Reviewed:OpenLinux 2.2. Caldera Systems, 240 West Center Street, Orem, UT 84057. Web: http://www.calderasystems.com. List price: $49.99.
Reviewed:
OpenLinux 2.2. Caldera Systems, 240 West Center Street, Orem, UT 84057. Web: http://www.calderasystems.com. List price: $49.99.
People who use Linux instead of relying on the Windows operating system -- the diehard users -- actually believe they're in a war, fighting against those trying to steal the soul of computing. Their latest weapon in this battle is Caldera System's OpenLinux 2.2.
There are many versions of Linux available in commercial packages or via download from the Internet, but I selected OpenLinux because Microsoft used it during its antitrust trial to prove that Windows had competition. In a videotape submitted as part of Microsoft's defense, the company's staff showed a computer running a graphical user interface and a number of applications including a look-alike "Office" suite running under Caldera's OpenLinux. Microsoft's megabuck law firm considers it to be an alternative to Windows 98, and some computer users might agree.
Although Caldera's package notes that OpenLinux 2.2 is easy to install and use, I started by doing something many computer users never do: I read the manual. I even went through the 212-page getting-started guide not once, but twice.
Where does Linux live in your computer? In its own "partition," the technical term for an area in the computer's main memory that is reserved for a particular application or group of programs. Included in the OpenLinux package is PowerQuest's Partition Magic, which creates a Linux partition from unused space on your hard disk and allows Linux to peacefully coexist with Windows. I ordered my new PC with a 10 gigabyte hard disk so I would have room for Windows 98, plus enough space for Linux.
When I tried to install PowerQuest's BootMagic, so I could switch between Windows and Linux on start-up, I discovered that it's not compatible with DataViz's MacOpener.
Before I could install BootMagic, I had to uninstall MacOpener, then reinstall it after BootMagic was installed. When I finally got into Windows, I discovered that almost all my desktop icons-including the recycling bin-were gone. "My Computer" and "My Documents" were there, but the rest? Poof! In addition, most of the shortcuts in my Start menu were trashed. My modem setup was missing, and I had to reinstall the driver software in order to check my email. I tried reinstalling Windows, but it didn't help. My recycle bin is now a virtual one I created as a shortcut.
KDE Desktop is awesome, and Microsoft's interface designers could learn much from it. It's truly customizable and you can use themes including the KDE default, Windows, Mac OS and Jean-Louis Gase's BeOS.
The software included is a mixed bag. Although the OpenLinux installer let me set the interface at millions of colors, Netscape Communicator looks like it's running on a Mac Plus. But that was the only application so affected.
I never could get WordPerfect to actually launch. GIMP, a Photoshop wannabe, looks like it has tremendous potential as a Linux image editor, but right now it seems aimed at early adopters. I'm sure that given time, I could get all of these glitches solved, but the task is daunting.
I've long been a champion of Linux as an alternative to Windows, and was prepared to enjoy the alternative it provides for many computer users. That wasn't the case for me, but I think that over time it will be.
OpenLinux is for those who want to spend time tinkering with--rather than using--their computers. While there is much to like about OpenLinux 2.2, I have faith in the future and will hold out for version 2.5. In the meantime, the package is so inexpensive that if you like to fool with OSes and have an old computer that has lots of noncritical data, you might want to give it a try.
--ComputerUser Magazine Contributing Editor Joe Farace is a Colorado writer and photographer. Copyright 1999 by ComputerUser.com Inc. Used by permission. Note: After ComputerUser published this review, Linux released OpenLinux version 2.3.
Sidebar: How not to install Linux: A cautionary tale from "Tech Tomorrow" columnist Tom Egan on the hazards of incorrectly installing software.
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