From: geneb AT web DOT wa DOT net Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 08:18:54 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: geneb AT web DOT wa DOT net To: opendos AT delorie DOT com cc: caldera-opendos AT caldera DOT com Subject: Official word Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Precedence: bulk Members of the opendos and caldera-opendos lists: It was requested that I post this message to the lists to clarify what is going on with Arachne and WebSpyder. This should end those silly arguments once and for all. -- Gene Buckle The Deltasoft Group Message from Roger Gross: ----------- Clarification of the Arachne WebSpyder relationship. I have been forced to post a clarification of the relationship between Caldera and Arachne following some misunderstandings in emails I have seen. WebSpyder is based on Arachne by Michael Polak of XChaos Software. Caldera has partnered with XChaos to produce a version of Arachne that will address OEM market opportunities. According to Michael, without Caldera's investment he would have considered giving up further development of Arachne. Instead Michael is expanding his team to enhance Arachne based on the undisclosed sum we paid him and continue to pay him. We decided not to acquire XChaos software (which was an option) but in stead to invest a substantial sum of money into XChaos to ensure it continued to move forward whilst remaining a private and independent company. Caldera has a vested interest in ensuring that Commercial DOS companies survive independent of us. Michael needed to partner with someone to ensure Arachne didn't die and Caldera needed a browser. Arachne is simply the best DOS browser available so a deal was struck - a no brainer. All credit goes to Michael and his new team for producing an excellent browser. Caldera is doing a lot of engineering work behind the scenes to productize Arachne as WebSpyder and to make it a commercial proposition for OEMs. We added keyboardless operation for Kiosk systems, an Installation program, ODI Networking for Intranets, a Dialler for Internet and animated and scaled GIFs. Plus a lot of customization for set-up and operation in diskless embedded systems. Hardly just a rip-off of Arachne as has been suggested. Many of these feature enhancements will be fed back into Arachne. Michael Polak knows the shareware and retail channels but he does not have access to large scale distribution and OEM markets. Michael is the first to admit that he cannot handle OEM opportunities. Flying to Taiwan at short notice to solve a problem is not practical for Michael - for Caldera it is and we have done it - twice already! Rather than exclude Arachne from those channels he partnered with Caldera so that together we can address them. He's a smart guy and he has demonstrated a very mature attitude in that respect. If anyone thinks we are ripping off Arachne, they should first talk to Michael Polak who is VERY pleased with the arrangement. Roger Gross General Manager Caldera UK Ltd.