Caldera implements per-seat licensing for OpenLinux Workstation

– By Dan Berkes –
The latest version of Caldera International’s OpenLinux Workstation product comes with a feature that most Linux users probably won’t welcome: per-seat licensing.Caldera’s company line touts OpenLinux Workstation as a product made just for the needs of “Internet-enabled business,” offering stability and security corporate customers want, but without most of the configuration issues that building an in-house Linux system might include. OpenLinux Workstation ships with Caldera’s Linux distribution and additional documentation, the usual array of system, server, and development tools including the GNOME and KDE environments, and additional development applications from Borland and Sun Microsystems.

Version 3.1 of of Open Linux Workstation is slated for release on June 30. Customers can even pre-order the new version to ensure that it arrives bright and early on the official day of release. Anyone thinking of freshening their corporate fleet of computers with the latest version, however, should be aware that Caldera has updated more than the software for its new release.

In the reviewers guide for OpenLinux Workstation (in PDF), Caldera notes that it will require one license for each system the distribution is installed on:

“OpenLinux Workstation licensing has changed from previous versions. OpenLinux Workstation, as a product, is licensed per system and cannot be deployed without limit. Caldera will provide a certificate of license authenticity (COLA) with each unit sold, and Caldera expects each customer to have a COLA for each system that deploys OpenLinux Workstation.

“Although OpenLinux workstation contains the Linux kernel and variety of Open Source software, there are a wide variety of licenses, each with different distribution restrictions. Additionally, Caldera includes some of its own proprietary software as well as other Copyrighted material.”

Company representatives were not immediately available to comment on the new licensing requirements. Stay tuned — we’ll bring you further developments on this story, should they happen.