Former SCO exec samples Linux again

Ransom Love, the former chief executive of Linux archenemy SCO Group, has jumped back into the Linux business by joining the board of a start-up called Progeny.

Progeny sells a customizable version of Linux based on the Debian project's edition of the open-source operating system.

Love co-founded Caldera, one of two Linux sellers to hold an initial public offering but a company that failed to achieve financial success. In response to that lackluster performance, Love was instrumental

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in the UnitedLinux effort to pool the resources of several second-tier Linux sellers and, more significantly, in Caldera's acquisition of the Unix intellectual-property assets from the Santa Cruz Operation.

Love left Caldera before the company renamed itself the SCO Group and launched a legal attack against Linux based on its accusation that IBM mishandled Unix intellectual property.

In a statement, Love praised Progeny's effort to create tools that work on several different versions of Linux.

One of the key differences between Debian and more widely used Linux versions from market leader Red Hat and second-place SuSE Linux is the mechanism by which software can be installed and updated. Progeny and Debian use software called the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT), whereas Red Hat and SuSE use the Red Hat Package Manager, or RPM.

Recent changes to Debian include a version of Red Hat's Anaconda installation software and a project to let APT use RPM updates, according to an October posting from Debian founder and Progeny Chairman Ian Murdock.