Slashdot Mirror
Corel Launches Corel Linux, with WebCast
Drog writes "Corel Corporation is officially launching their Corel Linux OS at Fall COMDEX in Las Vegas today via webcast at 1:15 PM PST (4:15 PM EST).
Corel Linux Beta 2 has garnered a fair amount of praise thus far. A lengthy review written on Oct. 28 can be found at over at TechRepublic. " The TechRepublic story does require a free login, yadda-yadda.
As for the product: I'm excited about having a company focus soley on getting Linux to the desktop instead of as a server OS. Of course, its really in Corel's best interest to do so; if they can pull off the expansion of Linux into this market, they'll be primed to leverage their real money-makers in that market they'll have created.
We've already seen that people like to by all their products from a single source (MS with Windows and the Office suite), so hopefully Corel will be able to breathe new life into some old names: WordPerfect, Paradox, etc.
As for the market, we'll see how they react to the product launch today after closing and Cowpland's speech tomorrow.
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
login/email: test@example.com
password: slashdot
At closing today, Corel is just over US $10 on the NASDAQ and almost CDN $15 on the TSE. Two years ago they were both around $1 to $1.50 (having previously been as high as $30-$50, IIRC) -- I knew I should have bought in then... then I'd be cashing out this week :-)
-
<SIG>
"I am not trying to prove that I am right... I am only trying to find out whether." -Bertolt Brecht
<sig>Guvf vf abg n frperg zrffntr
Since it's based on Debian, what's the story on mirroring the distro? Is Corel going to want to keep it locked down so that you can only get the "Official" Corel Linux distro from Corel? It makes sense, but I can only imagine what not having a good set of mirrors in place will do to their bandwidth utilization...
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
I wonder if I'll be able to get that apart from their distro anytime soon. I'm sure their distro is nice, but what about us who already have debian with kde installed... I'm not going to go through all that just to get it.
I think the techrepublic review is correct in pointing out the install problems. The problem with linux is that it will be the second installed OS for the majority of users -- so they will have to refine the partitioning process as well as the initial bootup nuances. I really like how they have the bootup menu that boots directly into kde as well as the vga safe mode. Now all they have to do is design an *intuitive* graphics adapter, resolution and depth as well as a monitor frequency setup. Maybe they could compile a database of monitor types and models just like windows (or auto detect when possible) so that users won't have to worry about such things. Would be a lot of work, but it's probably well within Corels capabilities..
On a side note, their control interface looks exactly like a slightly modded kde one. I didn't really find it that useful except to gather system information. I could be wrong though, we'll have to see after I download it...
----------
As a beta tester for both Beta 01 & 02 I'm disappointed that they are planning to release their distro so soon. They have some good ideas but there are still a lot of problems that need to be worked out, IMHO. File manager issues, hardware recognition, etc... It's just not as mature a distro as RedHat/Mandrake (for example) and lacks the 'user friendly' readiness Corel has been hyping. I wish they had taken a little more time and beat on it some more b4 releasing it officially. Looks to me as though economic pressures pushed this one out too soon. Too bad.
(1) I think it's fair to say that "free" is a subset of "inexpensive". So the statement was true, if not as accurate as it could be.
(2) Linux itself is free, yes. But not all ways of getting a distribution of Linux are free, though even the ones that aren't free are inexpensive.
Actually, Linux is economically inexpensive. It also happens to also be free, ie non-propriatory.
Thats horrible. Redhat 6.1 lets you set up a multiple-network-adapter system very easily, and even lets you provide drivers before the installation starts.Actually, configuring dhcp is ideal for new users. I feel that new users would be confused if they were asked to enter an IP address. What in the world is that? And how do they know what they should put in there. Sure, you could have defaults, and help, but that's still going to be confusing for people. Instead have the dhcp client find an IP address for the box. That'll solve a lot of problems right there. And those who know what an IP address is can set it later.
-Brent--
"name a web browser that doesn't work right out of the box"
Mozilla.
(with apologies to the Mozilla crew. It is really coming along nicely and I hope to be using it within six months. Go Mozilla!)
censorship is a form of noise, which actively seeks to drown out content with silence - Crash Culligan
I went to buy at about $2.75 US, but I didn't have a brokerage account, and didn't have time to fill out the forms--at the time, I was up against a deadline for my dissertation. I was taking a thousand shares . . . *sigh*
I was also holding out for $13.50 instead of $14 on apple--wanting a 50% return for liquidation at $20.
*sigh*
Someday I'll get the account ready when I don't have my eye on a stock . . .
According to linux.corel.com, the distro will be available in three flavors. Intrestingly, according to their checklist, the "standard" version includes Netscape Communicator, Acrobat Reader, and an "Instant Messenger - ICQ compatible client', but the "download" edition has none of these things. This doesn't make any sense, since communicator, acroread, and several different AIM and ICQ clients are already available as Debian packages. Can anyone (beta testers?) say if standard Debian packages will install on Corel Linux and vice versa?
Install the realplay G2 alpha version from
real.com, and plugger from
http://www.hubbe.net/~hubbe/plugger.html
This allows you to play the web cast.
It would have been easier if they had just
set it up as a normal stream rather than a plugin
but what can you do about these HCI freaks?
Yes, they do. You just need to edit /etc/spt/sources.list to point to a debian install, and voila! apt-get all you want.
Also not noted in the article is that as soon as you log in as root (in X), it asks you to change the password. While not quite as secure as requiring the password during install, it's quite appropriate for a desktop system.
Linux is free to download. Linux is free to borrow from your buddy with the CD burner. The costs come under administration, and to the newbie linux administration can be a nightmare. Inexpensive is a better word because in the IT industry, time is money. Linux takes time to set up and configure, like any other OS. If there was a truly free OS I wouldn't have a job.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
The download version is just a minimal install to get you up and running. You can then use the Deb package manager to add anything else you want. This way the ftp site only has to handle the actual distribution (Which I am told is just 31M) and you can get your deb packages (which aren't controlled by Corel) from 100's of sites distributing the bandwidth requirement.
This makes a lot more sense than RedHat that has 450M ISO image, which has a lot of rpm's that you either never end up installing (i.e. HowTos in 30 different languages) or that end up being out of date by the time do want to install them.
By the way, expect the distro to be mirrored on LinuxBerg RSN!
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I, for one, despise auto-configuring dhcp clients. However, they are a real boon for novice users, how don't care what an IP address is. In this case, I support it (sort-of) to make it easier for novice users to get a network up and running. Real Sys Admins will, of course, configure the boxes properly. And they'll probably use Debian :)
Ah, from the dhcp faq we see why clients shouldn't assign IP addresses without the use of a server. Couldn't find any documentation on MS' site as to the details of their dhcp client though.
-Brent--
This should do the trick.
/mnt/cdrom
mount -t iso9660 -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0 corel_cd.iso
iSKUNK!
This is less a result of blind and consuming Linux advocacy than it is blind and consuming greed. Look, at this moment in history, Linux == Gold on Wall St. So long as that's the case, some of us will try to make money from it and get out before the bottom drops out.
Look at me; if Corel gets to $30, I can buy my next car with cash.
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I don't mind newbies, it's the clueless that are a pain. Everyone was a newbie at some point in the past. But there are some people that should never touch a computer! If you see them reaching toward a keyboard or mouse you want to rap them across the knuckles with a big old wooden ruler as hard as you can to get the messsage across. You can tell them. They are the ones putting coffee cups on the CD ROM tray and aluminum foil in the dot matrix printer!! It doesn't matter how much time you spend with these people, they will always remain clueless, newbie or not!!
Quite often newbies are very interesting. They will ask questions that you never thought of, make creative suggestions and so on. But these are not the clueless!!
If we get a lot of newbies, great! Be sure to help out the non-clueless. But if I see another post "can I use my WinModem" on RedHat Install I am going to go zerkers!!
Very nice. I'm definitely going to have to install this distro on one of my workstations tommorow. Seems they're actually grinding down the sharp kludgy average end-user problems and turning out something (at least seemingly) polished. Maybe redhat will wake up now and top them :).
----------