Caldera OpenLinux: Difference between revisions

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== Background ==

By 1994, under CEO [[Ray Noorda]]'s purview, [[Novell Corsair]] was a project run by Novell's advanced technology group that sought to put together a [[desktop metaphor]] with [[Internet connectivity]] and toward that end conducted research on how to better and more easily integrate and manage network access for users. At the time, the Internet was dominated by Unix-based operating systems, but the Novell group saw the Unixes of the day as being too hardware intensive, too large, and charging too much in license fees. They became convinced that [[Linux]] offered the best possible answer for the operating system component, and started building code towards that purpose, including contributing work on [[IPX]] networking for [[NetWare]] and [[Wine (software)|Wine]] compatibility layer for Windows. However, Noorda departed from Novell and under new management, the Linux role in Corsair was dropped.<ref name="LJ_1995">{{cite news |url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/1094 |title=Caldera and Corsair – Who is Caldera, and what is Corsair, really? |date=June 1995 |magazine=Linux Journal |access-date=2008-09-24}}</ref>

[[Caldera, Inc.]] was founded in 1994 by [[Bryan Wayne Sparks]] and Ransom H. Love and received start-up funding from Noorda's Utah-focused [[Canopy Group]], and Caldera became one of the first commercial companies putting out a [[Linux distribution]].<ref name="eweek-ransom-2003">{{cite news |url=https://www.eweek.com/servers/ransom-love-co-founder-of-caldera-and-sco-speaks-of-unix-gpl-and-the-lawsuit |title=Ransom Love, Co-founder of Caldera and SCO, Speaks of Unix, GPL and the Lawsuit |author-first=Steven J. |author-last=Vaughan-Nichols |magazine=[[eWeek]] |date=September 25, 2003}}</ref> That first distribution was [[Caldera Network Desktop]], which was based on [[Red Hat Commercial Linux]].<ref name="Petreley_1996_Caldera">{{cite news |title=Down to the Wire - Hot Caldera rates a look as an Internet service, maybe even for desktops |author-first=Nicholas |author-last=Petreley |magazine=InfoWorld |date=1996-02-19 |page=108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xT4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA108 |access-date=2017-06-25}}</ref><ref name="Hughes_1996_CND"/> It seemed primarily aimed at the office desktop and custom solutions markets.<ref name="Hughes_1996_CND">{{cite news |title=Caldera Network Desktop 1.0 |author-first=Phil |author-last=Hughes |date=June 1996 |issue=26 |magazine=Linux Journal |url=https://nnc3.com/mags/LJ_1994-2014/LJ/026/0117.html |access-date=2018-08-05 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180805090434/https://nnc3.com/mags/LJ_1994-2014/LJ/026/0117.html |archive-date=2018-08-05}}</ref>

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=== Caldera International era ===

During 2000, Caldera Systems began the process of acquiring the Unix businesses of the [[Santa Cruz Operation]]. In March 2001 announced that it would be changing its name to Caldera International.<ref>{{cite press release |url=https://pressreleases.responsesource.com/news/11336/caldera-systems-previews-new-company-caldera-international-at/ |title=Caldera Systems Previews New Company – Caldera International – At CeBIT with Industry Support |publisher=Caldera Systems, Inc. |date=March 26, 2001 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

|date=March 26, 2001}}</ref>

Caldera OpenLinux 3.1 came out in June 2001.<ref name="LT_2001_L"/> Among the new softwares incorporated were Caldera's own Volution Manager and Volution Messaging Server, which were layers of functionality on top of Linux aimed at adding value to the operating system product.<ref name="PCMag_2001"/> The workstation edition of Caldera OpenLinux came with a requirement for [[per-seat license|per-seat licensing]].<ref name="LT_2001_L"/> <!-- "Aimed at developers, OpenLinux Workstation includes Borland JBuilder 4 Foundation as well as Sun Microsystems' Forte 2.0 and J2SE 1.3. " --> An extensive review of Caldera OpenLinux 3.1 in

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== Markets, alliances, and sales ==

{{expand-sect|with=actual sales figures|date=August 2024}}

Caldera OpenLinux offered specific packages for e-commerce and secure-server configurations.<ref name="PCMag_2001"/> It was also aimed at the business connectivity ___domain.<ref name="moody"/> As ''[[PC Magazine]]'' wrote at the time, "Unusual for the Linux world, Caldera makes a strong cost-of-ownership argument in the corporate environment." It also said: "Unparalleled support and a wide range of products, including e-commerce solutions, make Caldera OpenLinux Server 3.1 a very attractive choice. Caldera's clear distinction between client and server distributions underlines the company's endeavor to appeal to the business community."<ref name="PCMag_2001">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=onqTTm-f8cAC&pg=PA124&dq=%22openlinux+3.1%22+2001&hlpg=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ2PPU-pSIAxW4M1kFHQ8CPaQQ6AF6BAgIEAI#v=onepage&q=%22openlinux%203.1%22%202001&f=falsePA124 | title=Choosing Linux | firstfirst1=Bill | lastlast1=Ulrich | first2=Oliver | last2=Kaven | magazine=PC Magazine | date=2001-11-13 | pages=120–128 }} Caldera portion also available [https://www.pcmag.com/archive/caldera-openlinux-server-31-16536 at this url].</ref>

In its era, Caldera OpenLinux was one of the four major commercial Linux distributions, the others being [[Red Hat Linux]], [[Turbolinux]], and [[SuSE Linux]].<ref name="moody"/> In particular, these were the four that got the backing of hardware vendors such as [[Hewlett-Packard|HP]] and [[IBM]], although Red Hat was clearly the primary recipient of such hardware support announcements.<ref name="moody"/> And overall Red Hat had the broadest base of acceptance within the computer industry, with SuSE strong in Europe.<ref name="PCMag_2001"/>

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* ''Caldera Systems OpenLinux eDesktop/eBuilder 2.4''

* ''Caldera Systems OpenLinux eBuilder 3.0''

* ''Caldera International OpenLinux Workstation/Server 3.1'' (June 2001)<ref name="LT_2001_L">{{cite news |url=https://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001062500620PS |title=Change for Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1 Will Require 'Per System' Licenses |work=Linux Today |date=June 25, 2001 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> with Linux kernel 2.4.2

* ''Caldera International OpenLinux Workstation/Server 3.1.1'' (January 2002) with Linux kernel 2.4.13<ref name="OSN_2002">{{cite news | url=https://www.osnews.com/story/588/caldera-releases-openlinux-311/ | title=Caldera Releases OpenLinux 3.1.1 | first=Eugenia | last=Loli | publisher=OSNews | date=2002-01-31}}</ref>

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* {{cite book | title=Caldera OpenLinux Unleashed | first=David | last=Stoll | publisher=Sams Publishing | ___location= | year=2000 | isbn=0-672-31761-3 }}

* {{cite book | title=Caldera OpenLinux Bible | first=Chris | last=Negus | publisher=Wiley | ___location= | year=2000 | isbn=0-7645-4706-2 }}

* {{cite book | title=Caldera OpenLinux For Dummies | firstfirst1=Jon "maddog" | lastlast1=Hall | first2=Nicholas | last2=Wells | publisher=Wiley | ___location= | year=2000 | isbn=0-7645-0679-X }}

==External links==

* [http://linux.ittoolbox.com/pub/MM022702i.pdf "TThe hDifferences ebetween DCaldera iLinux fand fRed eHat r e n c e s b e t w e e n C a l d e r a L i n u x a n d R e d H a t L i n u xLinux: A n O p i n i o n P i eAn cOpinion ePiece"] &ndash; Caldera white paper, March 2021 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713070303/http://linux.ittoolbox.com/pub/MM022702i.pdfcomparing |date=2011-07-13 }}

* [http://www.lst.de/ LST association site (in German)]

* [https://www.abortretry.fail/p/the-history-of-caldera-part-1 The History of Caldera, Part 1] and [https://www.abortretry.fail/p/the-history-of-caldera-part-2 The History of Caldera, Part 2], Bradford Morgan White's industry histories on Substack

{{Linux-distro}}