Caldera's Unix Buy: One Step In Linux Plan, Feb 08, 2001

Caldera's strategy is to move the SCO customers to Linux over time. "We have the brick-and-mortar businesses using Unix applications today," said Ransom Love, Caldera's president and CEO. "We can move them to Linux and the Internet using Caldera technologies."

SuSE, one of the major sellers of Linux software and services, has laid off 30 of the 45 people in its Oakland, Calif., office and will shift much of the responsibility for North American operations to its headquarters in Germany.

The layoffs, which took place Wednesday, reduced the number of support staff but didn't target programmers, spokeswoman Xenia von Wedel said. "We can be more efficient and reduce costs if we do it from Germany," she said.

The growing capabilities of business-critical Linux applications were on show at LinuxWorld Expo in New York last week as the industry's big guns fired a salvo across Microsoft's bows.

IBM was joined by Oracle, Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Computer Associates (CA) and Intel, among others, to demonstrate that Linux is moving into the mainstream.

In his keynote speech, IBM president Sam Palmisano predicted that 2001 will be the year Linux grows up in the enterprise. "We don't invest $1bn casually. Lou [Gerstner] and I don't write cheques without some engaging scrutiny," he joked.

Included in the article, Ballmer: 'We're now in full motion'

The Linux approach has led to an environment from which we can all learn, as it's a great way to do developer support. While Windows maintains its pre-eminent position in terms of developer support and interest, there is something about the way the Linux community supports itself that every platform provider should study if it wants to provide broad community. The Linux community support model has resonated with people.

I think the other thing the Linux community has done well is the support of unusual devices, smart devices, embedded devices, and that's why you see us making the investments we are in support and around the embedded community. The fact of the matter is that if the embedded community only needs a simple program loader and memory manager, we don't have a shot, as Linux has got the right price and terms.

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