| UnitedLinux announces leader |
by Malcolm Dean
DesktopLinux.com contributing editor Malcolm Dean reports on new leadership for UnitedLinux. Dean explores the structure of the group, concerns about the GPL and the beta release, and the likelihood of member groups merging into one company . . .
UnitedLinux announces leader
by Malcolm Dean
UnitedLinux, LLC, announced today that Paula Hunter will helm the new organization co-ordinating development of the new server OS. Late this year, UnitedLinux will become the core component of SuSE, SCO, Turbo, and Connectiva distributions. As the first Beta release approaches, Hunter said her first priority is to create an appealing organization which will attract new members. Meanwhile, she said, UnitedLinux is establishing global programs for product certification and ensuring that new members interface with the technical committees creating UnitedLinux.
"Version 1 is on schedule for launch this year," said Hunter. "The Enterprise IT community must be told about its features and its quality."
At this morning's press conference, a mildly skeptical press corps questioned Hunter's experience with Linux. Hunter responded that she had worked with Linux in her former positions as Vice President of Marketing for Xevo Corporation (www.xevo.com), as founder and Chairman of the Application Service Provider Industry Consortium, and at Compaq's Emerging Marketing and Programs Business Unit.
SuSE's Gregory Black said UnitedLinux had been looking for a strong business leader rather than a Linux or an Open Source person. "We already have strong people in these areas," he said. “The driving issue will be the business side.”
Like Red Hat's Advanced Server, UnitedLinux is a server OS designed for large enterprise customers, customers who require not only industrial-quality software, but industrial-strength support and maintenance. The product combines TurboLinux's Asian expertise and Connectiva's expertise in high availability. Under Ransom Love, Caldera (now The SCO Group) had already merged its German development team with the SuSE team. Black said UnitedLinux now has 550 developers, “more than anyone else provides.”
All four UnitedLinux vendors will add products and services particular to their talents and geographical areas. The purpose of UnitedLinux is unification, said Black, not diversification. “Initially we got tremendous requests from corporate clients, who wanted a single distribution supported locally all over the globe.”
It’s clear that Europe is moving faster and more coherently toward the Linux desktop. Will UnitedLinux play a role there?
“The German Government is moving strongly to replace its current infrastructure on the desktop,” said Black. “Whether this will happen in a deal with IBM, or not, we don’t know.”
Bradley Kuhn, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), expressed concern about the closed Beta, which has been under an unpublicized Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
“We simply want to ensure that the closed Beta was distributed in compliance with the GPL and free software licenses. They would simply have to make public the terms under which the software was made available. We want to know the terms of the NDA. If they have made an NDA in compliance with the GPL, this would be a service to everyone.”
“We hold a large amount of copyrights in the GNU software,” Kuhn continued. “The GPL requires that when you distribute your software, it's available to the world. The community of free software authors are co-authors of this project. We feel compliance with the free licenses should come first.”
Later, Kuhn expressed concern that even prior to UnitedLinux, Caldera’s Ransom Love had been unresponsive to the free software movement’s ideals. “Red Hat’s General Counsel and our General Counsel have each other on their speed dials. So if there were problems with the licensing of Advanced Server, and we wanted to find out about the GPL status of the close Beta, Red Hat has always shown that it is responsive.”
Is there any chance the UnitedLinux partners will merge into one company?
“Before you get married, you get engaged,” said Black. “We feel we are in a good and effective engagement. There are no discussions to go beyond our present relationship. We're focusing on the first release, then we'll focus on yearly releases. You can be assured that with UnitedLinux 1.0 we'll be heavily attracting channel partners, because we strongly feel that without this channel support there is no success for Linux in general.”
Copyright © 2002 by Malcolm Dean. Reproduced by DesktopLinux.com with permission.
About the author: Contributing Editor Malcolm Dean is a writer and IT strategist based in Los Angeles.
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