To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Date:	Mon, 30 Oct 2000 00:29:23 -0800
Subject:	Re: A little history
Message-ID:	<20001030.010348.-4123357.0.domanspc@juno.com>
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From:	Robert W Moss <domanspc AT juno DOT com>
Reply-To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com

Sorry chad, It's all a matter of semantics.
When you bought the DRDOS package from Caldera you only bought the rights
to install and use 'their' software on one personal computer, and they
reserve the rights to the software.  It is printed on the CDs (All Rights
Reserved) and it is part of the software installation package.  You must
agree to their terms or cancel installation and send the software back to
them. (Thank you Mr. Bill Gates).  You are not authorized to do any
modifications to the software or change the package in any way, by adding
to or deleting from what came in the box. (You can only do that if you
wrote the software or they sell you the copyright, which they are not
stupid enough to do.) You can't copy and give away or sell any disks nor
any documentation that you recieved with the package and it is serialized
so they will always know who it is registered to. 

When you bought the OpenLinux package you only paid Caldera for putting
it in a nice neat package for you, and for the rights to use their
copyrighted Lizard installation package which makes it easy to setup Ngu
Linux and all of the other copyrighted software in the box.  You don't
own Caldera's Desktop or Lizard, nor Netscape, Adobe Acrobat Reader, on
and on and on, ....there are over 50 copyrighted items listed on my
OpenLinux 2.4 box which are owned by the copyright holders.  Linus has
copyrighted the linux kernal so noone can sell it and anyone who wants to
change it must go through him.  Corel is so happy yought "bought" Linux
from them that they will charge you $175US just to talk to them after 30
days, and after 90 days they want $495US to answer your e-mails.  Of
course that offer expired on 30 June 2000, so it must be much more now.
And, of course, the only things they help you with are (Per my OpenLinux
2.4 manual): 

CD installation on supported hardware
       (you have to go to http://www.calderasystems.com/support/hardware/
 to find out     
         what is supported before you start installing.  )
Basic configuration of the graphical system (XFree86) 
Basic network configuration of TCP/IP,IPX, and the NetWare Client 
Basic configuration of an e-mail client 
Basic configuration of printing 
Basic configuration of a PPP connection to an ISP via modem using kppp 
Basic configuration of supported sound cards 

and in order to get any of the above support you are required to provide
them with "their" serial number which you must register with them before
they will help you.   

In your case, you could take an inventory of all your hardware and
contact the manufacturers of each piece to see if they have released a
new linux driver.  I would also go to the M/B manufacturers website and
see if there is a flash bios upgrade available.  I was even able to get
one from Gateway for a P90 motherboard.
You can go to 
ftp://ftp.Calderasystems.com/  
and download the scourcecode for the newer OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4, which
will problably include the latest Linux kernel, 
and the latest updated information is available from
http://www.calderasystems.com/support/docs/  .  
If you think the manual was lacking in clarity or was poorly written they
want to hear from you at docs AT calderasystems DOT com.

If you can invest a few dollars in a copy of the Maximum Linux magazine,
they usually have a version of GnuLinux available (for free?) on the
included CD, and they have a lot of good articles on the Linux world and
detailed instructions on installing the version of Linux.  You might want
to try it out.  In the last 3 issues they had 5 versions of Linux.

Hope you are able to get your system up and running soon. 
I have problems with mine, also, but all my three main systems are full
of WINDOZE hardware, which will have to replace or fall back to one of my
old legacy 386/486 systems and pray a lot.

BOB 'DOMAN' MOSS  "It's a FLAW, Dammit, not a Bug" "We fixed it, Really" 
(Intel didn't call the Pentium a 586 because they added 486 and 100 and
only got 585.999983605)

On Mon, 30 Oct 2000 00:43:19 -0500 fernande AT internet1 DOT net writes:
> Robert,
> 
> Robert W Moss wrote:
> > 
> > What's to like?  You did not buy "Linux" or DR DOS from Caldera.
> 
> Yes I did.  I bought DRDOS from Caldera before they split the 
> company. 
> I also bought OpenLinux 2.3, but haven't been able to install it.  
> It
> hangs on all my machines.
> 
> The part that I don't like is SCO selling what they are know for...
> Unix.  Also they seem to be wanting to combine Linux and Unix.  From
> what I have read in Usenet Unix is still the heavy hitter, Linux is
> making progress, but still has its flaws compared to Unix.
> 
> Chad Fernandez
> Michigan, USA
> 
> > Linux is free for the downloading from many sites on the WWW.
> > They are in business to build a "Distribution" of Linux for their
> > Commercial Customers and that means they take all of the
> > "Free GnuLinux" software out in the web and test it in combination
> > with various combinations of other modules and pick the ones they
> > think are the most stable to put in the "Distribution Package".
> > Anything they use from the Gnu Linux libraries that they modify
> > must be put into the GPL Pool.  Caldera has been known for years
> > as one of the most stable distributions while Red Hat is known for
> > it's 'cutting edge' distribution.  They sell a lot of custom
> > distributions
> > for use on commercial business site servers and workstations.
> > Individual Linux sales to PC users is problably less than 5 
> percent
> > of their business.  They also make money from Lineo for the
> > customized DOS system installations that are sold to businesses
> > and that's why we can get a free personal use copy of DR DOS from
> > Lineo.
> > 
> > BOB 'DOMAN' MOSS' "Chocolate is a vitamin"

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