So, I installed the Caldera technology preview on Argo. Not a bad little bundle for $0. :)

Argo is currently running under the 2.4 preview kernel, and in XFree86 4, although I can't exhactly say I feel any of the exhileration which normally accompanies such milestones, since I really did none of the work in actually getting it to run. All the video hardware was auto detected,

It booted from the install cd straight into VGA mode, apparently before the boot loader even had the kernel in memory. From there, it was mostly a matter of clicking Next, Next, Next, checkbox here and there, Next again, Next, Next, Next. Play Mahjongg while the packages install, and Finish.

I decided just for the hell of it to try running in the max resolution supported by my monitor (1280x1024) with the max virtual desktop size it would do (1800x1440). I think one could quickly go insane under such a configuration. Couple that with the fact that it sticks you right into KDE by default, and it's probably enough to make even the most placid soul go into convulsions.

So anyway, after having installed it, and poked around for a few minutes, I'll list a few observations so far:

Positives:

• Quick, simple install. Yep, for new users, this one's gotta be up there on the ease of install scale. If we're talking about seriously competing against the Windows market, it's gotta be something that any idiot can get up and running this quickly.
• The Mahjongg game during package install. I'm happily stepping through the install wizard, and suddenly, right in the portion of the screen where I had been selection configuration options, there's this little game window with instructions on how to play. I was sitting here going, "What the...???" But it looked interesting, so I decided to go ahead and play, and I noted that the percentage bar on the bottom of the screen was gradually moving as my game went on. By the time I finished (and lost) my game, the install was over, but I decided to go ahead and play another anyway. Addictive. Key lesson to be learned: Distract the users while lengthy processes are happening in the background. Very clever indeed.
• Gimp 1.1.24. Ok, I suppose this is to be expected in any bleeding edge distro, but it's frankly been a while since I updated my Gimp, and it was just cool to see how it's progressing. (Oh, and the splash screen says "Gimp 1.2 Prerelease". Now, let us all salivate in anticipation of the announcement of the next stable release, with all the awesome new features to be had.)

Peeves and annoyances:

• It never gave me a keyboard layout choice. Ok, there was a dialog near the beginning with a bunch of different country keyboard layouts, but not a Dvorak option in sight. Contrast this to Mandrake, where nearly the first thing it asks you about is keyboard type, and with everything from that point on, it wasn't an issue. With Caldera, even after the whole install was over, and I was at the login prompt, it was still in yucky old Qwerty. Major usability problem.
• Sound card wierdness. Ok, I suppose it's a plus that the installer even tried to identify my sound card during installation, since most distros elect to leave that until later. And in truth, I'm not even sure this is a Caldera problem. It did detect that I had a card (although it didn't tell me what it was). It did play sound, but before I could hear it, I had to take the speakers out of the front jack and plug them into the rear. Wierd. Even now, playing an mp3, it's only coming out of the rear. So I guess this one is actually a plus and a minus. It's cool that they do it, but it needs refinement.
• 3d stuff doesn't work out of the box (for me at least). Another tall order. It detected my Matrox fine during install, and got X working nicely. Unfortunately, none of the GL screensavers will even run at all. I'll probably have to do some backend tinkering to figure out why. This is understandable, given the current unstable state of so many of the drivers.
• A lot of the KDE stuff doesn't seem to want to run, or gives errors when you try to start apps. For example, KWord. Always in search of better ways to deal with the hideous and cumbersome file formats cursed onto us by the idiots of the world, I got a little excited when I saw it on the menu. Unfortunately, when I tried to launch it, I got a segfault on startup. Doh! Maybe next time. Seems like some other KDE programs I tried to start were giving me problems too. Not stable yet.

In summary, this distro looks like it's got some cool potential, although I think it's a bit too geared at the newbie user to make me want to stick with it. I have a suspicion that I might be doing a total hard drive wipe sometime next week (or maybe even this weekend), at which time I shall commence outfitting Argo with a REAL Linux distribution. The only real Linux distribution. Woody, here we come! :)

(Okay, so maybe Slackware counts too. But since I haven't tried it at all since 97, I can't really be a good judge. Maybe I should do so. Hmmmm.... :)

Ok, it's my bedtime. Goodnight world.