[SMAUG] Caldera Workstation 3.1

[Raphael Dorado]

On Tuesday 07 August 2001 09:57 am, you wrote:
  #  Calvin,
  #
  #  In addition to the suggestions i included in my last post
  #  (which was sent from my new e-mail address so the list moderator
  #  must approve it), the following suggestion may prove helpful:
  #
  #    "...try and use the tab key to get to the next screen.
  #     The "tab between fields" is the same as it is in Windows.
  #     It may just not be detecting his mouse and he just needs to
  #     get to the next screen to select it manually"
  #
  #  Raphael,
  #
  #  Perhaps you wouldn't mind relating your experiences with OpenLinux 3.1
  #  and provide some/any technical details as to why you so discourage its
  #  use ?
  #  Although i certainly appreciate and admire the quality of several distributions
  #  (Mandrake and SuSE in particular), i find Caldera's OpenLinux 3.1 to be by far
  #  the most stable Linux 2.4 and LSB oriented development environment. Further,
  #  inclusion of KDE, StarOffice and many other applications makes it an easy
  #  transition for the Windows user. I've also included GNOME, AbiWord, xlHtml
  #  and about 500 well-integrated RPMS on the Open Source Supplement CD.

Ronald,

Caldera has released a Linux distribution with proprietary software whose source
code is not available. This is what I call "non-free" software (as in speech).
This forces people to get support from Caldera and pay for it, in opposition
with the other major distributions for which support is available from the other
members of the community. Caldera is going against the Linux philosophy.
That's why I mentioned that support for Caldera from this forum would be
difficult to get, most of the Linux savvy people belonging to the group would
not install Caldera because they would have to pay for support if they can not
get something going on. That's what I meant by "descent", descent in regard
to the Linux philosophy where private users should get a workstation operating
system with support from the user base.

The Linux community (in general) has a grief against Caldera because its
behavior is to take and not give. In comparison RedHat, Mandrake, Suse add
extra value to Linux adding drivers, internationalization and ports to new
platforms. When was the last time Caldera did something useful for user
lambda ? 

I have no doubt that Caldera OpenLinux is one of the best Window$ to Linux
transition distribution. The only experience I had with Caldera linux was a demo
made at PCUSC (PC users of Santa Cruz) by a teenager whose parent(s) work
for SCO. It was probably a 2.x release, but I was very disappointed by the (non)
hardware detection.

My opinion is that you need end user acceptance for a Linux distribution. When
accomplished, the distributor can then make money on services linked to the
deployment of their distribution in companies where real expertise is needed.

--Raf