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Corel May Have A Buyer For Its Linux Division
SimJockey writes: "Looks like Corel is getting out of the Linux distro business." According to an anonymous source, says the article, "a newly formed company called Xandros will pay $2 million for the Linux unit, a division that comprised about 14 percent of Corel's total business as of January 2001." The Corel distro did some things well, so good things may come out of this sale.
When i first saw the headline, i thought it said, "Corel May Have A Buyer For Its Linux Distribution" and said to myself, "Woah! They might actually sell their first copy!"
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
It'd be interesting, to say the least, if the maker of red carpet, evolution, *and* distro of a gnome desktop would get it's own linux distro.
Software Wars
When they can download it for free.
Je t'aime Stéphanie
Interesting to see a linux division be purchased. To my knowledge Corel Linux was just a modified caldera distribution... of course mandrake used to be just a modified redhat distribution.
What assests is this company really purchasing? Is there a service/support component to corels linux structuring?
-Marvin
Hopefully a startup might be able to manage the distribution better than Corel has, with tighter focus and better communication with the community. The downside is that I will miss Corel's excellent presentations at OLS.
About $2 million I'd say.
I talked to some developers with Corel a couple of years ago when they were just getting into the Linux market (it was at a job fair when I was looking for work) and they seemed pretty keen on how they were going to bring a fully integrated GUI to the Linux desktop (integrated as in from install through to user's desktop--like Windows does).
I liked the idea, and was especially happy to hear that it was a Canadian company. That said, I always thought Copland was a little flakey, and as it turned out his 'Copland Research Labs' got rid of him--and unfortunatly it seems their Linux distro. What can you expect when MS invests in you though?
I just wonder if all of Corel's GUI work was proprietary, or if it might be released Open Source with the distro's move?
Beware the Whyte Wolf.
With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels...
It is estimated by PC Data that Corel's Linux division sells about 25 percent of all Linux operating systems for desktop computers, second only to Red Hat .
REALLY???
BlackNova Traders
I remember a VERY similar story on /. a few months back. I would post a link, but the /. search tool is down again. (no shock to me)
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Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
This may be true. But I wonder what it would take to convince open-sourcers ? Is the validity of open source as a business strategy a valid, debatable hypothesis, or is its validity really just a matter of faith that could never be questioned no matter what ?
"Linux, created 10 years ago this month by Finnish computer programming student Linus Torvalds, has become a popular software system used to run Web sites and is seen as a rival to Microsoft Windows, the dominant software used in personal computers."
Is it just me, or is it getting more and more annoying having to read this line in every single article ever written about Linux? I'm surprised they didn't subsequently define 'computer'.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Steve Ballmer, is that you? Quit trolling /.!
"Old man yells at systemd"
WARNING: goatseO's link above from stileproject.com
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Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
Mandrake is arguably the best desktop distribution around, but still has a lot of shortcomings. It's simply sloppy and unpolished in some areas, and their QA process seems rushed.
It's good to finally see some competition in the Linux KDE-based desktop-focused distro market.
seems a bit ridiculous to me. it would seem to me that money would go to better use creating a better distribution. I guess the marketing crew decided they could market the fact that it was once owned by Corel. yeah right, no one took Corel's distro seriously since the first release.
one wonders exactly what Corel has in the Linux dept that would be worth 2M....
I would have just bought a CD from cheapbytes and forked...
I recall reading somewhere that MS has somehting to do with this. They wanted to partner with Corel on some project, but stipulated they would refuse unless something was done about the Corel Linux distro. Not the first time MS has steered someone away from a product, they frequently refuse partnerships with an entity that also builds a product that significantly competes with one of theirs. (keyword in that last sentence: significantly)
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Please Mod this AC the hell off the page.
Thanks!
-Freed
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." -Turkish Proverb
That might be true, but it won't save the closed source companies. Soon MS won't be able to Give away it's OS.
-Happily working and giving away "product" all day long.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I'm not a big Mandrake fan, but you can't really fault them for that. Sun actually bothered to ask users about Gnome and received some good feedback, if a bit anal. maybe Gnome will get some of that polish soon, but until there is actually a more or less common UI, there are always going to be rough areas.
GNOME Usability Study
Never mind Mandrakes confused looking Tux ripoff. Let's hope these new guys fire up Corel Photo Paint and make something better than that!
Of the 5 distro's I have tried, it was the only one that set up EASILY on my old DEC system without a bootable CD drive. It detected the goofy built-in video chip, configured X and the sound card, and everything else too. I thought it was even better than Mandrake 7. After trying to set up SuSE (without the GUI since I couldn't boot to the CD), it was a dream.
- Freed
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." -Turkish Proverb
Corel is selling it (the Linux division) because of the change in leadership. The former chief executive thought it was the future of the company but Burney thought they were putting more money into it than they needed to," said a source who wished to remain anonymous.
Xandros does not even have a website yet.
But I'd like to give them a bit of user-end advice.
I have a friend who is working-class and got a computer with Linux because he couldn't afford Windows, and he needs something to write with.
To get Linux to people like him, you need to do what AOL is doing - sell or give away Linux distributions out of little TAKE ONE hoppers at computer stores and supermarkets, on every continent on earth.
They should be packaged with Internet access as well.
Goat sex free since 2001
Its only unfortunate that Corel overlooked what happens to companies who "partner" with MS...
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
Perhaps it's my lack of understanding of marketingspeak, but the following quote, from the article sure seems to contradict itself:
"The desktop division has the potential to hinder the company's growth and needs to be spun off and allowed to expand outside the company," said Burney on January 23.
Corel Linux was never my favorite distribution overall. However, one would have to admit that they did a lot of things right.
Their installer was a joy to use the whole time, excluding the weak partitioning system. It is so easy to install, and that is what always turns me off with Debian!
It was really easy to update. The update program was fairly well designed, and all of the updates I used worked correctly! That suprised me, because many others don't seem to update very well.
One of the nicest things about that distro was the configuration tools. The integration of the system controls and the KDE Control Center (KControl) was seamless! The tools were slightly weak for my taste, but they were much more organized than any other distribution that I've seen. SuSE comes close to Corel with YAST's integration to the KDE Control Center, but it seems a little less polished. For Gnome fans, I guess that Corel would be a nightmare. However, for somebody who likes KDE (ME!) it is a joy.
Some people have complained about the customizations of some software. However, every customization that I saw was an improvement. For example, Corel made their Linux distribution in the pre-konqueror era. KDE had KFM, which was a little bit weak at the time. Corel's version of KDE, however, had the Corel File Manager which was actually ahead of its time.
Some people also complain that some software included is closed-source. I would have liked it if it was open source, but I wouldn't consider it to be unsuperior just because it is closed-source. In fact, for its time, many of its proprietary features were much more advanced than their open-source counterparts.
So, I am rooting for the new owners, and we can only hope that they will expand on the good work that Corel has done.
"Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
--Tom Schulman
Wow, this guy really knows how to sum up information about Linux! Sheesh, these are the kinds of stories you get when you drop out of journalism school.
Someone should create some sort of presskit that journalists can use when they reference Linux so that they don't get it wrong, like the usually do.
-- Dan
Just a lot easier to configure. Rt-click on the desktop and you can configure everything from desktop colors to Samba settings. It's all in once place. I've recently installed Redhat 7.1 on a new computer I picked up, and I still can't get Apache / Samba working right. With Corel it was all up and running within 15 minutes of partitioning the hard disk.
You could still do all the command line stuff if you wanted to.
This may understate some things, but it's not as inaccurate as most reports are, in fact it probably does as decent a 2-graf job at summing up linux for the totally unaware as I've seen yet.
What would you rather he say in the same space? (Not a rhetorical question!)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Who cares? Its not like Corel was a REAL linux distro.
"This is just incredible."
Thank you.
"You're actually advocating censorship of information so that you can have a more enjoyable experience here on Slashdot."
No, not really. I'm advocating someone slicing out the off-topic spam and saving us from having to scroll through it. Obviously, someone on the Mod sqad agrees with my point of view.
"This, coming from a man whose e-mail address is freedom@"
I think your handle says it all, AC. My address is my business.
"You know, it's possible that this AC was posting in order to make a point; "
It's possible, but I doubt it. Taking what he said in context just seems to indicate that he was having fun at everyone's expense. Saying that he was making a point is tantamount to saying that the guy that spray-paints his name on a subway wall is making a statement about the anonymous futility of his existence. Neither one is making a point; they are just making grafitti that we are all forced to look at.
"the lameness filter is quite obviously flawed."
So are your arguments.
"This is very similar to benevolent crackers who break into systems (Code Red, for instance) in order to point out the serious security flaws that plague free software. "
Don't make this joker out to be anything more than he is. You are comparing apples to rutabagas.
"This kind of information deserves to be free, and you have no right to demand censorship of views that you disagree with."
I agree. If this AC had presented a view instead of a hodgepodge of 'let's see if the lameness filter can catch me', I wouldn't have said a word. If he had said anything ON TOPIC, I wouldn't have said a word. Don't judge me for wanting to keep the board on topic. If he wants to post crap like that, he can do it on IRC.
- Freed
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." -Turkish Proverb
Doesn't anyone think it Fishy that a company would sell fourteen percent of it's profits just to "get out" of the Linux distribution community? this probably has more to do with M$ not allowing anything that creeps of GPL/opensource pac-man like activity and implementing .NET with it's products.
http://cincyboys.blogspot.com/ Everything Cincinnati. Including the word 'Finnih'
Looks like Corel finally read the Writing on The Wall: there ain't no money in Linux. Phrases like "steady descent from a Linux-inspired high of $39.25 in December 1999" make it seem like the stock market bubble correlates quite nicely with corporate enthusiasm with Linux. I note Corel stock was up today, following the announcment. What other companies have followed the Linux bandwagon and are now ready to jump off? I've got some money to invest.
If Corel is selling 14% of their bunsiness (and the only segement with growth potential) for $2 million, what does that say about Corel?
Just curries, how many people do you know that
will actually buy WinXP?
I don't know any.
My parents, grandparents, famelie, etc won't because they already run win98 and are happy with it. Also they don't have the faintest clue what WinXP even exists.
My 1337 WinDows Hax0r3r friends won't because they are happy running win2000 Pro 1337 HackMee Server Edition. They may however install a 1337 pirated version of WinXP.
And last but not least my, *nix friends won't, and guess why :)
.NOT
Is the validity of open source as a business strategy a valid, debatable hypothesis, or is its validity really just a matter of faith that could never be questioned no matter what ?
From my experiences here, I would say the latter. I've now had several conversations where people cite various companies (Red Hat, Cygnus, VA Linux, Mandrake, etc.) as examples of open source business successes. I then point out that those companies are and were not profitable, and the people I am talking to just fall silent. It doesn't appear that real-world considerations and evidence have anything to do with the religious belief in the profitability of the open source business model.
Tim
At my old job, I was the resident Linux geek.
One day, a coworker brought in a copy of Corel that had come in the back of Linux Magazine. Knowing absolutely nothing about Linux, he was able to install it on a spare machine and have it view all of the machines on his Windows network.
Corel had a great 'Network Neighborhood' thing in KDE that actually worked, right from the start
He told me that the install consisted of clicking 'OK' 5 times.
One more Linux user that we probably wouldn't have if he'd gotten a copy of Slackware with his magazine. *That* is the value that Corel adds.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
"I firmly beleive that any company that views software as a product and can't adapt to a service model is living on barrowed time. "
Do you consider a spell checker to be a product or a service?
Everyone knows Corel's Linux distribution didn't really make it that well. But Many people who want a office suite better than Abiword end up getting Wordperfect 2000. Also they will probably be getting linux.corel.com in the deal. Consumers will probably still think they are buying from Corel.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
The value of Corel to Linux community has always been their ownership of their application assets. Divorcing the applications from the Linux side of the business is a net loss for Linux.
What's to become of Wordperfect and friends? This is one less incentive to port them, or parts of them, to Linux. In fact, it may provide less incentive to support them on Linux period.
Of course if these products weren't held hostage by proprietary licences, we wouldn't be in this dilemna now, would we?
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Sorry, but there are more people in the world than the 6 that you know.
If there was any justice in the world, nobody would buy XP and it would be a horrible flop. Unfortunately, that's not likely.
We now live in a world where computer manufacturers are gutless cowards who kiss Microsoft's ass and consumers are mindless sheep, too lazy and stupid to try something other than Windows.
Nice shot! :)
If there was any justice in the world, nobody would buy XP and it would be a horrible flop. Unfortunately, that's not likely.
I don't expect it to flop, I just expect it to have a very slow acceptance rate.
We now live in a world where computer manufacturers are gutless cowards who kiss Microsoft's ass and consumers are mindless sheep, too lazy and stupid to try something other than Windows.
I have no doubt that fairly shortly all new PC will ship with WinXP, but I'm not talking about the M$ tax, I'm talking about how many people who will actually walk in to a store and buy WinXP?
How many of your friends, familie, etc... would you expect to do just that?
.NOT
Open Source is a bad business model for software companies, but using and developing open source software can be a good business decision by other companies. Like IBM.
I half-remember now ... the file manager was proprietary, and maybe some of the 'modules' inside the KDE Control Center.
Ciao
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FB
Ofcource they'll get WinXP with their new computer, I don't kid myself to belive that the M$ hardware tax will disappear over night.
I'm talking about people actually walking in to a store an taking a copy of WinXP from the shelves. That I don't think many people will do that, at least not the kind of people that I know.
.NOT
In addition to the information found in the press release below,
Xandros has this to say about its plans:
"Xandros is developing a customized Debian-based Linux
distribution that is derived from version 3.0 of the award
winning Corel LINUX OS. It will support both the KDE
and Gnome desktop environments. In addition to the
features that Linux users expect, Xandros will be
distributing significant additions and enhancements.
Furthermore, Xandros is creating a server and enterprise
management solution that will significantly reduce the total
cost of ownership of computing environments. The overall
solution is complete "off the shelf", but Xandros
Professional Services can customize and integrate the
products as well as provide enhancements to legacy
systems as needed. Finally, all Xandros offerings will be
backed by world-class support."
So there is a version 3 of CLOS. What happened to ver 2? The last release was ver 1.1. It is a licensing deal so Corel will still own the distro. Xandros plan enterprise version. I wonder if it is the software part from Rebel? You can see bios of all the the key players at the Xandros web site. It seems like they all were graduates of Corel U(ex employees cut loose in the last bloodbath). They are also supporting Gnome which is a change from CLOS 1.1. Should be interesting.
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
I respect that Quote more than you can imagine, and I resent any implication to the contrary.
Otherwise, thanks for the chuckle.
- Freed
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." -Turkish Proverb
Xandros!m l
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/21356.ht
Xandros are the people who have bought the rights to the Corel dist' (but only for 18 months, so if it goes horribly wrong Corel will get it back).
Best of luck to them, it will/would be good to have a strong KDE based dist' running on Debain.
choice of desktops is good, so longs as i can still use KDE apps under Gnome and Gnome apps under KDE.
Anyone know what the "and related technologies" mentioned in the article is supposed to mean? What related technologies? WordPerfect for Linux maybe?
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Slohsdot needss a spelchequer