It was definitely novice-ware. These guys made a Linux install just about as easy as a generic MS Windows installation. I really mean generic. As with any Linux distribution, if you run into hardware installation problems you need to know how to manipulate Linux to make it work. Things just aren't as simple as running setup.exe in the Linux world, no matter what anyone says.
Progeny is very robust and stable.
Go for the boxed set. You'll get better technical help, documentation, and you'll also support the Progeny community. One thing I'd really like to see after Progeny gets established is a knowledge-base on their website. The folks at Progeny really showed us that Linux can be really easy to install. Haven't really found any except for the standard Linux hardware detection problems.