” For months now, development support for Linux has been
trickling in from all over the map. The original
proponents-companies including IBM, Informix, Hewlett-Packard and
Oracle-hailed from the world of big iron and databases.
But now, as we report on page 5 this week, some of the more
traditional applications developers are jumping on board-at least
in theory. Corel, one of Microsoft’s suite rivals, already is
shipping WordPerfect on Linux and hopes to get the rest of the
Corel Office applications on board before the end of the year.
Symantec, the antivirus and utilities developer, could have
products out within the same time frame. Lotus has pledged Notes
support before the year 2000. Now, Adobe admits it has been
fielding questions about the operating system left and right and
may also become a supporter.
This is all well and good. But to be honest, a porting
commitment does not guarantee increased market share. When I first
joined the CRN staff almost 10 years ago, one of my initial tasks
was to cover OS/2 Presentation Manager. We all know what became of
that operating system, as well as the companies that were its most
ardent supporters: WordPerfect, Micrografx, Software Publishing and
Lotus. The list goes on.”