Linux and Main: Four Distributions to Announce “Non-merger Merger”

“Four well-known Linux distributors will announce Thursday that
they will pool their resources to produce a common, LSB-compliant
distribution in hope of blunting the Red Hat onslaught, Linux and
Main has learned.

“The four are SuSE, Caldera, TurboLinux, and Conectiva. And one
person familiar with the companies’ plans describes the
announcement as ‘a non-merger merger — more a pooling of resources
to keep Red Hat from taking the whole pie.’

“As a general rule, any announcement involving four commercial
Linux distributors (and not involving Red Hat or Mandrake) is
likely to draw some attention. On Tuesday, though, none of those
involved would give even a hint as to the nature of the
announcement. But persons familiar with the plan say that engineers
from Caldera, SuSE, and TurboLinux have been working toward a
collaboration for many months.

“‘Engineers from the three companies got together and in a mere
two days solved all of the outstanding technical issues involved in
implementing the LSB,’ says someone involved in the discussions,
which for a time seemed headed toward a full-blown merger.
Thursday’s announcement, it is said, will fall short of that,
allowing each company to retain its corporate identity…”

Complete Story