To Caldera or not to Caldera

[Janina Sajka]

I'm looking for a little advice from the sages on this list. I'm about to
buy a new portable computer. From the hardware side I've pretty settled on
getting yet another IBM Thinkpad. I've had good enough experience with
them for some years now to feel comfortable getting another Thinkpad. This
will be my third in a row.

IBM has actively begun supporting linux in that they now offer one of
their leading Thinkpad models with Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4
preinstalled. So, here's the dilemma--Shall I get the preinstalled linux
and then patch with Speakup and tweak for my needs? Or should I just get
the hardware I want and go with an install from scratch? I have no
experience with Caldera whatsoever. All my working experience on Linux has
been with RedHat (plus a few forays into Debian). My desktop system is
running RedHat, and I'm keeping that system for the foreseeable future.

So, what would you do? And, how would you decide?

On the plus side I see two advantages, primarily. First, I think I can
assume the unit will be functional out of the box. Or, is that
foolhardy? Is it likely to be functional in X, but have many console text
features missing?

My second reason for going with the preinstalled system is that I want to
get vmware running for Windows access in a Linux console. I've never
succeeded at getting X working on my own--so have always fallen short of
this goal to date. I feel I'm ahead of the game if I get a working X
environment out of the box. Is this enough reason to go with the
preinstalled Caldera?

I very much appreciate any wisdom you would share on this. Thanks in
advance to all of you.


-- 

				Janina Sajka, Director
				Information Systems Research & Development
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

janina at afb.net