Re: Caldera claims "LSB 1.0 implementation" in Project 42 beta announcement
Hi Matt and others,
[ Sorry for the full quote, but I put our press people in the Bcc ]
On Tue, Mar 13, 2001 at 05:53:18PM -0500, Matt Wilson wrote:
> According to Caldera's press release today:
>
> http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?bw.031301/210720302
>
> ...
> OREM, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2001--Caldera Systems
> Inc. (Nasdaq: CALD) Tuesday announced that its new OpenLinux server
> product, code named "Project 42," is entering open beta and will be
> available for download on March 19 from
> http://www.calderasystems.com/products/beta/.
> ...
> Project 42 has additional key features, including extensive
> security enhancements, LSB 1.0 implementation, Java SDK version 1.3,
> and a Caldera Volution deployment agent. Feedback on Project 42 can
> be sent to beta@caldera.com.
> ...
>
> While I am not disputing the amount of hard work that Ralf, Raymund,
> Johannes, and others at Caldera have put into the LSB and LSB Sample
> Implementation, I'm aghast that any Linux vendor would claim that
> their beta has a "LSB 1.0 implementation."
We appreciate that you recognize the work we are doing.
Let me assure you that we were very surprized when we saw this press
announcement in the net. We hadn't seen it before and even the beta
start date was news to us, because we planned on starting beta
today (Wed) or tomorrow (Thu).
Even more, we were really shocked when we read the sentence about the
LSB 1.0 implementation. We fully agree with all other Linux vendors
that nobody has the right to put any claim of LSB compliance in a press
announcement or on a product until
1. LSB 1.0 spec is released
2. The product has passed the test suite
3. In case of an app, the app runs on the sample implementation
In addition there is no certification program for LSB in place (yet),
so nobody can legally claim that anyway.
And I have preached and repeated that in various occasions, inside
and outside of Caldera, and the press and marketing people should
know it. At least I thought. Apparently not :-(
> What is going on here? Hopefully it's simply a disconnect from the
> technical staff and the public relations staff that can be corrected
> by a quick ammendment to the press release.
Quite frankly, I don't know why this press release was not passed
to engineering management for review and we are curently investigating
why this was not happening. I personally am not enabled to revoke or
correct a Caldera press announcement, I can only tell you from me and
everyone else in engineering our apologies and that we are working with
our press team to get this resolved.
Fortunately this was only a press release for a public beta start,
so we can make sure that this mistake will not happen on the final
product.
Hope this sheds some light on it and corrects the perspective.
Hopefully I will have more news until the LSB phone call today.
Ralf
--
_____ ___
/ __/____/ / Caldera (Deutschland) GmbH
/ /_/ __ / /__ Naegelsbachstr. 49c, 91052 Erlangen
/_____//_/ /____/ Dipl. Inf. Ralf Flaxa, email: rf@caldera.de
==== /_____/ ====== phone: ++49 9131 7192 311, fax: ++49 9131 7192 399
Caldera OpenLinux PGP: 6D 02 48 48 87 9C 6A 9C 30 A8 4D 15 AC CA 96 10
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