Caldera Linux adopts per workstation licensing

[CMonster]

They "lost" $900,000 a week -yeah we all know how cash just has a way of just going out the door by the wheelbarrow full.

Let me rephrase that:

'We at Caldera have become fat at the top and like most Linux companies we haven't had a clear business strategy until recently. Not to mention that we haven't really improved our Linux Workstation OS for almost 2 years, which is about the time we ceased to offer a home user/desktop edition for sale. However, we have continued to spend tons of money buying other companies so that we can hopefully put ourselves in a competitive position in the lucrative business market. Now that we have acquired SCO UNIX we intend to worm around the GNU GPL and actually charge a license fee for the Linux OS. Mostly, we just have a creative accounting fantasy that says if we could charge $49-$99 for everyone who has been downloading Caldera Linux workstation (out of curiosity) we would be making $900,000 a week.'

CMonster believes in reasonable fees and reasonable licensing for a quality product - but Caldera seems to be treading on a gray area of the GPL.

All I can say is "Good Luck Caldera" Redhat, Mandrake, and SuSE all offer a superior product and offer better value.


[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-28-2001).]

[Mntsnow]

Well I will have to take the side of If they feel that they can charge for it and people are willing to pay for it then GOD BLESS AMERICA.


btw. Not to be nosey ...but C-Monster...I know that you have PAID to buy Mandrake 8 as you have stated that before in the forums...What's the difference really? Are you paying for the actual "underlying code" or are you paying for the "tweaks" and such?

[CMonster]

I agree - sink or swim - this is America; "profit" is not foul language, and "what the market will bear -let the consumer beware" is the rule of thumb. However, I do not agree that you may charge licensing fees for an OS that already has a license agreement which states clearly to the contrary (anymore than I think it is morally acceptable to take powerplants offline during peak hours in order to drive up the price of electricity).

I think there must be at least several differences between my purchase of boxed Linux sets 'vs' the Caldera seat license model, the formost being that when I purchase a boxed distribution of Linux I am not paying for a License but for the materials, copying, personal touches (tweaks), and support. Furthermore, if I desire to put the GPL'd components of my purchase on 300 workstations at my company I would not be breaking any law or license agreement. I certainly would not be called a "freeloader" as Caldera has stated in defending their position. In fact, the GPL'd version of a Linux distribution is also supposed to be, according the GNU GPL, available for free and the source code must be made available as well. Caldera seems intent on violating this aspect of the GPL.


Another difference is that if I was an existing Caldera commercial customer with 500 seats already running Caldera OpenLinux workstation I would now find myself in a squeeze to pay the per-seat license fee in order to upgrade and retain the familiarity and compatibility. Otherwise I would be faced with making the transition to another Linux version or another workstation OS entirely -which could prove to be the kind of expensive situation I was trying to avoid by using Linux in the first place. In other words Caldera would "have me over a barrel."


I would also like to add this tidbit of personal innformation: I started using Linux with a purchased boxed set of Caldera OpenLinux (COL) 1.2, Later, I bought COL2.2, then I paid the $19.95 upgrade to COL 2.3 for my registered software (I was very glad to pay for what I was getting and to support ongoing devolopement). Shortly thereafter I bought COL 2.4 eDesktop boxed set -which was even better still. Finally, I bought the infamously buggy COL 2.4 "Technology Preview" (rubbish that is now where it belonged - in a landfill). AND THEN -about the time that Caldera won $400,000,000 from Microsoft in the settlement over the DR-DOS fiasco they ceased to offer a home user desktop Linux and left it's users high and dry, favoring instead the persuit of the big business $$$.

Now I do not regret any money I spent on Linux - not at all - but I have never purchased a "license" to use the OS in all that time. I have also purchased several boxed sets of Mandrake, and SuSE 7.1 Professional.

BTW -I have recently downloaded Caldera's latest workstation beta and found it not only behind the times but riddled with bugs -sure there are some awesome aspects in terms of ease of install and networking, but this does not compensate for usability.


Maybe if Caldera was offering the most cutting edge Linux on the market I would gladly pay $99 for a boxed set, with manuals, but not for a "seat" license -it's not Linux then IMHO.



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-29-2001).]