Caldera woos channel with VAR scheme

Unix product gets major push

Linux distributor Caldera is looking to push its Unix offering in the channel by changing its company name and launching a new reseller programme.

The firm has renamed itself The SCO Group, and launched a range of global channel incentives last week at its GEOForum event in Las Vegas.

The new channel programme, known as SCOx and expected in Europe at the end of the year, will enable resellers to sell ASP services using applications supplied by SCO.

SCO will offer to 'buy' indirect customers' business from resellers at a price based on each customer's growth and ongoing turnover, giving resellers a way to raise capital at a time when other revenue streams are limited.

"For our reseller partners this is a path to liquidity that isn't always available in this market," claimed Darl McBride, chief executive of SCO. The existing Caldera partner programme will continue under the new TeamSCO title.

Clive Longbottom, service director at analyst Quocirca, said that he believed the move could be contradictory to the concept of UnitedLinux, launched in June.

"SCO is trying to create a differentiated offering away from basic Linux, but having a 'proprietary' Unix offering as well as the UnitedLinux offering will lead to further confusion in the market," he said.

"Where does this leave the whole idea of UnitedLinux? How do the changes to the channel strategy play with the promises to the channel for the UnitedLinux offering."

As Caldera the company stood for a corporate Linux. As UnitedLinux it stood for a standard Linux. But as SCO, it harks back to a low-end, cheap, Intel-based Linux for Unix fans who could not afford Solaris.