Caldera founder joins board of Progeny Linux

After a year’s hiatus, the founder of Caldera Systems Inc., now known as SCO Group, Inc., has re-emerged in the Linux Industry. On Monday, former Caldera CEO Ransom Love, was appointed to the board of directors of Progeny Linux Systems Inc., a 25-person Linux company based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Love spent eight years with Caldera before leaving the Linux industry in June 2002, eventually landing a job working on an Internet-based genealogy program as director of strategic relationships with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Love also took some time off to work on an as-yet-unpublished book about the commercialization of Linux, tentatively entitled “the Love of Linux.”

Love engineered Caldera’s acquisition of the Santa Cruz Operation Inc.’s (SCO) Unix properties, but it was not until after his departure that Caldera changed its name to the SCO Group Inc. (also known as SCO) and embarked on its multi-billion dollar lawsuit with IBM Corp.

The former Caldera CEO was tapped because of his experience running Caldera, where he spearheaded the creation of the UnitedLinux LLC consortium, said Ian Murdock, Progeny’s chairman and chief strategist. 

UnitedLinux has not been a success, Murdock said, but he hopes that with Novell Inc.’s recent acquisition of SuSE Linux AG, there might now be an opportunity to create a meaningful Linux standard for business, and that Love, a former Novell employee with experience in Linux standardization might help make that possible. “It’s just a matter of getting all the right people sitting around a table and finally making a decision to make a decision,” he said.

Love’s experience with UnitedLinux is “why I originally got in touch with Ransom,” Murdock said.

Having Love on the board might lend some valuable business experience to the company, said Dan Kuznetsky, an analyst with Framingham, Massachusetts research firm, IDC. But Kusnetzky was doubtful that he could help the Novell relationship, pointing out that Novell’s management had changed significantly since Love’s tenure there.

But Kusnetzky thought the appointment of Love would ultimately benefit Progeny. “Ransom has had experience in running a Linux company to the point where it became the number three Linux company in the world,” he said. “That is very useful experience for a small up-and-coming-company.