Corel Looking To Sell Linux Operations?

PySloth wrote to us with a link to InformationWeek that speculates about what Corel might be doing differently soon. One of the possibilities is the sale of their Linux operations, which would be odd concerning the .NET portion of their deal with Microsoft.

Comments

Re:Why Corel is right to sell out

[MartinG]

> And no easy way of doing things.

Wow. You've hit the nail right on the head there. Most people when they complain about Linux simply give vague complaints and inaccurate statements. You however manage to get the message across perfectly with your insightful, succinct analysis of the problem.

Only yesterday, I was trying to use linux to do things and it was really hard. I phoned my support line and said "I can't seem to do things with Linux"

"We get that complaint all the time" they said. Better off with windows I say. Well, okay it's not as stable as Linux, but what good is enterprise class stability in an OS that cant even "do things" ?

The market just doesn't exist yet

[update()]

The Linux world has a collective delusion that if we just keep repeating that there's a large market for commercial desktop applications, it will somehow magically become true. Meanwhile, CmdrTaco is booting into Windows to play Diablo and then wonders why software vendors Don't Get It.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the impressive market share numbers are driven by servers, farms and Red Hat partitions that the owner means to get around to using some day. And the folks who are actually using Linux anywhere near full-time on the desktop have been conditioned to believe that paying for software is an unfair imposition on them. Yeah, there's a market for Linux productivity apps but it's nowhere near enough to keep a company like Corel going.

Re:The market just doesn't exist yet

[Ektanoor]

Cool. Commercial desktop applications or playing Diablo? What should we choose from your argumentation? If you talk about commercial applications then you're wrong. Yes you don't have them at a click distance. But on a good Linux setup you've always to get your hands dirty.

If you consider Diablo then you are correct. But then don't mess a commercial game with office apps or design tools. You are not paid for playing Diablo but for doing the real job.

On what concerns any possible hassles companies, like Corel, face, then it is natural. The business model on Linux is not the same as Windows. You build systems fit for tasks and not tasks fit for systems as M$ does. If you don't understand this then try to dig on the last 15 years of computer development and tell me where 80% of apps went into. How many office systems you may get in the market? How many design tools are offered? What is the range multimedia tools today, compared to 5-6 years ago? How many compilers and development tools are offered to you? How far can you change system settings, desktop environments? And how flexible are all these things for you to modify, integrate, improve, implement and interact in a software/hardware system?
Am I talking BS? Cool. Then why I can't choose between command line typping and mouse clicks anymore?

Re:Why Corel is right to sell out

[FFFish]

It looks like I must, once again, re-iterate my point, because Linux bigots are too narrow-minded to comprehend it the very first time:

*FOR ME* Linux *IS NOT* productive.

For starters, it does not allow me to use Ventura Publisher. The only Linux software that comes remotely close to Ventura is a buggy beta of Framemaker. Using buggy beta software does nothing to increase my productivity.

It doesn't allow me to use Visio, either. Linux does offer some Visio-like applications, but they're far from complete and, just as importantly, they're not compatible with the software my clients use. Using incompatible, incomplete software does nothing to increase my productivity.

*FOR YOU* Linux may well be productive. But face facts: *you* are *not* Corel's target market.

I *am* Corel's target market: I use Ventura, Photopaint, Draw and would, if my clients were more hip to quality software, use WordPerfect.

Until Corel Linux supports those Corel products -- and Ventura is by far the most important to me -- then Linux is simply not a productive operating system *for me.*

You, hacking in GCC or running a webserver or doing whatever it is you do, *are not* Corel's target market. You're the target market for Debian and RedHat.

I wish the Linux bigots would grab a freaking clue: different people have different needs, and Linux *does not* satisfy the needs of *a lot* of people right now.

Just as Windows doesn't satisfy the needs of *a lot* of Linux bigots. Hey, they're using Linux because it's best for them.

Just please don't insist that it's best for me, too. It plainly is not.

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