Caldera Joins Red Hat in European Push

Linux resellers in the U.K. will have access to another flavour
of the operating system this week, as U.S.-based vendor
Caldera plans to create a European channel.

The vendor has followed Red Hat and Corel across the
Atlantic and is currently looking for value added resellers
(VARs) and distributors for its 100 per cent indirect strategy.

Richard Wiltbank, European sales and marketing director at
Caldera, said it was late to market because it had taken a
long time to build the support infrastructure.

Wiltbank claimed Caldera still had some details to work out,
but that it would have 50 VARs signed up within six months.
He also suggested that two niche distributors would be
signed up by the end of May.

However, David Taylor, director at Linux VAR Microworld,
said: “I am not absolutely sure whether the market will
support all of these versions. In the end, all of these Linux
products could be dangerous as it can only become
confusing for the user.”

Ransom Love, chief executive of Caldera, said: “We know we
are late in the game and maybe not as well known as the
other Linux brands. But we are a partner that knows the
importance of VARs to the corporate customer.”

Caldera filed for a public offering two weeks ago and the
vendor has also secured $30 million (£19 million) in private
equity from vendors including Sun Microsystems, Novell and
Citrix.