The PR people at Caldera Systems e-mailed me with the news that they've gotten some major outside investment. The press has got more news, but the company's getting $30 million dollars from SCO, Sun, Citrix, Novell, Egan-Managed Capital and Chicago Venture Partners. In other news, their case against Microsoft continues to progress.It should be noted that while they have similar names, and are owned by the same man, Caldera (lawsuit company) and Caldera Systems are separate companies - thanks to all those who pointed out my mistake.

Last week, The Bazaar, an Open Source meeting and exhibition, was held for the first time in New York City. It was not a well-attended event, with fewer than 3000 registered visitors, and the view from the show's main floor was downright dismal because most of the people there spent most of their time in tutorial sessions, not cruising the (sparse) display booths. But it was still an event many found valuable. Here are some "show tales" from Slashdot readers who were there. (click below)

bnagel asks: "I always properly halt my computer. Twice in the past month, when I have booted back into Linux, a number of files are corrupt, and I have to reformat and reinstall. The files get an invalid userid and date and when I try to execute one, bash says that it was not found. I'm using Caldera 2.3. I can't think of using another OS, but if this becomes a monthly ritual, I might have to. Can anyone explain this ext2 phenomenon?" An odd problem which I have not experienced before, and I'm less careful with my HDs. Does anyone have any helpful information?

We're rolling around the middle of the week for Comdex, and thought maybe people would like to hear some of the news. Linus was awarded person of the year by PC Magazine. Here at the Andover.net booth we've been doing Install Races - 4 PM everyday. The winner for the week gets a Herman Miller Aeron Chair. Rob and I went to the Spencer Katt party on Monday night (Thanks Tim!) and had a good time - but the Post had a funny write-up about it. We had a good time there, unlike the Caldera party that we were locked out of and had to come back later after walking three miles. Grrr - we get that as well as listening to their audience scream "E-Business" to try to get t-shirts. Which is giving everyone migraines in a two hundred mile radius. Starlady has done some general Comdex write-ups, as well as Linux Biz Expo specific stuff. Apparently, Global Media won best Linux product of show for their "streaming product". One of the funniest parts of the show was the kid who mooned Bill Gates - Gates is just out of the picture. Oh, and on another note, CowboyNeal loves his Cyberlegs.

Bob Frankenberg was CEO of Novell in the early nineties, when Novell were marketing DR-DOS as a replacement for MS-DOS (DR-DOS is now the subject of a law suit between Caldera and Microsoft). In part of this CBS interview he explains why his new company, Encanto, is not using Microsoft software, and why they chose FreeBSD. Read on for a few notes.

On the Net, the notion that Microsoft is predatory and monopolistic is old news, but this was sure a stunner to most Americans, who've been reading all those adoring profiles for more than a decade. Judge Jackson's findings of fact drew big headlines and flooded the talk shows all weekend. Microsoft's fat stockholders won't have a happy day today either, as brokers and analysts weigh in after a busy weekend of reading. As one said on CNN yesterday: the judge's report isn't pretty.

aculeus writes "TechWeb reports that Judge Lee Benson has dismissed all eight of Microsoft's motions for summary judgment on antitrust grounds, clearing the path for a trial to begin in Utah on Jan. 17. " Yes, the other court battle, the one that doesn't get talked about as much. The judge's decision to go with a jury means that he thinks that Caldera has basis for their legal complaints - a good sign, I suppose. The case itself is based upon Caldera's ownership of DR-DOS and fighting with Microsoft over that.

joe_s writes "CNET recently posted and update to their shootout between Red Hat Linux and OpenLinux, which has some pretty interesting points of view...and could be pretty useful for a newbie. "

A. J. Rimmer writes "Just ran across this review of Caldera 2.3 from Nick Petreley ^[?] of LinuxWorld. " Saint Nick likes it - says that "not only continues to leapfrog over all other Linux distributions for ease of installation; it also proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Linux can be easier to install than Windows. " Pretty strong words - what do you folks like best?

C|Net talked with Marc, but we got hold of Red Hat's Donnie Barnes yesterday, and interrogated, er, asked him questions. Click below to learn more about what to do with IPO money (Hint: Think missle-toting Lear jets), software patents, open source licensing, and trademark issues.

A reader wrote with the news that Caldera has announced the release of its Open Linux 2.3. They have the announcement and order forms on their web pages, and have loaded version 2.3 onto their ftp site (including ISO images).

coolo wrote in to say that Caldera has decided to release Lizard under the QPL. Lizard is the installer that they use for their distribution- its fairly nice looking and appears to be exactly what novices need to get over that whole install hump. I've heard a lot of good things about it, so this is a pretty cool thing on their part..

Thanks to Scott Elyard, who has returned and has written a "second chapter" to his original piece about SGI. Once again he's debunking mysteries, and discussing changes within SGI. Click below to read more.

Red Hat is now worth serious money. Exactly how much changes hour by hour. Check the Red Hat Wealth Monitor for up-to-date information. This page is by no means anti-Red Hat, and it has a bunch of commentary on it that's well worth reading. We also got some excellent comments about the Red Hat IPO from professional investors Jay Roseman and Frederick Berenstein of The Linux Fund, and a perceptive note from "an anonymous insider" (he'd lose his job if we published his name) that may help put Red Hat's IPO in perspective -- and serve as a cautionary tale for other Linux and/or Open Source-related companies that decide to sell stock to the public. (Lots more below.)

Daveguy wrote to us with the news about Hummingbird has entered into a relationship with Caldera for both marketing and strategic development. Very cool-Hummingbird is going to be working with them on Exceed; HostExplorer; NFS Maestro Server, NFS Maestro Client, NFS Maestro Gateway and NFS Maestro Solo, all for more support Linux.

haggar writes "Caldera has finally decided to release the source of Lizard, the OpenLinux 2.2 installation tool. The news is reported here. Caldera has been often criticized by the OSS people for not opening up the source of Lizard. " Not only are they releasing Lizard, but NKFS, too.

Stewart Rosenberger has written an interesting piece about what the success of Linux means for the users out there who are currently using it. Will it mean that the pioneers will move on to other places? Is this already starting-rather then Linux fragmenting, the user base fragmenting? Click below to read more-it's well worth it.

PowerPC writes "Motorola will be announcing their alliance with Caldera Systems and Lineo according to this article over at ZD-Net. " While I still mantain that "Lineo" is one of the dumbest names I've ever heard, Motorola will be working with both them and Caldera Systems. As would be expected from Motorla, the focus is going to be on embedded devices, and using Linux in that environment.

Matt Levine writes to us with the news that the Caldera division, Caldera Thin Clients, will rename itself Lineo, and will be focusing on set-top boxes, and cash register systems. The system is beig developed using an Embedix, which is based an OpenLinux.

whosebob asks: "I've recently been hired to build a high-end video server system for use in an educational environment. In order to calm management's fears over compatability and support, the server (quad 500MHz/512K cache PIII Xeons) will be running NT 4.0 (I can hear the catcalls already). Given the educational setting and thus the constant search for cost-cutting measures, it would be fantastic to abandon Microsoft for Linux. But as a comparative novice in the Linux OS world, I need to know if it can make full use of my hardware (64-bit PCI bus, TBs of storage) and whether or not anyone has developed the necessary drivers for the fibre-channel interface. Any pertinent information, suggestions, advice, corrections, etc. will be greatly appreciated." There's more. Hit the link.