Caldera Open Linux - Novell and Corsair

Novell and Corsair

Corsair, a user interface for Netware, was a project founded inside of the Novell corporation within the Advanced Technology Group. Novell wanted an internet desktop and conducted research on how to better and more easily integrate and manage network access for users. The Windows networking support for Novell networks would not be improved until later releases and the internet was dominated by Unix-based operating systems. Relative to their needs, Novell deemed the Unixes of the day were too hardware intensive, too large, and charged too much in license fees.

This group became convinced that Linux offered the best possible answer for the OS component. There were many other components as well, of particular interest were:

• Willows, a Microsoft Windows-compatible API for Unix systems to allow recompilation of Windows programs for Linux.
• The Ferret meeting browser.
• WordPerfect, a (at this time) cross-platform word processing application
• Wine, a compatibility layer for running Windows and DOS software.

On April 5, 1994, the Board of Novell brought in Robert Frankenberg, the general manager of Hewlett-Packard Personal Information Products Group to replace Ray Noorda as CEO of Novell. Novell's stock price had performed poorly recently due to flagging growth. At Novell the Network division was growing at a pace of 19% per year, the Unix business division which was flat, and the Desktop Applications division which was shrinking at a rate of $400 million per year. Frankenberg's initiative was to refocus the company on networking and networking services. In terms of the Corsair that meant shedding most of the pieces. Negotiations started which would eventually lead to Wordperfect being sold off to Corel. The Advanced Technology Group was disbanded which shut down Willow and the OS project. Ferret was in line with the new direction and this component was kept within Novell. Ray Noorda had founded a venture capital investment group called the Canopy Group two years earlier. He felt there was substantial promise in both the OS project and the Willow project. He created two companies, to continue the work started at Novell. The OS company was called Caldera, and the API company Willows Software.

Noorda's early vision for Caldera was to create an IPX-based version of Linux which would license the key components, resell this technology back to Novell to continue the "Internet Desktop." In effect, Caldera started life as an outsourcing project for Novell. Caldera started with ten employees and most were from Novell: Bryan Sparks, founder/president (Novell); Bryce Burns, chief operations officer (Novell); Ransom Love, VP marketing (Novell); Greg Page, VP engineering (Bell Labs, AT&T); Craig Bradley, VP Sales (Lotus, Word Perfect).