Caldera joins Red Hat in European push

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

Linux resellers in the UK will have access to another flavour of the operating system this week, as US 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.