“The market seems to like the idea of Red Hat acquiring
Corel even if this just hearsay at present.”
“Of most interest to Red Hat would be the work carried out by
Corel on a distribution of Linux aimed at bringing Linux into the
mass PC market. Until now Linux has been an environment for the IT
professional and the competent PC enthusiast, not for the domestic
user base at large – and for most organisations not for the desktop
under any circumstances. Corel has invested considerable effort
into bringing the installation and deployment of Linux within the
capabilities of the average PC owner, and it is reputed to have
made a very good job of it too.”
“But Corel’s revenue comes from its office and graphics
products, and while several of these products are available on
Linux, the large majority of Corel’s existing user base depends on
traditional PC operating systems. So we have to ask the question:
If Red Hat really does acquire Corel, what will be the future for
Corel’s mainstream products? Will it be in Red Hat’s interest to
continue the development and enhancement of Windows-based products
when the rest of the organisation is dedicated to replacing Windows
with Linux around the globe?”