[ Thanks to Dominic
Duval for this link. ]
“Corel’s press materials say the company’s new OS is “not
intended to replace existing desktop operating systems.” It is
instead targeted at “price-conscious, first-time consumers.” But
Corel CEO Michael Cowpland concedes that his company’s new open
source operating system will ultimately challenge Microsoft because
Linux is a more reliable software platform than the consumer
versions of Windows. “Once you get used to a system that doesn’t
crash, you don’t want to go back,” he says….”
“One significant edge Corel has here over other Linux developers
is that Corel already makes consumer applications that take
advantage of the Linux operating system. Derek Burney, Corel’s
executive vice president of engineering, says that by the middle of
next year Corel will release its entire office suite for
Linux-based PCs….”
“Making money is perhaps the trickiest thing about the
business of distributing an operating system such as Linux, for
which the source code is free. Corel hopes to make money by selling
more business and graphics software to run on the Linux OS.
“We’re striving for price parity between our Linux and
Windows-based applications,” Mr. Burney says. “We needed to do a
[Linux] distribution so that we would have a platform to sell our
apps. We had to do it anyway, and the fact that we can pull in $59
or $79 is gravy.”