while TrollTech got theirs via equity swap. However the common man only "wins" if the company is really going to be worth over $1 billion in the not too distant future. Also be warned that daytraders and marketmakers (both well-known market manipulators) may quickly boost the price quite high after opening but they're also able to dump their "holdings" in a split second when the price starts heading south.
Are people even aware that this Caldera Systems, Inc. isn't the same as Caldera, Inc.? Since they took over www.caldera.com from their mother company any references to the latter have been hard to find. At least they're still proudly carrying a link to the Caldera vs. Microsoft (SETTLED!) page, even though the dough went to the old Caldera, Inc. instead. I hope that the DOJ's case will finally produce Microsoft a guilty verdict instead because it would be too painful to see Gates (unrelated tip: try searching Chairman Gates' site for "Linux") proclaiming again how Microsoft has never, ever done anything remotely naughty, how the operating system and Office suite markets are, as always, extremely competitive and how they only settled to be able to better continue innovating for their customers...
Anyways, it will be interesting to see what impact the nouveau rich Caldera Systems, Inc. will have on Red Hat's market valuation and strategies; both of these primarily server and service-oriented companies are going to be accountable for their shareholders' financial well-being. With Caldera Systems, Inc. IPO already priced above Corel's market valuation perhaps Red Hat should reconsider strengthening their position by buying out Corel (currently valued at only 10% of RHAT market cap), selling Corel's investments in other companies for cash and then creating a number of subsidiaries with their own lucrative IPO's of the Corel product lines as e.g. the WordPerfect Office Corp., the Corel Draw and Publishing Corp., the Red Corel Linux OS for desktop etc. Say what you will but competition between these Linux-based companies is going to get started.
I 'got the letter', too. Not because I'm a kernel hacker but because my company is one of their education centers and because we worked our butts off to help Caldera get their education program going.
Now I have to sink to YOUR level!
a) I think that Macmillian publishes Mandrake (and somehow even pays Mandrake for this priviledge - go figure) and was for a while the best selling distribution. RedHat IS the most popular distribution as far as influence goes (and for that I am supremely grateful) but they will not come close to capitalizing on their position thanks to the open-source nature of their key assets (you can roll it out to 40,000 workstations for $40). My first experience with Linux WAS with a $40 RedHat box I'd bought but from then on I've been going to the CheapBytes sites for free speech turned free beer. And when DSL comes round my neck even CheapBytes will be waysided. Therefore "the open source buisness model" seems to be completely made up of buzzwords and pipe-dreams.
b) My Mandrake/enlightenment stab was pure flamebait. e is pretty sick and that's an end on it.
The Letter said that it was not for publication. I think most people have respected that wish, and have not said that they got it. -russ
Yeah, and hey have a real mickey-mouse logo.
Not true. This was covered on LWN a few days ago - non-US developers *are* being included.
If you've helped Caldera and think you should qualify, then try contacting them.
I just put them down for a second! and WOOMPH in they went. I gotta go before he finds my dog!
While you're at it, buy some CORL too, 'cause they probably go up on the Linux hype when CALD goes public. CORL is 13 5/16 or so.
If you check your facts, it wasn't Caldera Systems that settled with Microsoft. See this article for some of the facts
Moron. Hasn't he done any research?? Has he never heard of Linuxcare??
``Often fixing the problem is more expensive than what the company would have paid to buy a different operating system--and that completely defeats the purpose of Linux.''
Moron. The purpose of Linux is not to be inexpensive. If that happens, fine, it's a nice side effect. The purpose of Linux is to allow you to separate your business plan from the business plan of your software provider.
For once I am first, and in the time this stupid microsoft proxy server takes to upload pages, I become last. Gotta say though, Caldera and Corel colectively make up the worst two things in the history of Linux, Corel for making debian unstable (and other products of theirs don't help their status either) and caldera for being a buncha dishonest greedy slobs. My .000002 cents worth.
"Semper in excretum set alta variant"
I tried the Red$Hat distro and it didn't work at all. Miserable failure, but I grabbed a copy of Caldera2.3 and it worked flawlessly. They have a good product but they've done little to hype it or themselves in the marketplace. If I had the money now I'd grab this IPO because it will surely improve over its starting price. I love linux (l)users fear of money. It makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. Hey, last time I checked, capitalism was doing pretty well. If you want to spread the wealth, move to Cuba! Si?
Yeah, the European net plays have gotten a bit insane recently. The FT says part of the reason is that people want to move their money into the European tech sectors, but the number of companies is still relatively small. Hence supply > demand = insane market caps.
If you don't want other people to distribute you program for a profit, without sharing some of it with you, say so in the license.
If you wanted to get rich off the suffering of others you should have bought Microsoft stock.:)
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
If you are incapable of reading a prospectus (which contains a lot more important information than what percent of the stock is being offered), then you really shouldn't be investing in IPOs.
Generally, much of the information in them is very readable and is in plain english. Some of it does require knowledge to interpret, but that's just the way life is.
There are a huge number of caveats when buying IPOs at offering price, and simply stating what percent of the company is being offered, separately from the prospectus, makes little sense.
Hey! I invested $2.95 in this company some homeless guy told me was cool, then later someone tells me that doesn't mean I own the whole company!?! What is up with this! It is a ripoff! Call the SEC! The FBI! The FCC! CIA! ABC! NBC! SGI! DND! RCMP! CSIS! This is outrageous and they should all be quite upset that I was defrauded out of my $2.95.
Sheesh. IPOs are a more risky investment than many. That is why brokers like etrade put specific requirements on what investors can participate, since they are trying to keep out the people that don't have a clue about what an IPO is, how it works, how to read the details, what to look for, or what the risks are.
It'd help to know just what sort of project it is that you're working on.
Though I wouldn't use it myself, I just thought of an idea for a OSS (non-free) game: in-game advertising! It'd be kind of neat (and profitable) to, say, have a gigantic Pepsi logo in the middle of a multiplayer arena. Or would it?
But a good freind offered me in on a Freinds & Family type deal. Does that count? Hack if just had a little more karma I'd be working there rignt-now
Foo
Yes, but whats that got to do with the price of tea in D'ni?
I think that is his point. The guy in the article leads you to believe the "only" reason to use Linux is cost. While the cost can be a factor, the previous poster was alluding to the fact that you should use Linux because you aren't married to Microsoft,Sun,etc. Not to mention you should use it for the stability.
Or I could be completely wrong...time to get some coffee.
> but alas if you are not a US citizen you don't get invited to the party.
What exactly do you mean? Are you saying you can't buy any CALD shares as a non US-citizen? You can buy CALD shares as a non US-citizen.
Hi Bowie,
:)
Someone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when
theres money like that changing hands.
I'm a huge fan of Propaganda, but, well, I hope you don't really feel this way. Remember that every project done in linux now is based on the countless unpaid hours of work done by people in the past. The gcc used to compile the tools used to paint those pretty pictures was started umpteen years ago..
If you don't like people using your work and not compensating you, then license it in such a way as to make that impossible.
Otherwise, well.. sour grapes, wine, whichever.
--
blue
i browse at -1 because they're funnier than you are.
Well if it's more expensive than using an operating system where you can not fix the bugs then.. don't fix the bugs.. It'll be exactly the same as using a closed source os but cheaper.
The cost of fixing Linux bugs is counted in hours and pay rate.
If it costs you more than $100 (The cost of Windows) or more than $50 ($100 minus cost of offical distro cd) to fix bugs then you need to do the folowing...
Fire your SysAdm.. pay your new SysAdm less.. and if your using an offical Linux distro.. use a diffrent distro..
It dosn't take that long to fix... if otherwise your SysAdm isn't very good.
Even for a bad SysAdm you are paying him to much if it runs up to $100...
(Note... if you are paying your admin $100 an hour he may still be worth it.. if he winks at the system and all bugs vanish.. at $100 an hour your underpaying him)
On the otherhand.. if the Linux distro isn't offical and really dose have thousands of bugs.. Your using a hackers distro.. it's useless... Thies are for 31337 Linux hackers... Or at least major tweeks...
Ferthermore... liccensing source code is a commen practace and at one time was believed to be vital to the continued survival of the busness to have access to the source code no matter what the price. So even if it dose cost more to fix the bugs in Linux that for some mystic reason don't exist in some mystic operating system it is worth it. Becouse even a magical operating system has bugs...
[A closed source operating system with fewer bugs than an open sourced operating system is an unlikely event unless the company has huge programmer resources and as such the operating systems price will be rather nasty... or.. the company is run by a demiGod who can mysticly make bugs vanish]
A bugfree operating system is modern fiction.
An operating system clamming to be bug free is an operating system whos bugs will never be fixed...
And finnally... closed source dose not mean no access to source code.. it means only crackers have access to source code.. decompilers don't produce anything a SysAdm could use...
I don't actually exist.
Actually, we did switch licenses. Propaganda (technically) is no longer flying the GPL flag. I've been waiting for Naru to change the contents of the page for quite a while now.
If I knew then (back in November 98) what I know now, I would have never picked the GPL. If you're wondering what possessed me to choose the GPL in the first place, it was because there was some talk at the time that portions of the GPL might be rewritten to allow for non-coded forms of media such as sound, graphics, etc. Never happened, unfortunately. It just feels like the GPL started out a great idea, but in the end, it virtually forces you to remain poor if you stick with it.
Thats the sad part, really. It sets the stage for the sort of thing we're seeing in the Linux community these days. A massive, massive inequity between the companies now swimming in billions of dollars of capital, and the programmers who can barely pay their rent.
By "compensated", I wasnt referring strictly to money. For example, wouldn't it be nice if programmers whos work appears in Red Hat could list a contact-person at Red Hat as a reference on their job resume? Or VA's volunteers, for that matter? I dont see them doing that. It would be horribly simple for them to do, and it would be extremely beneficial to the Linux community. It would cost Red Hat absolutely nothing to do, and they aren't doing it. They, ultimately, are a business. Red Hat and VA dont have to care. They have to make money. Expecting them to care goes beyond the call of any business if you think about it. The song remains the same. An $11B company makes money off my work, regardless of the fact that its not an "integral" part of the distrib.
By the way, for the record, Propaganda is now licensed under Perl Artistic. Thanks, Larry
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://propaganda.themes.org)
Bowie J. Poag
/* I went into CompUSA the other day, and counted six boxes on the shelves which carry my work, going for anywhere from $39.95 to $99.95...Someone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. */
:)
None of those companies, barring SuSe, is actually turning a profit. No one is making money, much less hand over fist.
/* I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when theres money like that changing hands. */
Because, stimpy, you gave away your work, without expecting compensation. You, along with thousands of others, decided to use the GNU public license, or some variant thereof, that said "Hey, I love doing this and I don't want any money! You can do whatever you want to with this, including sell it, as long as you abide by whatever it is I decided to license with." RedHat, out of the kindess of its heart, decided to let people in the ground floor with their stock plan. Note that no one was getting paid BY RedHat, they just got to buy the stock cheap, and then were able to turn around and sell it when it went through the roof. If you start getting pissy about "not being compensated", I suggest you start charging for your work, ditch the GPL (or whatever license you use.. I've yet to see a license that comes with Propaganda tiles) and figure out a way to make money the old fashioned way: earn it. Propaganda does not the OS make. If anything, you guys serve as a great advertisement for The Gimp for potential to produce some really great looking stuff. However, I see no real value added to any Linux distro from the inclusion of your tiles, other than some neat eyecandy for a really horrible GUI.
/* Red Hat is a 11 billion dollar company. Dont see them compensating the people who continue to make their distribution usable */
Red Hat's valuation is based upon some freaking ridiculous stock run-up. They have yet to turn a profit, see above. They do compensate quite a few people: they've hired them. Maybe you should submit your resume to Redhat? They'll probably tell you the same thing: Making tiles is nice, but why don't you go hack X or something?
Please, don't get me wrong. I've got every volume of Propaganda that's been issued. Nice stuff, especially the seamless tiles. I'd eventually like to try my hand at doing that, as well. But I would *never* try and claim I wasn't being compensated when I release the stuff for free.
Weren't things so much better when *everyone* was equally poor?
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Is to use the Partition Magic that's bundled with it to repartition a Windows workstation, and then try to install Caldera.
When that fails, often as not, I then install RedHat on the partition.
At least in OpenLinux 2.3, they give you the option of logging in in Failsafe mode after install, which is a small X-terminal. In 2.2 you had to initially log in under KDE, and if X wasn't setup perfectly, or you have an old video card and could only go 640x480, you were hosed.
I pitied the fools who did this and couldn't telnet in to change the default run level.
In a nutshell, Caldera is useful for the Partition Magic, has a pretty install, but has failed more often than not in my older hardware, mostly in the X setup (IBM P75 with S3 video card and NEC Multisync C400, generic P90 with garbage picked ISA VGA board and VGA monitor).
George
Think about this whole thing from the perspective of someone (i.e., a typical moo-cow day trader) who knows linux is a "new" and "hot" thing to make money off of. So the RedHat IPO, the VAlinux IPO, the Cobalt IPO, ad nauseum roll out and our cud-chewing day trader buys a few shares of each and makes a few bucks. Now, Caldera says its gonna IPO after all the initial hype and hoopla and the day trader falls into a pattern of thinking that is roughly the same as the YALD (Yet Another Linux Distro) moaning we've been hearing lately and we do hear every time a new linux distro rears it's head. I dub this YALIPO (Yet Another Linux Initial Public Offering). So, our day trader, YALIPO in head and cud in mouth, realizes that all thy hype is just that-- HYPE . And since our day trader is typical, that means there are many others in the herd that feel the same way. This leads the the inevitable negative reviews that downplay the IPO-latecomer(s) and thoroughly over-hype the IPO-pioneer(s). Its human nature really, "OK, things are going great...when's it all gonna come crashing down on me?" It's unfortunate that this has to happen to Caldera, or any other linux company for that matter, but we all knew it had to happen sometime, now didn't we? Because, well, everything was going great with linux-related IPO's but then...
--
You can be an atheist and still not want to succumb to some weird cross-over sheep disease -- AC
The Forbes article talks about lack of branding.
The current state of who owns whom, and who does what in Caldera's little group of companies, just supports that.
They are branded alright, just no one knows to what without a script.
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
You really think a heard can think? The forbes headline said GOOD! the copy said... well... Please don't be silly - people listen to the headline, and all that means is I hope I get my share allotment.
{a}
I signed on as a Caldera reseller over a year ago, mostly because I liked the easy installation on common hardware. They seemed to have an active reseller program at the time, and I thought it would be a "good thing" to be on the relative inside. Since then, they have released new products to the market without even an email to the resellers (COL 2.3, COL eServer). I considered that kind of dumb, but I knew about them from industry press and contacts anyway (and product introduction literature is mostly useless fluff and cut sheets anyway ). Now they do the IPO thing, and don't even notify resellers about it, let alone give resellers the opportunity to invest early. I'm not expecting a free stock handout, mind you. I would be willing to pony up money, investing as a reseller in a company that I think has potential (although most of that seems to be being wasted, at this point). I hope that they are planning on using some of the IPO money to improve their reseller and community communications (maybe even hiring some talent, if they want to play in the big leagues).
Thanks for listening to a personal gripe!
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Corporatism has taken over the Linux community and there ain't no going back.
Time to play with a different toy for me. I still use Linux as my OS of choice, I still develop for the open source community, but it's quickly becoming much less fun as rampant consumerism and corporatism takes over.
How long do you think until there is an ISO (international standards organization) standard for Linux?
TheGeek
TheGeek
http://www.geekrights.org
Kill the monkey
Btw, why didn't anybody mention Disney yet today?
Say no to software patents.
Does this mean your going to use your stafford loan to buy stock? Gee, what a great use for student financial aid. I feel better about paying my taxes already.
WARNING! This post contains sarcasm. If you are using prescribed medication, please consult your doctor before reading.
Check out AbiWord.
The loan is a government subsidized loan. That is why you don't have to make payments or pay interest on it while your in school. The federal government pays the interest for you. Also, I believe the interest rate is kept lower through government subsidies (but I'm not sure about that part). So I'm pretty sure at least some tax money is used for this program.
I think there may also be something called a capitalized stafford loan. With this one, you still don't have to make payments while your in school, but the feds don't pay the interest for you. In this case the interest accrues on your loan. I'm not sure how much tax money is used in this case.
Check out AbiWord.
"Moron. The purpose of Linux is not to be inexpensive. If that happens, fine, it's a nice side effect. The purpose of Linux is to allow you to separate your business plan from the business plan of your software provider."
No, you have his quote out of context. He is trying to say that businesses use Linux instead of something else because it is free, and if it costs more to fix it than you would have paid for a closed source OS then you're shooting yourself in the foot.
He also may not be talking about Windows or MS. I know where I work Linux is used solely as a server OS, and if we didn't go with Linux for those few servers it probably would have been AIX, or BSDI or pehaps even Solaris. That would have required us buying proprietary hardware though (in the case of Solaris and AIX), which drives the cost up significantly.
Forbes is a publication by Business guys, for Business guys. You should try and remember that while you are picking apart their articles. forge
Is this a self-imposed restriction or a government restriction I wonder?
PoC
Account forms are due to them via FAX (415 913 5530) no later than Friday, March 10th
March 10??? It is March 18 here already, I know you are guys are behind the southern hemisphere, but 8 days ;)
PoC
hmmm.. that caldera logo... I think it's a world covered by an ocean of a Mickey Mouse head that we can only see half of! Is it a secret message from somebody within!? Hmmm... Is Caldera really run by that incesent mouse?
Uh, it's a *loan*, which means that I'm paying this back at 6.8%. Your taxes go towards *grants*, of which I got $1000 worth, just enough to pay about 50% of my school bill. The remainder of my Stafford Loan is for my use, mostly to pay bills, keep up on rent, and the such. I also have 2 part time jobs that I use for bills and rent, so I thought it would be a Good Thing(TM) to invest in Linux. Sneer at more money coming into the open source arena.
BTW, I'm 25 and have been paying taxes for 10 years now. I think it's just groovey that I can use my *loan* for stock purchases.
WARNING! This post contains sarcasm. If you are using prescribed medication, please consult your doctor before reading.
hehehehe. That was pretty good.
-- Count Spatula: The Culinary Vampire "...because my cooking sucks."
I got my Stafford loan yesterday, and since the IPO price is still within the "tolerable" range, I'm still going to nab 100 shares with an investor friend of mine. I'll just stick it in the folder with the 30 RHAT shares and the 40 LNUX shares I bought. Hell, to me it's not about the investment gains, but more about supporting stuff I see as a Good Thing(TM).
/true/ supporter of open source."
Screw all the infighting about "well, you made money off of OSS, so you aren't a
-- Count Spatula: The Culinary Vampire "...because my cooking sucks."
Exactly, its not like Andover gave stock to all the people with high karma who stimulate discussion on Slashdot. Why didn't Effugas, Signal 11 or Enoch Root get any 'letter' Cmdr Taco?
;-)
RedHat Linux is a product that RedHat owns in name. You can not release a product and call it that. They aquired Cygnus, so maybe you could say stole, but Cygnus is now a part of RedHat in one form or another.
2) VA linux has no products other than arrogant programmers like Mandrake (smart move for a hardware company!)
VA Linux sells custom Linux servers and other machines. They are pretty good not only for Linux but freeBSD. That's a product. I haven't meet Mandrake so I can't say anything about his character but I know he has put out some awsome code.
As for you other comments I can't really say anything about. I have never used Caldera so I know nothing of their distro and while Slashdot has been anouncing some stuff, it is not nearly as dedicated to applications as freshmeat is.
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
a) Mandrake Linux has been smoking RedHat saleswise so RedHat's owning the name means (almost) zilch
While Mandrake has a kick ass distro, I thought according to the figures in a zdnet story on linux distro sales (sorry I don't have the url, does anyone else?) That the sales of Redhat Linux made up 60% of all Linux related software sales. If I am wrong then I appologize. Could someone point out a more recent comparison of the distros as far as sales or wide spread use go?
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
Are the future linux IPOs going to be as strong as the earlier ones?
Maybe the overpricing of these stocks won't continue...
Interesting point, but you should keep in mind that from the POV of the typicall corporate suitguy, it's better to pay M$ to maybe fix a problem sometime in the next year than to run an OS without a really rich guy behind it that need not be fixed in the first place.
Frankly if we need to get a rich guy selling Linux for it to be a corporate OS success, then I'm not so sure I want it to be a corporate success.
Especially since that would imply either that Torvalds get brainwashed by Bill The Borg's microdroid borg army, or that someone cheats him really badly.
Is is really Linux if it has an IPO ? Since when is money important to Open Source ? Hence I continue to use debian, admittedly there are features it doesn't have yet. But it is no doubt the last REAL Linux around. Developed by the comunity and designed to be as cheap as possible to obtain. That is Linux, and what is the use ?
"Semper in excretum set alta variant"
Caldera doesn't own DR-DOS. Lineo does. Get the companies straight, please. They are not the same.
From the Lineo website:
"Lineo, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Caldera, Inc."
My statement stands.
Lee Kaiwen
Caldera inc. is not the company going IPO
True. And, as has been pointed out, it hardly helps the branding issue when you can't even say "Caldera" and know who you're talking about.
The internal DR-DOS development team (which had been relocated to the UK) was disbanded well over a year ago, before Lineo became Lineo. What little development there has been in the last two years -- mostly, as I recall, pertaining to fixing up EMM386, and adding experimental LFN support -- has largely come from the outside talent who jumped on board during DR-DOS's brief open-source period, with some help from one or two internal people. But the internal development team was shut down quite a while back.
Which underscores my point: it's too bad Caldera/Lineo reneged on its decision to open the code. DR-DOS does, and always has, run circles around anything out of Redmond. Imagine what the open-source community could have done with it.
Lee Kaiwen
As has been pointed out, the accuracy of my statement depends on who "Caldera" is. Caldera, Inc. owns Lineo, which owns DR-DOS but is not IPO-ing. It also owns CalderaSystems, which doesn't own DR-DOS (though it does sell it) but is going IPO.
All of this merely confuses the branding issue Forbes magazine talks about.
Personally, I think Caldera (Inc., that is), should pull all its children back into the house and concentrate on embedded systems. If the tech prognosticators are correct, there's a lot of money to be made there. Lineo has a great product and seems to be establishing itself as the market leader. This is an area where Caldera could really establish some branding.
True, it's not as sexy, but the folks at Caldera should realize by now that there's no way they're going to be able to catch RedHat in the systems/server space. But RedHat is new to the embedded market; Lineo has more experience there and (IMO) a better product, and there's still a window of opportunity before RedHat can exploit its market leverage to dominate embedded systems.
Lee Kai Wen
Notice how Netscape in turn for giving away Mozilla got a bunch of programmers for free.
Funny how the programmers paid by some 'larger; company are doing a GOOD portion of the core work. Others have contributed but not nearly like your making it out.
So there is a greed in open sourcing...
Amusing to me is the fact I Have never gotten a sense of greed from Linux or any code I have ever contributed (minimal but I have done some to gIDE and glade)
That just annoys me since I know the primary authors of quite a few packages and it has *NOTHING* to do with having other people fix code for them or me.
I helped out because I wanted to learn some and I happened to like the project. Don't go speaking about how other people feel unless you are sure please.
Frankly if we need to get a rich guy selling Linux for it to be a corporate OS success, then I'm not so sure I want it to be a corporate success. :p
<G>So What does that make ESR? He most definately 'sold' Linux so the suits and IMHO hes rich at the moment
just how many IPO'd Linux distributions are there out there now?
Meh
I've never stepped up to a major project such as that except with friends of mine and such, of which often we did not release a finished product (except to ourselves). Much of my graphics code is available at TPU.org (or was)... All this talk about kernel hacking and such, I think that I shall :-) It will be fun. Anyways, about the IPO, definately gonna get my mom in on this one :-)
Eh...
I'm working on a project that I would really like to be open source, but the perspective of licensing it and making some money has been a strong deterrant. Would anyone educate me and probably others (maybe suggest a link) on how to make money writing OSS, other than support? IPO's like this really makes believe it's just like doing business any other way, but I just haven't seen how yet.
I would like to clarify that my assertion about Caldera: I am not claiming that Caldera has done nothing of worth, indeed I refuse to believe that anybody would be stupid enough to sink money into a company that they didn't think was contributing a positive way.
My assertion is that Caldera is a company that is in no way set apart from its competitors. Indeed most of the achievements you claim are past glories. Its plans for the future are uncertain. And given the strength of some of its competitors, that should be a real cause of concern for investors.
However it is not. Hence my assertion that Caldera is a company floating on a wave of 'linux is great' euphoria and investor stupidity.
GypsumFantastic
ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,ø`ø
... or does the Caldera logo look a lot like half of Mickey Mouse's head? I know it's suppose to be a "C" but everytime I see it the first thing I think of is Disney.
I know Michael Sinz, part of the java porting team, got the offer also (and he didn't get the RHAT or LNUX offers). Nobody in the office who got into RHAT or LNUX got into this one though.
----------------------------
Andover.net did an *Open IPO* that anyone could have gotten in on at the "insiders' price." One of the big reasons the company chose this type of IPO over a traditional one was to eliminate all the "Who got the letter? Did you get the letter?" problems.
- Robin
On the other hand, their upcoming products are quite solid (I've seen the beta versions, and even the beta versions are more stable than the typical Linux distribution), and they do have the top VAR program in the Linux biz. Chances are if you buy a solution that's based on Linux, it's probably based on Caldera's Linux. The problem is that 99% of the time, you don't know that it's Caldera's Linux -- or even Linux, for that matter. All you know is that you bought a "Document Imaging And Storage Solution". Thus Caldera's low profile.
We'll have to see whether Caldera has finally settled on a strategy and will stick to it. I think their current strategy is a good one... but then, so was their 1997-vintage "Linux for Business" strategy, which doesn't seem to have turned into a pot of gold.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
And what about the cost of fixing a problem with a commercial operating system? Surely that's a more meaningful comparison to make, even if sometimes it's not possible because said commercial operating system isn't open source.
When 10 people march off the same cliff because they couldn't read the tiny sign that read "Lookout, cliff ahead!" it is surely a problem. IPOs in general are damaged by the number of people hurt investing a ton of money to find they only own a fraction of a company. Legitmate companies seeking capital to grow will be damaged when the market associates IPO with ripoff. This is a legitimate securities practices complaint. And yes, I have complained to the SEC.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I somehow think we are talking about a heck more than $2.95, especiall when Palm wound up being worth more than 3COM. But then again, some people think insider trading should be lagal too. I mean, whats the big deal if a few guys make a couple of extra bucks. Or even better, stop prosecuting scams altogether. Who cares if 3 or 4 million people spend $4 for a product that doesn't work.
As far as the E*Trade thing goes, I got into an IPO offer by just clicking the mouse a bunch of times.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I think the biggest problem with the recent spat of IPOs is the way they are reported and marketed. I have yet to read a decent report that clearly states the percentage of stock that will be offered in the IPO.
Take the Palm Pilot IPO. It wasn't until a week after the IPO that the mainstream press picked up on the fact that only 5% of the company had been offered.
Clearly these IPOs are being advertised in a manner to trick unsuspecting daytraders into investing. Big name brokerages and investment groups jump on the bandwagon because they know a biname ".COM" or tech stock will jump through the roof nontheless because of investor ignorance. Trading groups should be required to clearly state what percent stake in the company is being offered when advertising IPOs. This is pure consumer ripoff. Sure the details are in the perspectus, but perspectuses (perspecti?) are often unintelligible to the common investor.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Actually, they do. They pay GNOME developers and AC. Also, Mandrake are currently paying one of the KDE developers. Sure you could argue that Redhat should pay everyone -- but not because of their large market cap. Remember -- Redhat are running at an operating loss. They are already paying too many people as it is. They are a business and ultimately, they are supposed to make money. And again, I emphasise -- raising venture capital doesn't count. Making money means maintaining a steady ( preferably growing ) operating profit.
Accually "free software" is much less about giving back and being selfless than it is about giving away the code so others can make improvments.
I wrote it becouse I want it. I give it away so others can improve it and give the improvements back to me.
So there is a greed in open sourcing...
Notice how Netscape in turn for giving away Mozilla got a bunch of programmers for free.
Also the stock isn't free... The letter offers to SELL stock at low preIPO prices.. Usually the stock shoots up after the IPO.. thats where you make a killing.
Open source companys are answerable to the open source develupers... UNLESS they are answerable to stockholders... thus the letter...
But with so few develupers getting Calderas "the letter" one worrys if Caldera has any plans to mainatin any sort of commitment to the open source community.
However Caldera also develups DrDos and as such may not rely on Linux forever. But for the moment DrDos isn't a money maker.
It still makes one wonder whats up at Caldera that they focused only on certen groups of develupers rather than going with a wider group or (as it was a big disaster with RedHat) not bother in the first place.
I don't actually exist.
Apparently Caldera only feels it should reward the developers who will make the company rich come IPO-day. Im surprised more people arent insulted by that idea. Its like, hey, you're an Apache developer--Here's a chance to get in on our stock! Meanwhile, lets suppose you're working on some equally relevant but less-popular project.. No jello for you, little boy. Youre not popular!
Does anyone know if Caldera bundles Propaganda with their distribution? If so, i'll fire off a little letter to them and ask them what the hell they're thinking, and post the results here. I think it would be rather novel for them to attempt to explain their choice of preference in handing out letters.
No, I dont expect letters, and thats not why I got into Linux in the first place. However, if some company like Red Hat, or VA, or Debian, or Mandrake starts making millions off my work (and other peoples work) I'm not going to sit back and not give a shit. I went into CompUSA the other day, and counted six boxes on the shelves which carry my work, going for anywhere from $39.95 to $99.95...Someone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when theres money like that changing hands.
Red Hat is a 11 billion dollar company. Dont see them compensating the people who continue to make their distribution usable, do you?
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://propaganda.themes.org)
Bowie J. Poag
As I have read through the posts I hear two things. People are upset because they didn't get in on the IPO and Caldera Systems is just another distro. that doesn't really matter to the Linux world.
I've been involved and contributing to Linux since it first came out in 1991. I never did care to put my name into the CREDITS file. I tried to get in on RHAT and LNUX but was not able to. I'll try to get in on CALD too. If I do great but if I don't I still wish them well.
Caldera, and now Caldera Systems, has done a lot for Linux over the years. Even though I don't work for them now, I did in the past.
Caldera has not been a company to blow its own horn, as have many of the others. The engineers who have worked at Caldera have made contributions, some very major, but they do so without seeking the spotlight as some in the community have done. They have worked because they want to see Linux succeed as much as anyone else in the community.
So what has Caldera done that others may not be aware of? With the benevolent backing (tens if not hundreds of millions) from Ray Noorda they have gone into areas that others did not to enable technologies that all of you have benefited from. How many of you use Netscape on Linux? Caldera paid for the privilege of porting the Netscape client and server products to Linux that you all use. They funded Star Division to port Star Office to Linux. How many of you use this product? They have worked deals with Sun to help with Java and Wabi (dead now but did allow for 16 bit windows apps. to run on Linux). They paid for and helped technically to get the original Word Perfect onto Linux. They helped bring Netware technology to Linux. They couldn't openly distribute this technology because of license terms with Novel, but never the less they helped tie these OS's together and make the world a closer place in which to compute. Linus has said for some time that Linux needs apps. to become successful. Caldera has worked with and paid many ISV's to see this happen.
Caldera has always supported the trade shows and organizations such as Linux International and the LSB.
Caldera stayed away from the bleeding edge of the Linux technology and worked more on putting out a release considered more stable for commercial use. Hackers for the most part may prefer the later versions of everything, but business was concerned about having stability so Caldera looked to fill that niche.
Caldera put together formal processes to produce a "Self Hosted" product. I don't know how many of you have ever had a problem getting source and having it recompile on the distribution of your choice, but any source Caldera distributed with their release was verified to be "makable" by the customer if they desired to rebuild it. I don't know of any other distribution which did this, at least until possible this last year.
I would hope that even if I don't make anything from the CALD IPO that they will do well. I for one would like to see Caldera and Ray Noorda get something back for all they have done to promote Linux and help it progress. I trust they will use the funds they receive to further promote Linux.
I also hope we can always have many choices in distributions and not have the market slimmed down to one choice. We all know what having a single choice can do!
Long Live Linux
So what if Forbes published that article, does it mean it's truth?
Caldera has a lot of nice stuff done for Linux, a lot of networking, and they published COAS and Lizard opensource. That's not nothing. Without the networking it has today, Linux wouldn't have been succesful at all.
Also, read this:
"Troll Tech would like to thank CEO Ransom Love and all the other good people at Caldera
Systems who have helped in many ways during the creation of the QPL. Their backing and
feedback have been invaluable during the process of making Qt Open Source."
Sigged!
Ok, dumb question.
How do they decide who gets the almighty letter and who doesn't?
What are you talking about?
I posted and said that new linux IPOs will not be as hot as Redhat or VA Linux due to a lack of branding. This is a similar argument to what the Forbes article says...where the fsck does anyone talk about Caldera's contributions to the linux community. In my post I do mention that Caldera is well known within the linux community don't I?
I don't get it. Do you work for Caldera or something? Are you a marketing droid or some PR flunkie that failed reading comprehension in high school?
PS: Read the fscking article.
With the recent spate of e:businesses setting up, getting and minimum operation together and filling IPO, its nice to see a company going IPO with at least a reasonable foundation behind it ie: a product and profit.
In the mean time why not visit LastMinute.com and see if you can help them break even
This company has a turnover of £600,000
This company floats the market at $700,000,000
Go figure
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Remember, these are tiny companies with no profits and little unique technology. They don't have anything that makes them valuable. Even worse, considering they have a business model that consists of putting free stuff in a box and selling it, it's embarassing that the Linux companies lose money. They're going to make it up on volume? Yeah, right.
Not that I don't think those people deserve to make a fair buck, but please don't be so naive as to think that your investment has anything intrinsic to do with open source.
As it stands, your investments in RHAT and LNUX are currently in the shithouse. You may regret putting your loan money into them (which is akin to investing on margin, which is typically a dumbass move).
Caldera, as many have pointed out here, doesn't distinguish itself from its competitors in a meaningful way. They sell themselves as being "for business" (whatever that means), but more appropriately that are just YAD (Yet Another Distro). If they wish to continue to beat the dead horse of their current marketing campaign, they need to tell me how they are more appropriate for small business than, say, Red Hat.
In the end, any race becomes a two horse race. This means two distros. This means Red Hat and a player to be named....but most likely not Caldera.
Best I can tell, there are two major reasons behind Caldera's move(beyond "they're afraid that NASDAQ is puking right now"):
1) Reverse psychology. Stocks have their prices raised in response to heavy demand. An interesting way to turn the tide on low investor demand is to *act* like there's high investor demand. Some portion of investors would believe that a company being convinced that their stock is going to be heavily demanded means their stock actually *is* going to be heavily demanded. And, gee, if investors think that a stock *is* demanded, suddenly it *is*.
2) Cash distribution, particularly if the market isn't thought to be amenable to second offerings. Caldera may not want to sell any more of its soul to venture capitalists. In order to do that, it has to make as much money--as a company--selling its shares to the market. Now, you do multiple releases when you think that your stock sale at time B is going to net more cash than a stock sale at time A. If you don't think the market will keep your stock so highly valued, or if you think you'll never "escape the gravity" of your present market position without an extensive war chest with which to market and develop with, you sell your shares off on the market once at as high a price as you can muster. Raising your IPO price, so you don't have to directly sell any more of the company to the venture capitalists, gives your company a much larger war chest, is moderately neutral to existing owners(although the lack of an initial runup to the higher price may harm momentum; see PALM), and is most painful to those lucky enough to have the right to purchase stock at the IPO price(since the delta from IPO to sale price is necessarily shrunken).
At least that's how I see it.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Linux IPOs are destined to slow down for a variety of reasons. The most important of which is branding. Since the source is available and everyone can make a distro the only thing that counts (to the market) is brand recognition. That's why RedHat and VA Linux made all those deals and attached themselves to many websites so as to get brand recognition. After all to random investor X, who is Debian? But such people know Redhat and a lot of people actually believe that they own Linux or at least that Linus works for them or owns the company. Even supposed techies on ZDNet's talkbacks make comments like that just make my jaw drop in awe.
Anyway back to Caldera, it has no branding outside of the linux crowd except for being the company that sued MSFT and then settled for chump change. As Forbes eloquently put it
Although its tie-in to the free Linux operating system will secure a strong opening, Caldera's lack of fresh perspective and obscure branding leave little to inspire any ongoing enthusiasm.
In addition to striving after a dubious market, Caldera has failed to differentiate itself from the competition. The company has dabbled in both Linux software and hardware but has failed to make itself a market leader in any one area, says Dan Kusnetzky of IDC.
which is completely true and finally
This, says Yates, is the company's only chance if it hopes to define itself in an increasingly crowded marketplace. But Caldera will need to act fast, given that stock prices of Linux companies tend to come spiraling back to earth a few months after the IPO. Both VA Linux and Cobalt, for example, have lost more than half their value since their stellar debuts.
The way I see it besides SuSE and maybe Penguin Computing I can't see any Linux company IPO being as hot as VA Linux or Redhat's due to the lack of branding and distinguishment from the competition. Then again the Dow rose 499 points yesterday against all expectations when everyone and their mother said we were beginning to experience a long overdue correction, so who knows?
The Forbes article makes what seems to be a very reasonable criticism of Caldera, which is that it is an uninspiring company with a bland public imgae, that does little of worth to set it apart from its competitors.
This point of view presumably is not in any way in keeping with the feeling of most investors however, who seem to be keeping the company's shares in high demand.
It seems to me therefore that this company is being buoyed up solely by the fact that it does 'something with linux'. Given its lack of branding and strong competitors like RedHat and VA, I am assuming that investors don't care what exactly it does with linux, and that the mere mention of the OS that has become the daytrader's best friend is enough to drive share prices to inexplicable and unsustainable levels
The market for tech stocks is getting ridiculous at the moment, and what better example could there be than this; an uninspiring company, in an already crowded field, with an uncertain future business model, and people can't get enough.
Caldera will be remembered as an also ran. A company whose sole claim to fame (apart from 'doing linux') is that they failed to win a court case against the evil empire and settlesd for about $42 dollars and a field full of goats. Long live market stupidity!
gypsumfantastic
+++ The meaning of a statement is the method of its resolution
ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,ø`ø
According to this advogato article, mostly kernel hackers (including Alan Cox) got offers. Seems some apache folks ago got it.
--
see shy jo
From lwn:
We have just received information that Caldera indeed has made their directed shares program available to international developers, particularly in Europe but including other areas of the globe. In order to do so, they are working with multiple investment firms. Wit Capital is handling only domestic US accounts, which is correct, but Bank of America Security, LLC is handling International accounts. Bank of America can be contacted at 415 627 3115, 600 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA. Account forms are due to them via FAX (415 913 5530) no later than Friday, March 10th, so move quickly if you have this opportunity. We have confirmed participation in Australia as well.
This is just a bunch of biased personal opinions, expecially the Forbes article.
They (and you) claim that Caldera has not contributed anything to the community. This is not true: they contributed and continue to do so, a lot of neat networking stuff in IP and IPX protocols. Also, they made NetWare for Linux (which is not like mars, but has a fully functional NDS v 4.x), an NDS client for Linux, ported Netscape FastTrack server to Linux, made Lizard and COAS available opensource...
I think these are important things. Caldera has contributed to the Linux community quite a lot, actually.
Sigged!
Why do you 'wonder' about that? I thought that originally getting into Linux wasn't about cashing in at some later date, but rather producing something for free. Redhat opened a real can of worms with it's little 'letter' campaign, and it really brought out the greed in people (the common mantra being "I work on package X...why didn't I get a 'letter'?").
Since you didn't get 'the letter', what then? No one is obligated to get free stock...since when did the free software movement turn to greed?