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Linux in South Africa

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ? dept.

Corel CEO Michael Cowpland, whom I'm sure many of you know as a keynote speaker from several of the recent Linux conferences, has extended a gracious offer: Corel WordPerfect for every computer in the school system. The kicker? Corel WordPerfect for Linux. I'm interested in knowing what happens (and if they accept!). If you have any more info, please, submit it!

5 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Donations by David+Greene · · Score: 2
    I'm not trying to sound like an isolationist here, but why South Africa? I understand the offer came as part of an interview, but why hasn't Corel offered to supply, say, the Chicago school district with lots of goodies? Seems to me the U.S. would be a rather large and important market for Corel.

    What about England, Germany or Russia? Corel has made offers to Mexico. Why not Canada or Japan?

    I'm just curious.

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  2. I have a bad feeling about this... by Otter · · Score: 2

    I'm finding myself pretty much pessimistic about this. My impression of Corel is that the company is driven more by an obsession with getting even with Microsoft than by a desire to make good, profitable products. This offer strikes me as more of the same.

    I think they're setting up a public relations fiasco way beyond the black eye they gave to Java. As much as I enjoy Linux, it's simply not ready for this kind of use, for a couple more years.

    Ideally, Corel would concentrate on making good quality Linux (and Windows and Mac) applications. In reality, they're jumping on the newest anti-MS bandwagon in the same half-assed way they did with Java. I predict that in two years they'll abandon Linux and be on to some completely new kick - Be, maybe?

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  3. Taking a lesson from Apple by Orion · · Score: 2

    It looks like Corel will be taking a page from Apple's book. Get into the schools and you can work your way up. If nothing else, if people see students (grammer school students) using Linux then they will begin to realize that anybody can use it. By the time it's deployed and people start to notice, that will probably be true.

  4. Mexico will kick USA ass... by FFFish · · Score: 2

    Ah, that got your attention.

    We're all mostly agreed that Linux will have long-term success, while Windows is doomed, right?

    And the entire nation of Mexico is using Linux in its schools, right?

    I wonder what nation will grow the next generation of quality programmers, eh? What nation will have an incredible number of highly skilled Linux hackers, eh? What nation will lead software production...

    Hmmm.

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  5. Wait just a second. by Peter+K. · · Score: 2

    Hang on here. I live in South Africa, and I fail to see the importance of this offer. To whom is the offer being made? According to the article, it's the South African government. I don't understand then. The schools that will receive a copy of WordPerfect are all government schools. I hate to break it to Corel, but basically not one government school has a computer. I'm serious, most of these schools ( especially the black rural ones that need the most help ) don't even have desks. This is a complete joke. All the private schools can afford WordPerfect, and the public schools can't use it. Do they think that all these schools have PC's just waiting for WordPerfect?

    Peter K.