How is Caldera OpenLinux ?

[PimpHolic]

well im a linux newb one of the many, and i've installed mandrake before and got going with some of the basics with it (getting my interent up, installing rpm's etc) and now i went to a computer book store and got a great deal on "sams teach yourself linux in 24 hours" and it featured red hat 6.0 or caldera and i chose caldera as red hat 6.0 seemed a bit outdated ... i currently dont have linux on my system :( so should i just stick with mandrake or go ahead and try caldera? and back to the basic question, how is Caldera? friendly to newbs etc ? thanks in advance

[TheMuso]

I don't think it is looked upon very favourably by the LNO community, and I have never used it, but just try it. Nobody is stopping you.

[Derango]

I tried to install it and it wouldent get past botting the kernel for the install...maybe I had a bad burn though.

[bigrigdriver]

You didn't say which version of Caldera's distro you are trying to install. I've had OpenLinux 3Desktop 2.4 for over a year. It installed without a problem. The only problems out of the box are USB support (upgrade to kernel 2.2.18 to fix that) and sound (my sound card was the problem. Fixed the prob with OSSLinux-the commercial version of OSSlite). Otherwise, ALL my problems were problems of my own creation.

[PimpHolic]

well i never realized how old the version that came with my book was, 2.2 :( but i find mandrake a bit to friendly to the newb and i would like to try something that would make me feel more comfortable in linux faster..that would require me to configure a few things etc. i think i might as well just stop whining and go ahead and do the install :)

[bdg1983]

I've been using Caldera since I bought my first Linux book that included OpenLinux 1.3. Though by the time I got 1.3 installed (didn't get X up and running), 2.2 was released and I purchased the retail package. I had no problems with 2.2 and then 2.3 was released. Ran that for awhile until eDesktop 2.4 came out.

I use eDesktop 2.4 on my main pc (single os) at work and in the 9 months I've used it I've never had a single problem. Netware support, Mainframe connectivity, burned around 400 cd's using XCDRoast etc. Never had any problems with hardware as when the install has completed, X works, sound works, everything works.

Now that OpenLinux Workstation 3.1 has been released, I have installed it on my 2nd work pc and one of my home pc's so far. 3.1 has the 2.4.2 kernel, kde 2.1 and X4.0.3. I've been upgrading both 3.1 installs to X4.1, 2.4.7 kernel and eventually the latest kde.

I'm very impressed with their latest version and will have it installed on both work pc's and both of my main home pc's.

You can checkout the specs and included software for Workstation 3.1 at www.caldera.com. (http://www.caldera.com.)

If you decide to give Caldera a try and you need some help, feel free to contact me.

[PimpHolic]

Caldera 3.1 Workstation simply ROCKS!! not a sigle problem and i got to play solitare during the install :) those couple of games of solitare were more frustrating than the install could ever be

[bdg1983]

What did I tell you...

Did you receive my email this morning?

I guess that's the reason Caldera just anounced today that McDonald's is switching all 4,000 outlets to Caldera OpenUnix. They must be doing something right.

[ 30 July 2001: Message edited by: mdwatts the 3rd ]

[Sweede]

I hate linux, im pretty sure thats well known.

but i know what linux is good for and what it isnt, While debian is the demi-god of linux distro's, for absolute newbies or people that want a no hasstle Linux distro without baby hand-holding like mandrake or redhat (i.e. Corporate Linux Distro), it WILL be Caldera.

The installer rocked (well server did, workstation wouldnt load lizard for some reason?), KDE 2.x rocked, Caldera's tools for changing things rocked. it worked with both of my video cards (ya, i run dual monitor), worked with my Printer (better than any other distro that ive used), worked with my mouse and even installed and correctly configured my Diamond Viper II Savage 2000 chipset video card.

the only thing that i couldnt get to work was my f00king soundcard. but awe64 ISA card is a ***** without sndconfig, but if you know your IRQ/IO/DMA channels its ok.

[Rob 'Feztaa' Park]

Hmm, I should try Caldera... At first I liked the baby hand-holding of Mandrake, because I'm so absolutely new... but now it's just getting in the way. (I'm not sure if this is true for all installations of Mandrake, but my operation of my computer is 100% dependant on the presence and functionality of Aurora (the thing that masks the textual loading information with a useless graphical interface). All my attempts to reconfigure or remove Aurora have resulted in a near complete system failure (IE, ethernet adaptor wouldn't work, and neither would mouse. So not only am I isolated from the online help I need, but I"m also forced to use CLI to fix my problems, which I am not fully familiar with). The only way for me to get around that is a full reinstall, which pisses me off, because it takes so long and is so unnecessary...

uh, [/rant] :)

[PimpHolic]

yeah caldera is great..im really new but mandrake was just a bit too easy..openlinux detected ALL of my hardware even my optical usb mouse and so far im loving it..if only linux had internet explorer.. :)

[bdg1983]

i got to play solitare during the install

Previous versions had Tetris and Pacman. It's just to show the power of Linux compared to Windows.

[Tualha Khan]

Same here, I was not even able to get through the install section Go for redhat!

Bye,
Tualha Khan

[bdg1983]

And Redhat is guaranteed to install on all hardware? Not by the posts I've seen here.

There are too many variables to guarantee that any distro will install perfectly on any system. Pays to do the research first.