Interview: Corel CEO Michael Cowpland

Corel has been making big waves in the Linux world lately, and Michael Cowpland is the man at the top of Corel. One question per post, please. As always, the 10 - 15 questions sent on will be those moderated highest, with additional culling (if necessary) done by Slashdot editors and hangers-on. We select questions shortly after 1200 EST on Tuesday. Answers are scheduled to appear Friday mid-day. So ask away, and moderators, get those points sharpened up and ready to go!

Interview Moderation Suggestion

Y'know, this may be offtopic, but it seems to me like it would be a good idea to let comments in these interviews be moderated above 5. I think this would more accurately reflect which questions we /.ers want to see answered.

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Security, Speed, Stability

If you had to rank these three in order of priority, where would you place them and how is Corel Linux tuned to meet these priorities?

Debian release cycles

Are you concerned about the slow speed of Debian's release cycles? How do you plan to promote your Linux distribution over competitors who have more up to date packages on their distributions?

Oh, Canada

How much difference (if any) does it make being a Canadian-based company competing against mostly US-based companies? Does it make a big difference to you that the Canadian dollar is relatively low, or that Canadian taxes are relatively high, for example?

Future of Corel Linux

Redhat and Debian are setting some large stands for GNU/Linux distributions with Internet installs, GUI installs, and GUI configuration utilities. How do see Corel linux challenging these distributions, and creating your own defacto standards?

Actually, how about Corel and *Python*?!

ManishIShah asked about "an industrial class Office package that has perl at its core."

I would like to echo the question, but substitute Python for perl. I'm sure ;) that I'll be corrected if there is an obvious reason that this is a silly question, but from what little I know of the two languages (enough to write a Hello World, not much else yet -- I'm on a learning curve tricycle!) it seems like Python code is easier to read. In a company with lots of office-application customization, this seems like a very important attribute. Granted, documentation can make perl (or any language) more reader-friendly, but I think if I had to read, maintain, update, etc. I would rather be using Python.

So ... how about that?

timothy

(p.s. thanks for pushing Linux for so long, Mr. Cowpland -- I liked your CompuTalk interview several months ago!)

releasing win32/linux version at the same time

When will see that the Win 32, Linux version of the Corel Products will be released at same time?

--
Joel - www.game-over.ch [game-over.ch] - Jesus rules!

Corel multilingual products

Both Corel Linux Distribution and Corel WordPerfect for Linux have poor (=none to speak of) support of foreign languages (keyboard, fonts, dictionaries, locales). For me, who types in polish as well as in german Word Perfect is useless, and Corel Linux could be useful only after modifications which are not easy for a new user. The 8th version of WordPerfect was a great disappointment for me, because in respect of alternative character set support it was a step back even compared to WP 7, which was much worse then the DOS/Windows versions 5.2 and 6. By the way, one of the reasons Corel lost the battle with Microsoft in East European countries was it's pathetic language support (in the cases it was present). Is Corel going to do something about it? Or shall I rather stick to multilingual-oriented distributions like SuSE?

Regards,

January Weiner

Corel, Qt, and licensing

One thing I read about in reviews of the Corel Linux OS is that Corel uses a modified version of the Qt 1.4x library. How are these changes licensed, and what's Troll Tech relationship with them? Also, is it planned to incorporate these changes in sort of a "Qt 1.45", or will these changes remain "Corel only"?

On the same topic, how do Corel plan to realease their enhanced File Manager and other tools, if you plan to release them to the open at all?

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Marcelo Vanzin

Re:Open sourceing small pieces

I find it dismaying how often 'opensource' is used like a verb lately. It's as if people think that 'opening the source' is some magical act that makes the code portable and buildable from a tarball.

Mozilla is an illustration of the problems in "open sourcing" something: The Mozilla folks eventually recognized that it was a loss and just reimplemented the project as an open-from-the-start project.

When I hear about someone "opensourcing" something previously closed, I visualize someone with a sharp knife "opening" a dead fish.

XML in Corel products

One of the most attractive features in the recent versions of WordPerfect for Windows is the support for SGML/XML documents, so I was very disappointed to find that it wasn't in the Linux version when it was released. One of the methods by which Microsoft maintains a strong hold on the office productivity software market is the maintenance of a model that uses proprietary data storage formats. This model is dependent on the assumption of the user that s/he must select a proprietary format to match their product choice, and the common assumption that it's a hassle to switch back and forth. Use of SGML/XML does away with that, making it easier to switch products, as well as easier to share textual information. (This is a primary motivator for why MS is so actively involved in XML development; it would otherwise represent a tremendous loss of control for them.) So you can see why, despite being grateful for WordPerfect on Linux, I was a little burned up about losing the features in which I found the most overall value.

What is Corel's/your overall approach to XML/SGML? Will we see XML document support in WordPerfect for Linux? How about in other products where the fit seems quite natural, such as Trellix (for object-based structured/modular text), or Quattro Pro (working directly in MathML documents, etc)?

Jon
[e-mail]

Re:What are the issues in the Corel stock case?

IIRC, he sold a whack of stock and paid off some debts a month before the results of a dissapointing quarter came out. He was being charged with insider trading.

http://dailynews.yaho o.com/h/nm/20000114/tc/tech_corel_3.html [yahoo.com]

I don't know why this warrants such a high moderation. The questions have been answered all over the media, and Cowpland has given "no comment" whenever anybody asked for more details.

It seems only natural that an exec would be investigated for selling off stock a month before a dissapointing quarter. However I'll be surprised if he's convicted of any wrongdoing... the stocks he sold didn't drop that much, and are now worth triple what he sold them for. A month is a long time in the terms of a quarter.

Regardless, I'm as ignorant as the next guy about the details of the case.

Open sourceing small pieces

There recently was an "Ask Slashdot" about an open source grammer checker. Do you think that it is feasible that Corel would Opensource Grammatik (at least in part)? What about other small parts of Wordperfect or of your other products?

A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."

Unified printing subsystem

I asked this question of the KDE team back during their interview and the response was basically that QT applications have some sort of unified printing subsystem and that's what they make use of. Well, that's great if your application is QT based, but most applications for X are not and I can only assume this includes Corel's products.

So basically my question is this. Having ported graphic-intensive applications to Linux, how do you feel the lack of a unified printing subsystem will affect Linux's viability on the desktop level? I know from personal experience that coding print support into a native X windows applications is several orders of magnitude more difficult than printing from a Windows application simply because the MFC architecture provides a nicely coupled printing subsystem built around the same architecture as the display subsystem. Do you know of a move or an architecture under X that more closely ressembles this approach and if so, how do you feel it compares? If not, how are desktop grade applications going to compete on the Linux platform when they have such a large problem to overcome individually?

And I guess on a related note, how do Corel products address this problem? I remember Wordperfect 7 for Linux included a large number of printer drivers that I assume Corel had written themselves. Do you feel that this is a reasonable approach for all applications to take? If not, what do you propose as a more general solution?

Existing Companies in Linux Community

What role do you think pre-existing non-Linux-driven companies, such as Corel and IBM, will play in the Linux community? What do you think large, successful, profitable companies can offer to Linux and the community? How do you think that the influence of these companies will change Linux and the community?

-Joshua

Corel Linux Licensing issues

One of the biggest issues most of us in the Gnu/Linux community face when considering Corel Linux is that of figuring out your commitment to Open Source / GPL software. First, there was the flack over your beta not being GPLed in spite of containing GPLed code, and then there was the weird situation with you licensing a product developed by people under 18 only to consumers over 18. Would you care to comment on these issues, and on what you can say to reassure those of us who, frankly, doubt Corel's commitment to the ideological positions we hold dear?

What are the issues in the Corel stock case?

It's rather difficult to get detailed information from the American media about the charges levied against you in connection with trading in Corel stock. There's no doubt that someone in your position cannot comment too much about these allegations. But, can you explain what government entity brought the charges, what the allegations are, and what the circumstances were that they feel constitute illegal activity? Also, what is the disposition of the case?

--

Dave Aiello

free as in beer

Considering the facts that: 1) to date, linux has been most financially profitable with corporations as a server operating system, 2) Corel has been investing a large amount of resources in enhancing linux as a desktop OS, and 3) a large percentage of the targeted community is non-corporate and used to getting office applications (e.g., WordPerfect Personal Edition, Star Office, KOffice, and the Gnome Office Suite) for little or no cost; is there any concern that the WordPerfect Office 2000 suite for linux will be financially unsuccessful due to the fact that personal users of linux, used to getting software for free, will be unable/unwilling to spend hundreds of dollars on an office suite? (that being said, I plan on buying it :D )

Giving Back to the Community

There is a general sense that, besides trying to increase shareholder value, Red Hat and VA are giving back to the community by employing GNOME hackers, kernel hackers, etc.

Red Hat and VA benefit from doing this, of course, but only in the sense that it benefits the free software community as a whole.

What sort of things are Corel doing along these lines? Have you hired any free software celebrities and given them the mandate to hack on anything want? What non-Corel development projects are you funding? Besides bigger and better graphical installers, what benefits will the average non-Corel Debian user derive from your involvement?

The Bazaar Model

Following Wine development thru their weekly newsletter [winehq.com] one can see the commitment of Corel to the Wine Project in the patches constantly sent. It can be seen that Corel is commited to make Wine a better product.

Unfortunately, the same does not happen with either the Debian Project or the KDE Project, where you took their product, made a better product out of them and released back the finished products. In Free Software jargon, what you made is a fork.

Now, although Corel has released the source code to the enhanced forked products (as you were legally bound to, by the GPL), the enhancements made cannot be easily folded back into the respective projects because these projects have evolved since Corel's fork. So the original projects cannot immediately profit from the work Corel's engineers put on them.

Also, because the Free Software programmers are already commited to the original projects, Corel's forks won't benefit much from the Free Software advantages of constant peer review and bug fixes.

So, my question is: What was the motivation behind the decision not to fully cooperate in a Bazaar way with Debian or KDE projects but enhance them in a Cathedral way? At first I thought the answer was that Corel just didn't understand Open Source projects, but after seeing your comendable cooperation with the Wine Project I am now puzzled. Could it be that you needed a shipping product fast and could not afford to follow their release cycles?

And now that Corel Linux has seen the light of day, does Corel intend to work on folding its enhancements back into the original projects or will you keep on with the forking, thereby forfeiting most benefits from Open Source development model?

I understand that a question similar to this one was asked during your keynote speech at TheBazaar and your answer to it involved equating the number of download attempts of Corel Linux to the success and acceptance of your distribution, to which I am inclined to reply that such a high number of downloads is a good gauge of the amount of curiosity Corel Linux managed to gather or, at most, of the quality of your programmers, but not of the success of Corel in cooperating with the comunity.

Corel Linux and Red Hat Linux

At The Bazaar, I asked you if you recommended to your customers that they install Red Hat Linux as their server OS, and you said "Yes." Is this still Corel's stand, or are you moving toward the server market as well? Do you have a formal arrangement with Red Hat to provide a single point of technical support for a Corel-deskstop/Red Hat-server installation? I would think this would be very important to anyone deploying in the large.

Corel Office

How committed is Corel to porting their office package over to Linux? Will we see the same functionality in the Linux versions as in the Windows versions when the ports are completed or will there be functional differences? For that matter, will the applications be able to talk to other X applications using the standard X protocols?

Canada and Corel

I'm a proud Canadian citizen. Despite the "brain drain," I still feel that Canada produces top-notch hardware and software. However, many of our highly skilled people have taken jobs in the US and abroad because they get paid more. I must say, when offered nearly twice the pay, and with a lower cost of living in some US cities, I'd be tempted myself. My question: How dedicated are you to keeping Corel a Canadian company? Are there any political/business issues you wish to see resolved to help keep Corel a Canadian company?

Dave

The most important question of them all...

You are, after all in the business of making money, not software. All companies are in the business of making money. Your company's embracement of Linux can therefore only be seen as a means to that end. My question is, what is your long-term strategy towards Linux? And please, don't give me a sond bite I can read off your corporate webpage, thanks.
--
Matt Singerman

Competing on the Linux Desktop (Free Software)

It would seem that Corel's Linux strategy is to legitimize the platform as an alternative to Windows for the desktops of "ordinary users" (whoever they are), so that you can eventually sell them your big-name applications, like Corel WordPerfect Office and CorelDRAW, on this platform, without competition from Microsoft Office, Visio, etc.

However, we can expect that in the Linux "market," your applications will face a different kind of competition from Free Software. For example, KOffice (which also includes a vector drawing tool) will no doubt be competing with WP Office and CorelDraw; of course the Gimp will be competing with Photopaint.

We have all heard the advantages of the Open Source development models, but from your perspective, what are the particular challenges that Free Software offers you as a vendor of competing commercial, closed-source applications? How do you plan do deal with these challenges? Do you perceive these projects as less of a threat than your traditional competitors (eg. Microsoft), a similar threat, or even an asset?

I wish you the best of luck with all of Corel's endeavours!

Progress on Java and the Internet...

A few years ago your company released Corel Office for Java in hopes of riding the then-popular Java wave. It was not the big success everyone thought it would be due to its bulkiness and slow execution times.

But the landscape is still shifting towards that dream of Internet-only applications, and even Microsoft seems to be keen in taking advantage of this new trend.

Does this mean Corel will take another stab at Corel Office for Java? ...and hopefully release a superior product capable of harnessing new technologies such as Java Just-in-time compilers and faster processors, because we all know Java will always be a much better solution than Windows Terminal Server.

Does Corel have an ASP (Application Service Provider) strategy?

And does Corel have plans to enter the Net-Appliance market? (Not with hardware, but with software)

And finally, what would you consider are key points in ensuring Corel Linux wins in the Personal Computer market?

Corel and Perl

One of the thing that I would love to see is an industrial class Office package that has perl as its core.

In a midsize financial company where I work, Perl is a fundamental platform and core competence. If you were to give Corel office with Perl, we would stop needing VB expertise that we currently hate/but have to support.

What do you see as a problem in integrating Perl as a base scripting language with Corel Office ?