O'Reilly Network: Corel's Comeback: What's .NET's Role?

"When troubled Corel Corporation accepted a $135 million investment from Microsoft last October, many called it a desperate, final act. Standing under the sword of an antitrust court, Redmond certainly needed all the "competition" it could find, especially in office applications. Leading Windows publications were all but sending flowers to Corel's undertaker after the 15-year-old had bled red ink for years and stumbled, along with so many others recently, in attempting too early to make the Linux desktop a standard alternative to Windows.

The revelation that Microsoft's contract with Corel to port .NET to Linux was secretly extended to include FreeBSD, followed by announcements of open source .NET projects from Ximian and the Free Software Foundation, showed that Corel is once again the canny survivor dancing on the edge. But by showing a profit two quarters ahead of target, the edge is no longer financial. Moreso than many vendors, Corel now stands poised to help create the next generation of standards, and to deliver applications employing them across key environments.

With the departure of Corel founder Dr. Michael Cowpland, Corel no longer tilts at the Dragon of Redmond. Reaching into its 15-year heritage to renew personal relationships with leaders within Microsoft, Corel's new mission will ultimately impact every one of us to some degree."

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