“It may seem a little odd that I am reviewing a product that,
for all practical purposes, no longer exists for the Linux
platform. When Corel announced it would sell off its Corel Linux
division on Jan. 23, 2001, many industry watchers were not terribly
surprised. After all, Microsoft had just invested $135 million in
the Canadian software firm just three months prior.
“When Corel made the sale of its Linux division to Xandros
(through Linux Global Partners) in August 2001, a lot of people
seemed relieved. At least the Linux holdings would be out from any
potential influence from Microsoft.
“Under the terms of the deal, Xandros would get all of the
source code and licenses for the Debian-based Corel Linux, as well
as the source code for the never-released Corel Linux 3.0.
Xandros, accrording to its Web site, is planning on releasing
the first version of their Linux distribution sometime in the first
quarter of this year. The beta program for Xandros Desktop 1.0 for
just launched earlier this week, in fact. But something is
conspicously absent from the terms of the sale: Corel, it seems,
has kept the licenses and the code for the WordPerfect Office for
Linux suite to itself…”