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Corel releases Photo-Paint for Linux for Free
Corel has released Photo-Paint for Linux for free. You can go to their web site and download it (there are packages for RPM and DEB although its compressed with .tar.gz). Good work, Corel. Their FTP seems to be full, so could someone make a mirror please?
This is the greatest testament to the success of Gimp I have seen yet. Basically Corel is saying "look you have Gimp so it's tough to sell you Photopaint. Instead we are going to give it away and hope you come back to purchase those things with cash value on the Linux market.
This is not new for Corel. This is the same company that for years gave away older versions of Corel draw with Diamond Video cards. Some motherboards come with Perfect Office 8 and there is a deal that should see Corel Linux and Office for Linux distributed in the same way. I haven't seen any signs of that yet though.
It's sad but one consequence of Linux' rapid growth is that Corel will likely go under before Microsoft is able to clearly measure our impact on the desktop. KOffice will be the next Office Suite to dominate the market and even that will not have the percentages that MSOffice holds now. My advise to Corel is to help out. Do your damnedest to work with everyone else who needs to Import MSOffice files and work with some kind of standard XML.
If file formats are removed as a serious market factor then Corel will be able to squeeze 4 or 5 years of solid sales out of it's clear user interface and strong feature set lead. Otherwise it will get crushed between MSOffice and KOffice.
PS : I do know about Gnome Office but it has quite a ways to go before it is near the Office of today. The main problem is that GOffice was designed and built in different camps with varied loyalty to the Gnome core. Eventually the various parts will be fully integrated but since they were not designed that way from the ground up it will take time.
I only hope they and KDE work towards a standard XML interpretation. That way I can continue to share even the most complex of documents with others regardless of what they choose.
As for the others. Applix and StarOffice both want to become the next MSOffice and dominate in the same proprietary way. This is why they are doomed to the same fate as OS/2. Corel at least is desperate enough to and well designed enough to look at such radical options.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
With all respect to those who think this is a positive thing, we must seriously consider whether this isn't so much FreeWare as it is AbandonWare.
A few facts gleaned from The Motley Fool:
In short, I think that Corel is a company that is in serious financial trouble. I think it is far more likely that Corel is doing this not for PR--but because they're going to eliminate PhotoPaint development, support, etc. as part of their announced C$40 million cost-cutting campaign.
Don't get me wrong--I have a lot of regard for Corel. Ten years ago I was writing PostScript code generators for calibrating imagesetting equipment--and developing books and periodicals with Corel Draw and Ventura Publisher (now owned by Corel). I subsequently was a sysop on the VENTURA forum on CompuServe, and did a lot of technical illustration with Corel Draw. I've retouched hundreds of photographs with PhotoPaint.
But I think this is a sign of Corel going into the tank--not a sign of positive developments for Linux at all.
sic transit gloria....
The UI is VERY customizable -- you can configure the toolbars, menus, dialogs, and keys to be whatever and wherever you like.
The GIMP is a great project, and I applaud everyone who has put effort into it. I hope PhotoPaint can serve as a wake-up call and inspire the GIMP people to do some serious UI work.
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Below are the direct links to download this software so you dont have to waste your time trying to surf linux.corel.com :)
CorelPHOTOPAINT9Lnx.tar.gz 182520 Kb Wed Jun 28 21:00:00 2000 Unix Tape Archive
CorelPHOTOPAINT9LnxDEB.tar.gz 91989 Kb Wed Jun 28 20:54:00 2000 Unix Tape Archive
CorelPHOTOPAINT9LnxRPM.tar.gz 92601 Kb Wed Jun 28 20:56:00 2000 Unix Tape Archive
PhotoPaint 3 was made in 1992. It's not very good.
Photo-Paint 8 is excellent. It it completely cross-compatible with Adobe PhotoShop, that's with file format and layers, and filters, has a debatably easier to use interface that PhotoShop, and is not in any way weaker.
I use both regularly. There are some things that are easier to do in one program, and some that are easier to tdo in the other. I just use them intermittedly, as the file format is interchangable.
Lately, however, I've only really been using PhotoShop for lens flares (this plugin was not licensed to Corel). The programs are otherwise equal, and I don't see why you would think that Corel is admitting to having an inferior product! They're not.
Corel just wants to show this product, so people can download for free and see that Corel wasn't talking crap when they said that they were porting everything to Linux.
Just my CDN$0.02.
I predict that this sort of thing is another perfect example of what Linux needs.
Corel's software isn't beautiful (their Office package is a hell of a lot better than M$, but could be improved), but where they really excel is that my mom has no problem installing and using their products. They're intuitive, they're pretty, there's a lot of hand-holding involved.
And, strangely, people like my parents--and all the business execs and fat cats their age--prefer to pay for their software. "You get what you pay for," they say. "That's the way I was raised, and that's what I think."
In conclusion, paying for software is only good if you somehow can't figure out how to use free software--but anything that brings Linux more mainstream is also good.
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."