Yes, it comes with three distributions of Linux: SlackWare, RedHat, and Caldera Lite. I started with the RedHat edition and gave up after three attmpts. It simply would not install on my system. The SlackWare version went on very smoothly. However, once getting it installed, the book does not help very much when configuring XFree86. It scares the user instead of assisting the user with multiple typical examples. Similarly on configuring PPP and using auto-dialing. It covers a few files and points the reader to How-To files on the Internet. This book is not for intemediate Windows users trying to figure out Linux. It lacks a cohesive roadmap, a description of sequence and processes for configuring systems to accomplish real world tasks. It's a little like reading a dictionary when you were looking for a "how to" manual. Overall, this appears to be a rehash of material available on the Internet with the author providing one sample thread through the process.

I am new to Linux but have worked on Windows 95/NT for many years. After reading "Using Caldera OpenLinux 2.2," I was able to do just about everything in OpenLinux 2.2 that I currently do in Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. I was able to connect to the internet, create a WordPerfect document, customize the GUI, and install new applications. One downfall to the book is that it often used "print screens" from OpenLinux 1.3 (the previous version of OpenLinux). For my soundcard, the book recommended that I buy a commercial driver from 4Front technologies; I wish the book would have given me instructions on installing the free OSS sound driver.

The CD included with the book is superb. It includes Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 with WordPerfect 8.0 and hundreds of open source applications. KDE, the graphical user interface to OpenLinux 2.2, is better than the Microsoft Windows GUI. "Que Using Caldera OpenLinux 2.2" and the OpenLinux 2.2 distribution of Linux is a must for anyone new to the Linux community.

When I first installed Caldera OpenLinux on my PC, I was a newcomer to Linux and didn't really know my way around. Caldera does provide decent documentation for its product, but the installation and user's guide is a bit spare fora newbie to make much use of. This book is the one that took me from being a wet-eared newbie to a competent OpenLinux user. The book assumes that you know very little about Linux and gives you an introduction to the history of Linux, the open source philosophy, the distributions of Linux and a host of other pertinent information before taking through Star Office, the K Desktop Environment (using and manipualting), the command line, package management with RPM, the file system, configuring the X Server, configuring sound, the file system, networking (including using Samba and NetWare), connecting to the Internet, reading the XF86Config file, tweaking, programming languages, compiling source code, shell scripting, runlevels, troubleshooting, and a range of almost every possible problem that a home user or small office user will run into. This book can get quite in depth, and is suitable for those who want to get into Linux quite deeply, or for simple casual use as a reference guide. This is the one book that should ship with every version of Caldera. With this book, you'll find that Linux really can be quite fun to learn and quite easy as well.