Caldera to support rival Linux brands

Software vendor Caldera International is to start supporting competitors' Linux brands, but the move could spell job cuts at the company.

Caldera's decision comes as it looks to extend its potential services revenues and tries to dent main rival Red Hat's market share.

"This will allow us to leverage our European infrastructure to support customers where Red Hat doesn't have the infrastructure to compete," said Ransom Love, president and chief executive at Caldera.

Under the new initiative, as well as supporting Red Hat, Caldera will offer service and support for Linux from rivals SuSE, Turbolinux, MandrakeSoft and Conectiva.

According to Love, at the same time as extending the reach of the company's service and support offerings, Caldera could also cut the number of employees in its support business.

The company is also set to merge its service and support groups into a single unit.

"Separate teams that are now doing support and services, sales engineering and professional services will be consolidated into one global team," said Love. He added that any job cuts would not be "huge in number".

Just 20 per cent of Caldera's revenue comes from support and services, but the company believes there will be a demand for its cross-Linux brand support. It pointed out that most Linux users are running several brands.

Pricing for Caldera's new services will vary. A per email inquiry offering will cost from $299 for one email to $9,995 for unlimited support. Per server support starts at $2,000 for one server.