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OpenLinux 2.2 Released
An anonymous reader wrote in to say that
OpenLinux 2.2 is official if
you're looking for a change of pace. Might want to check
out the review we posted earlier too.
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This one should start some more sparks in the great MS vs Linux battle, or so to say. Linux just keeps moveing on, I love it. I install a system and 30 seconds later it's out of date. :)
Look at this neto toy at www.linuxhaven.com
This one should start some more sparks in the great MS vs Linux battle, or so to say. Linux just keeps moveing on, I love it. I install a system and 30 seconds later it's out of date. :)
Look at this neto toy at www.linuxhaven.com
Debian has established itself as The Geek Distribution.
Caldera seems poised to snatch the newbie market and is also aiming for the Enterprise market. Love it.
What about Red Hat with it's pathetic Fvwm95? What is Red Hat aiming at?
If there is any truth to the hype of this product, I would like to congratulate Caldera on a job well done. I wish you success.
Currently a Debian user.
Go to the caldera website and click on the download link.
There is no download link at www.calderasystems.com. Sorry.
It shows up with a graphical browser like IE or Netscape not under a Linux browser like Lynx.
But GNOME is not targeted at newbies, it's targeted at geeks. Since you can run Gnome perfectly well on Debian which is itself targeted at geeks, why bother with Red Hat?
I'm an old RedHat user, and I've installed Redhat on 9 different systems. However on my own personal workstation I think I will give COL 2.2 a try--Redhat is just not good enough in this area.
Is there anyway to do an FTP install like you can with Redhat?
I don't think so. They are pushing pretty hard to get the LSB done (Caldera will do the reference implementation, for example). Also they release all their software as freeware (for example COAS).
Furthermore, they support free software projects such as KDE.
All in all, Caldera is pretty much like RedHat when it comes to openess. Only that COL seems to be the much more advanced distribution.
Another review at InfoWorld
However PartitionMagic is not free, so an ftp install wouldn't meet the needs of the target market, which is Windows users.
I don't know if you can actually do an ftp install, or if you have to download everything first to somewhere. I'm just going to go for the package at cost. I need a manual anyways.
Yes, lets all use Red Hat Linux and Fvwm95. As if.
Four months we upgraded a RedHat 5.2 machine from Linux kernel 2.0.36 to 2.2.0 without loosing any functionality. In fact, we gained the ability to access Novell server via NDS authentication.
When we attempted the same thing with OpenLinux v1.3, all the cronjobs related to Novell services had to be rewritten. The reason for this is that Caldera's Netware client/administration support is heavily dependant on a prioritary CLOSE SOURCE kernel module called nkfs.o. So, with OpenLinux 2.2, you can now get locked into using the 2.2.5 kernel. I don't see that it is worth it. We already rewrote all the Novell support scripts on the OpenLinux 1.3 machine to use the Open Source Novell client. Why downgrade back into a prioritary method that locks us into an already outdated version of the kernel?! Is nkfs.o available for linux kernel 2.2.6? If we continue to buy into Caldera, will it be another four months of waiting after the 2.4.0 kernel releases that we will be finally locked into a 2.4.x kernel instead of 2.2.x? What if the hardware we desire to use is only supported in 2.3.x, maybe even being a non-standard patch which will not appear in the 2.2.x series? Is being locked into prioritary kernel development good bussiness? Is it really getting it all connected?
caldera has the ftp sites for 1.3, but haven't heard anything about 2.2 if they get flak for not putting up for free download they will do it. Thats the last thing they want is negative PR.
just switched from RedHat5.2 to TurboLinux3.4 myself, very easy install, the TurboDesktop is nice with lots of Xconfig utils built in, but its easy to switch to kde.
-brc
hate it, yep
If Linux "crushes" MS then Linux is no better than MS and Linus is no better than BillG. Boy, the Linux community sure has changed its tune these last couple of years. What a bunch of mindless, angry, flaming lemmings... :(
Does caldera contribute anything to free software? I know Red Hat does (gnome and all) but I don't remember anything from Caldera.
Of course they contribute. They contribute thousands of dollars per month for at least one big project, they've funded developers of free software and they've contributed code.
If you notice Redhat puts a name for
each of their different distributions in the
/etc/issue. Like "Manhattan" and "Hurricane"
They contribute to the KDE project, the have the COAS (Caldera Open Administration System).
Linux IPX drivers, etc
Download the whitepaper. Lots of screenshots.
Alex Bischoff
---
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
Posted by OGL:
I can't seem to get through at all.
-W.W.
They've always had the core of their distribution entangled with some proprietary app or just kernel modules. That's rather been the original point of their existence: Linux + proprietary Netware extensions.
That's made kernel upgrades quite fun for some of their customers (binary modules) in past.
Now, we have a distro that can't really 'hold its own' without some 3rd party proprietary app to prop itself up with.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Anyone read the description of that in the documentation?
Sounds like they took some "important" packages and cleaned up the code. Sounds good so far, but then they mention compatability. If they broke some common libs to work only with Caldera products it would kill their product, or at least get a very harsh backlash from the community. Hopefully they just added some comments in the code and talked with the authors about any other changes.
dave
I was lucky enough to get a copy of 2.2 when Ransom Love came to speak at our LUG meeting in New York. I did however have some problems with the new graphical install(Lizard). After preparing my HD I booted from the CD and the install would hang while trying to probe my 2940UW. So I tried making a boot disk, which identified the SCSI card, but it couldn t properly identify the X-server for my graphics card(a Fire GL 1000 Pro), so I ended up using the plain ol terminal based install(Lisa) which worked fine but there was a problem in getting the mouse to initialize properly. After working that out which required a reboot before attempting to install the X-server, things seemed to work well. One of the biggest problems was that there was no documentation at all, which might of been of assistance in identifying the X- server properly. All and all it wasn t as smooth as I had hoped, but when I got it up and running it worked great.
I think you're over-reacting. All of the distributions patch up the original source code of the included packages in order to ensure that everything works as a coherent whole, and to conform to the in-house standards for that distro. Debian does this, Red Hat does this. This fact is even reflected by the .rpm and .deb package formats: patches against the original source are kept fully distinct from each other, in order to ensure the respective integrity of both versions. Quite often, the changes made by individual distros are rolled back into the orginal, if the changes made are general and useful outside of the specific distro. However, just as often the changes made are not useful outside the specfic distro. One of the greatest advantages of free software is your freedom to modify the original version *without* the hassle of getting special permission from the original authors. This freedom brings an enormous advantage to the distributor in terms of maintainablilty. Just one more reason why free software in general, and Linux in particular are so great. :)
----Daniel Pearson of the UMBC LUG
OpenLinux's bundling of glibc 2.1 bothers me. I just finished spending two hours downgrading my Debian 2.1 system to glibc 2.0.7 after installing the new glibc 2.1 from potato. It just broke too many things, including Java (the Blackdown JDK 1.1.7 won't start due to a runtime linker error, and JDK 1.2 only works with green threads and no JIT) and several KDE applications refused to run because of similar runtime linker errors. The ironic thing is that I only installed the new glibc in the process of installing apache-mod-jserv from potato to run Java servlets, which (through a chain of dependencies) required glibc 2.1, despite the fact that the JDK itself wasn't compatible with glibc 2.1!
I've had equally poor luck trying to upgrade RedHat systems to GLIBC 2.1 using Rawhide. It's just a mess right now, and I don't understand why the glibc maintainers didn't just bump the version number to libc7, and save us all the hassle of trying to upgrade everything all at once! This is just as bad than the a.out->ELF transition, where some apps would require a certain (older) version of libc5, while others required a different (newer) version.
I don't think Caldera has solved the problem either, since they're bundling JDK 1.0.2 with OpenLinux. If you have any interest at all in Java, you'd best sit this one out for a few months, until the folks at Blackdown have a chance to release a good JDK version that supports GLIBC 2.1, and until all of your other non-open-source application vendors have a chance to recompile everything that broke in the transition...
--
Jake
Although I prefer to have a totally free package, they are nice by throwing in a few word processors. Sounds like a Linux package for mom to get started with.
There were just a few details on the requirements for installing that caught my eye: minimum hard drive space was 12MB was listed on the first page (nice!), but on the hardware page it listed 160MB to 1.2 GB. I don't think the 12MB is the full graphical install they were talking about.
Caldera went from version 1.3 up to version 2.2 and although it seems strange that there's no version 2.0 I actually think this is a good idea because their version number is in line with the kernel version included with their distribution.
It is a common cause for newbies who think the version of their distribution is the version of Linux their using. (I'm sick of people talking about 'Linux 6.0' when they mean for example SuSE 6.0 or 'Linux 5.1' when they mean RedHat 5.1.
As Caldera is aiming their distribution towards the newbies hopefully their version numbering scheme will clear things up although it's too late for most other distributions (except Debian) to follow a similar naming scheme as if they started to go to kernel numbers to identify their distributions it would appear very strange.
Imagine upgrading from RedHat 6.0 to RedHat 2.2.5!!
It's a shame that despite their name Caldera appears to be the least open of all linux distributors.
But good luck to Caldera if this product is half as user friendly as it's made out to be it could be the entry point to a whole new generation of Linux users.
--
As far as I know, Caldera doesn't make their
distros free for download.
-Leo.
-- I am not a fanatic, I am a true believer.
I see their name everytime I boot my PC
I run Mandrake 5.3
Are you posting in double or are my eyes
playing tricks on me?
I've had a hard time with winblows today
but I don't recall taking a drink.
Since they use Partition Magic to do the Windows installation of Linux, how are they going to handle people downloading the entire distribution?? Is Powerquest allowing them to put a "Caldera" verion of Partition Magic up for download with the distribution?? And if so, I wonder which features, if any, they won't include in it.
I don't know for sure, but in the past, Caldera has created a "lite" version of its distribution which has all of the non-free (in the monetary sense) software stripped out. This is most likely what will be available for download.
Of all the comments I've ever posted, this is definately one of them
You would of had a easier time simply upgrading all the way to potato. Basically installing stuff from another Debian version is not smart, and definately not recommended. Debian Potato works just fine with glibc2.1, and only very few packages still need to be rebuilt.
I was able to get in this morning and place an order online. Unable to get in all day untill just now.
Can we say KDE.
I am installing it and I see KDE.
It is installed and rebooting and I see KDE.
LiLo goes away and I see KDE.
KDM instead of console and I did not want it nor
select any options to have it run. Heck, I did
not even get a list of packages to choose from.
only three options: minimal, normal and a full install.
I went back three times to see what the
fourth, no-name, check box was, and to see if
I could maybe have some control over what I got
on my machine. Kinda sucks when you loose control
just so that it can be easier to isntall for others.
Oh, well though. I guess that is just the way it must be. Or not?
010110000010110101010100011110010111000001100101
And they let you watch them install it serveral times over.
010110000010110101010100011110010111000001100101
Also, the documentation contains several other typos... have they actual proofread this stuff? Besides the petty mistakes I am pointing out here, this looks like it could be a really nice distribution!
looking around, don't see it yet
"I want peace on earth and good will toward men." "We're the U.S. government. We don't do that sort of thing!!"
Well I don't know what you've been doing, but I have never had that problem. I moved up to the 2.2 kernel just fine with a few minor upgrades, like ppp for instance, and it has worked beautifully. My biggest problem with them has been the lack of a new version for so long, leaving me to compile the new librarys and the such. Oh well, now we have the newest of new and we may all rejoice. :)
Actually Caldera has allways made their distro's available for download.
With ver 1.1 & 1.2 they made a lite version that didn't include any commercial software that was restricted by liscence. That included their nwclient software, metro-x etc.
With 1.3 they got rid of the lite and standard version all together, instead making a single version off the base. getting rid of any commercial software that they can't distribute over download and moving apps like nwclient to a new license free to use with the system, so the 1.3 download area is exactly the same files you get on the cd.
Currently I'm in the process of downloading 2.2 at this very moment and it looks similiar to the 1.3 setup so I expect most if not all files to be there.
Goto the "tryout" section and fill in the form and it will give you a link to the ftp directory area.
Or even better just ncftp to ftp.calderasystems.com/pub/OpenLinux/2.2
Been down this road myself with Linux-Mandrake 5.3 just yesterday. I installed rawhide glibc 2.1 because Samba 2.0.3 wanted it. This completely broke Blackdown's JDK 1.1.7 and 1.2. Also, after installing glibc 2.1, there seemed to be a HUGE memory leak somewhere. I installed glibc 2.1 Friday. Monday morning, my workstation was crawling. I couldn't figure out from top what was eating all the memory (the X server maybe), but I was quickly forced to reboot. I don't think glibc 2.1 is ready from prime-time yet.
Randy Weems
caldera couldnt give the cds away fast enough...
Wait for Red Hat 6, or download Red Hat 5.9. The default window manager is Enlightenment + GNOME, and has all the latest libs and programs.
I still don't like Red Hat, but use it for the lack of something I like better! I like slackware, but I want glibc. I'd try Debian, but I don't have the time to go through its complex install. I might give OpenLinux a try...
the name "openlinux" had to do (originally) with their original name for DR-DOS, which was OpenDOS (i think.) Although it wasn't very open.
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
I think this sort of thing is great, as long as we keep our eyes on the ball - I want to see linux as inclusive as possible. If COL2.2 brings more people to the linux fold, that's great. Let's hope it doesn't push people away, because I've heard some nasty things about it being said, but I don't think that will happen. I think we're just expanding the global linux family, which can only be good. Surely the future is a linux for everybody?
"Elmo knows where you live!" - The Simpsons
>
Is that a problem? If Linux crushes Microsoft as Linus suggested today SOMEONE will have the majority of the market. There will never be an even split
where are you downloading from? i only see 1.3 in /pub on ftp.caldera.com
thanks
I thihnk it's good that Red Hat is getting some competition. Too many people are getting the idea that Red Hat = Linux. Sounds like Micro$oft all over again. Is Bob Young trying to build another empire or what? Yuck.
Keep Linux free - keep those releases coming, everyone!
-Ed Carp, http://www.pobox.com/~erc, erc@pobox.com
-- Ed Carp, N7EKG erc@pobox.com PGP KeyID: 0x0BD32C9B What I'm up to: http://intuitives.mine.nu
I think it's good that Red Hat is getting some competition. Too many people are getting the idea that Red Hat = Linux. Sounds like Micro$oft all over again. Is Bob Young trying to build another empire or what? Yuck.
Keep Linux free - keep those releases coming, everyone!
-Ed Carp, http://www.pobox.com/~erc, erc@pobox.com
-- Ed Carp, N7EKG erc@pobox.com PGP KeyID: 0x0BD32C9B What I'm up to: http://intuitives.mine.nu