Linux and Main: ‘UnitedLinux’: Forget the Desktop User

“The new distribution will be aimed solely as business
customers, with distributions providing entirely separate desktop
products that will not involve the ‘UnitedLinux’ distribution,
according to the CEO of SuSE, Gerhard Burtscher. Desktop users are
of no weight in the group’s decisions, it was announced, and there
will be no ‘UnitedLinux’ desktop distribution from any of the four
companies.

“‘We are experimenting here with a business model,’ said Caldera
CEO Ransome Love. ‘It’s based on the open-source model of
collaboration, but it still has the elements that are critical,
which include profit motive and the ability to continue to fuel
innovation in the open source arena going forward. But it’s
critical that it clearly is a balance, but it is an important
balance and one that I think is revolutionary and will greatly
benefit Linux overall.’

“Likely to raise eyebrows is a licensing policy of downloads
available for ‘non-commercial’ use. Caldera took tremendous heat
from the community when it announced per-seat commercial licensing
for its 3.0 release, and at least some of the others involved in
‘UnitedLinux’ have been reported to be considering similar
plans…”

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