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Corel

Interview: Corel CEO Michael Cowpland 251

Posted by Roblimo from the shapers-of-the-linux-marketplace- dept.
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!
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Interview: Corel CEO Michael Cowpland More

Interview: Corel CEO Michael Cowpland

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  • Question... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How does it feel to have "Cow" as part of your name?

  • Will Anyone Actually Read This Post? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Slashdot is a complete waste because the comments near the top always get more pageviews as it were.

    The system really needs to randomize the posts (and their responses) so everyone gets a fair view. I mean, after a page or two of comments who reads it?

    If you read this and agree, and you are a moderator, push me up a point. Perhaps the folks at Slashdot will get a clue and change their system.

    I signed in as Anonymous becuase I did not want to increase my "Karma" if I get moderated up.

  • How will Linux Vendors Differentiate? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Michael, How will the various Linux vendors differentiate themselves without forking like Unix did in the past 20 Years? Have been seeing games ported to LInux, which is refreshing, but we need continuously improving desktop Apps to make it a business reality. A solid desktop isn't enough! Thanks - John Westerdale

  • Corel Linux (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Do you use Corel Linux on a daily basis, and if so, what made you choose it given the large number of Linux distributions available today.


    Free Slash !
  • While much of the open source hoopla right now is on Natalie Portmand and Drew Barrymore, I think your wife Marlen Cowpland [marlencowpland.com] is just as attractive.

    When are you going to release her source code to the Open Souce community?

  • Inovative Desktop? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    KDE and Gnome emulate the Windows world. With Corel's focus on the Desktop, there are some advantages to that -- moving desktop users to linux. On the other hand, emulating the Windows world does not lead to an easier GUI. Is Corel considering improving the Desktop experience by inovating the destop the way Apple has with Aqua?
  • I've seen copies of WP for Linux sitting on the shelves of computer stores looking like they belong there (this is not a bad thing of course!). WP seems to be getting into some places where they don't even have RH yet.

    So my question is what is Corel doing to push their linux software out into the market place? Are you sending free copies to stores? waiting for them to request it?

    Whatever it is, good job!
  • Stuff like Jeff Green's Midnight Stranger and Mode?

    ttyl
    Farrell
  • I want to see a generic 'scripting module' available to all Linux applications, letting users their preferred scripting language to control their applications.

    Should every application present itself through an object interface (like K OpenParts) and let the objects be controlled by any language with KOP integration?
  • I was pleased to see WP8 for Linux at the local Office Depot. (Even though I already have it, I considered buying at just to make them order more...)

    One of the unique things that Corel can bring to Linux is very good distribution channels. Are there plans to work with other Linux companies (like, say, Loki) to help get their products on store shelves, too?

    I said I thought about buying WP8 even though I have it just to send a "keep this stocked" signal to Office Depot... but if there were Linux games on the shelf, I'd have bought them on the spot. :)

    Linux Games do matter... :)
  • It seems that the rate of closed house product development seems to be far slower than that of open source product development. How do you plan to keep the Corel Office products in sync with the latest developments of the Linux platform? For instance, from what I understand, the Corel Linux distribution is based on glibc2.0, while Debian (the distribution which Corel Linux is based on) will soon be releasing their next stable version, based upon glibc2.1. Does Corel plan to also upgrade their Linux distribution to glibc2.1, and will this library change cause problems with Corel's Office suite? And how about soon to happen changes in the XFree86 platform? If Corel is unable to keep up, would it consider open sourcing their Office Suite?

    Thank you.

  • I know Corel is no longer directly in charge of the NetWinder, but maybe you can still answer my questions: Although the NetWinders are extremely tempting machines, they seem considerably overpriced for their speed. Are you considering dropping the prices?
  • The quality of many of Corel's products is even worse then Microsoft's equivalents. Right now Corel has 2 Linux products: WordPerfect 8 and Corel Linux. Both suck.
    WP8 is simply unusable. (Just compare it to the Windows version of WP8 and tell me if I'm wrong).
    And Corel Linux is a poor excuse for a distribution. It was released in a rush just in time for Comdex, even though it has nothing to offer except a few fancy graphics and lots of bugs. (Is Corel seriously trying to sell it?)
    ___

  • Corel's has made many contributions to the Wine project in the eyes of the non-Corel wine project members (quite possibly the most important people to impress at this stage.) One of your main motivations for this must be the framework to port the Corel Office package to Linux. I imagine upon completion of the Office port, any motivaton to continue major contributions, barring maintenance, would likely be focused on general Microsoft Windows XX emulation.

    That said I've got a few questions.

    I've heard it said that the last five percent of any project takes ninty five percent of the effort to complete. Do you intend to fork your Wine tree in the hopes of being the only Windows alternative for running some Windows programs? Or will you keep your Wine efforts public in the hopes of making the Windows market, a commodity market?

    In either case, barring radical mutilation of Mircosoft on the part of the DOJ, would you be willing to donate legal defence funding to the Wine team durring the inevitable legal onslought to be brought on by Microsoft? Do you think you will have a choice?

    Their are several legal efforts in various stages to outlaw reverse engineering here in the states. Do you think countermeasures are neccesary to put the brakes on the impending anti-reverse enginereing bills?

    Matthew Newhall

    President of Long Island Linux Users Group and a CORL stockholder.

  • I've used WordPerfect since WP5.1 for DOS and have just installed COLOS with WP for Linux. As a member of the newsgroups at Corel I have seen firsthand the loyalty of WP customers. It seems to me that this loyalty synergizes perfectly with the Open Source movement and yet, thus far, Corel has had some stumbles regarding open source community relations. What is Corel doing to expand the open source nature of their business and to embrace the willing support offered to it by its loyal users? Beta programs would be one thing we could examine here.
  • btw I'm a proud purchaser of Wordperfect 8 and I downloaded Corel Linux. Cross platform is good
  • Have you ever tried BeOS? (hoping for BeOS ports of Wordperfect and CorelDraw)
  • Many years ago, when I was working on the first revision of my book, I kept my computer dual boot so that I could run Word Perfect and Corel Draw.
    I no longer have any computers that run Windows, but it would be handy to be able to reuse my old
    illustrations in Corel Draw in the next revision.

    How soon, if ever, will Corel Draw be released under Linux? Will the price remain in the several hundred dollar realm? Or will the price be lowered
    to a more reasonable level (as has Word Perfect)?

    I have found that my threshold of pain for a software package at home to be $50-100 depending
    upon how much I feel I need the program. Have you
    done any research on the spending habits of
    Linux vs. Windows home users? Are many people, like me, more willing to buy 3 smaller $60 packages than one big $150 package?

    Do you see the software market recongizing that
    most home copies of software are not purchased,
    and dramatically reducing the cost of the software and aiming for the support and convenience products: books, tech support packages, update subscriptions etc. as primary profit centers?

  • In light of some of the more visionary ideas evolving in the marketplace (application servers, write once - run anywhere, and universal interoperability (XML) being the keys ones IMHO), how does Corel intend to leverage Linux and/or open source in order to effectively compete with the likes of Microsoft and other large companies?

    In other words, is Corel only going to continue to pursue the desktop market via Linux and Windows, or will it put together a broader strategy which makes good on some of the promises that the above visions imply?
  • The installation corrupted my partition table
    on a 14G IBM drive. The graphic fdisk refuses
    to install on a preformated ext2 partition and
    I made the mistake of letting it create a new
    partition at the same place. It turned out that
    it made a small mistake which trashed the
    partition table. I had to reinstall everything
    meaning winblows, OS/2, DRDOS and SuSE Linux.
    That of course after restoring the partition
    table. I uses the image version published on the
    net.

    Any plan on fixing this? Is the bug present also
    on the release version, meaning the commercial
    one?

  • She has her own site... http://www.marlencowpland.com/ [marlencowpland.com]

    M.

  • To what do you attribute the long, steady drop in market share of WordPerfect for Windows? In retrospect, what could you have done differently to have at least slowed it down?
  • When can we expect to see CorelDraw for Linux? What sort of pricing can we expect for CorelDraw?
  • I talked to some Corel reps who were at my local LUG (Ottawa) and from what they said in late November, Corel Office will be out in Feburary, as will Corel Draw. I asked some dfferent reps at another function in Ottawa, and they said the same thing. So I would imagine it will be out by March or April.

    Mike
  • it's a little early in the morning...well OK so it is afternoon, but I just woke up, and am still a bit groggy. Sorry.

    As for featureness, from what they told me, it will matchup pretty close. Not sure on the differences, so I guess I am just wasting everyone's time now :(

  • What do you think the future of Linux is? By this I mean, how long before it gets integrated into the mainstream (desktops, homes, etc.)? Furthermore, do you think that the future breakup of Microsoft will have any effect on Linux's popularity? Will it play a role in Corel's future supported platforms (i.e. CorelDRAW for Linux)?
  • Dr. Cowpland, Why not restore Paradox to dominance on the desktop database by making it open source? It is still the best of its kind.
  • Dr. Cowpland, Why not prove your dedication to open source by making Paradox Open Source? That way people will quit leaving it out the lists of Corel's products when they ask about your company!
  • Hello, Moderators! Forgive the heck out of me but Paradox suffered more as a quality product drenched by the evil and degenerate MS Access dribble, oh ah don't we love the little container, MS owned corporate decision makers thrust upon every users desktop.
  • Spravoy here (in real life also a Tim) got so confused my first time in.
  • Doc Cowpland, Why not test the waters of Open Source with part of your Desktop? Open Paradox. It may restore it to its former place as king of the desktop database.
  • So Paul, unless you run Inprise, who is better situated to make Paradox Open Source, you, me, or Cowpland?
  • Amen Brother.
  • You never know.. Corel might have some sort of connections with RedHat and they don't want to "burn" any bridges by not recommending a RH product :)

    The fact that Corel chose Debian should speak for itself.

    --
    GroundAndPound.com [groundandpound.com] News and info for martial artists of all styles.
  • 1. the year. IIRC the alegations of insider trading are for 1998 or before, not 1999. At that time the stocks were trading somewhat below their previous high; then, the quarterly results were in and the stock started its slide to about $4 CND.

    2. MC has some to do with the Corel Centre but very little if anything with the Senators.

    just my $2.0E^-2, CDN at that
    cheers,
    Frank
  • There has been talk lately of moving the Ottawa Senators out of Canada to the more 'economically friendly' USA. What a travesty.

    Is Corel involved in the negotiations with the Canadian government to obtain tax breaks and bring Canadian hockey teams back to profitability? What would happen to the Corel Centre if the Senators decided to fly?


    -Mattyj
  • How are you going to stop people from using the GPLed or opensourced sections of your distribution without paying for them?

  • Unix? (Score:2)

    by mikpos ( 2397 )
    One of the things Corel seems to be working hard on is integration between Windows and Linux, as can be shown in the work they put into Wine. This puts Corel somewhere along the business-home continuum, where one wouldn't think that Unix would be a good choice.

    While it's true that all the decent free operating systems (at least that I can think of) are Unix based, have you ever thought of searching out, creating, or perhaps heavily modifying Linux to become less Unix-like and more desktop-like? Gnome and KDE can be nice, but always you have to carry around some of the weight of Unix, like permissions, which make almost no sense on the desktop. Basically, has Corel ever thought of giving us free software users a decent alternative to Unix?
  • You're correct that XML support was explicitly stated to be a part of WP/Win v9. However, it didn't start there -- there was full SGML support (and thus support for conforming XML docs with DTDs) in version 8, released (if memory serves me right) back in mid-1997.

    Because the Linux WP8 was a port of the Unix codebase but was still tied to the development plan for WP8/Win, I spoke to one of the senior development managers a few months before the WP8/Linux version was released and inquired about SGML/XML support. I was told: (a) it would not be present in the Linux WP8, (b) it was purely a development/porting time-related business decision, and (c) they would port that code if there was user demand for it. (I told him in a semi-humorous manner that I was a user and I demanded it.)

    My question is intended to elicit a more pointed response than the generic "We like XML" answers I've seen so far. The doc you referenced [corel.com] is a good starting point, but doesn't really address the issue of SGML/XML support on Linux, or its ubiquity in Corel apps in any real depth. Any more insight, Mr. Cowpland?
  • As a user of Quattro Pro (spreadsheet) for years I have been frustrated by the increase in bugs in newer versions, and all I can get is a run-around from your support.

    WordPerfect Office2000 is totally full of bugs, even after downloading 2 Service Packs totalling 84MB.

    I was finally told by your tech support to uninstall it and install the previous version 8!

    In light of this poor quality control why should I buy your Linux product?
  • Corel produces lots of applications to produce printed output. However, the printing support in WP8 is essentially unchanged from WP6 for Unix, and is extremely limited. For instance, printing to "Passthru Postscript" printers is limited to 300 DPI, black and white.

    What efforts are Corel taking to improve printing in their products? Will you be accepting whatever print capabilities WINE gives you, and letting WP (not scheduled to be ported to WINE by WPO2k/Linux) languish, or are you working to improve printing and support of new printers in some way?
  • Here's my Q:
    Do you plan on supporting other platforms other than the Intel platform? Would you consider these platforms to be a viable market, or fringe players at best?
    -----

  • As I'm sure is obvious by now, many people would like to see Micros~1's comeuppance in the form of an actual court finding of guilt and wrongdoing against the company. While the DoJ's anti-trust suit has served this purpose fairly well, many hoped Corel's suit would drive the point further home in more concrete terms. But the case has been settled out of court without a final judgment and for terms which, from publicly available information, are barely significant. It's developments of this kind that allow the disingenuous to claim, "Micros~1 has never been convicted of any wrongdoing."

    From outward appearances, your case looked strong. Even if Micros~1 appealed a judgment against them, my youthful naivate believes that Corel could have obtained superior settlement terms after a judgment had been entered. Without going into specifics, what factors weigh in a decision to continue to litigate a strong case, or to settle out of court prior to judgment?

    Schwab

  • Will we see applications (and distributions) developed by Corel for the Arm and other non-x86 distributions in the near future? Love to get the wordeperfect suite on my netwinder (purchased when it was 'Corel Netwinder' and not rebel.com) Also, what plans do you have for the netwinder and Arm architcture in general in light of your stake in rebel.com?
  • AOL now holds the lion's share of the ISP markets (their own and Time-Warner cable), tons of content (Time-Warner), the entire Instant Messaging arena (AIM and ICQ), the future of streaming (WinAmp and Spinner), and, of course, the once-and-future king of browsers, Netscape(/Mozilla).

    By my reckoning, all that AOL lacks is:

    • A hardware manufacturer (and distribution channel)
    • Productivity software

    Let's say that Steve Case comes to you with a sweet buyout offer. Do you sell, or gracefully decline? And if Corel does become part of the AOL Empire, would you stay on?

    - Richie

  • They have contributed a lot of Open Source code, and it really should not come as a surprise that they are being cautious about their flagship products.

    I agree with this 100%, and I think we ought to excercise some discretion as far a putting a lot of pressure on Corel goes. On the other hand, I'd like to add my argument that if, for example, the wp8 source was released we could fix the crappy MS-Word filters, I think pretty fast too. And exactly how would that hurt sales? I think the basic equation is - sales are not lost to people who download free software. (1) They'll recommend the software to other people, if it's good (and we'll make sure it's good) - most of those people would probably just grab the box for $50 than spend the time downloading it, plus they get a manual and who knows what else - free penquin mouse pad? :-) (2) They probably wouldn't have bought it anyway or (3) they'll be impressed enough to buy the boxed product or (4) recommend it at work. How can you lose?

  • Obviously, open source is not a reasonable option for every product, particularly if large portions of revenue are derived from sales, but has Corel ever considered an open source release of products which are not good revenue producers?

  • Corel Linux, as well as other distros and projects, are trying to make their interfaces similar to Windows, as well as specifically targeting the Windows user. As long as that eases some of the newbie fears without compromising the power of Linux, then that's a Good Thing. However, it seems to me that at some point on the road to World Domination, a critical mass will be reached where a Windowish interface will be seen as passe and limiting. Where does Corel Linux fit into a future that is not dominated by Microsoft?
  • Red Hat 6.1 documentation tells you that if you want to dual-boot an NT system, you have to boot from floppy!
    I don't know what RedHat think, but you can perfectly easily use the NT boot loader. See the Linux+NT-Loader mini-HOWTO [unc.edu]. (From your post, I think maybe you knew that, but others might not.)
  • I was going to put this up as a question but Dr Evil, got me to look a litte further.

    Given that I don't have exact trade dates for MC's trades, other than 'mid-August' I give this stock analysis.

    Examining CORL in August:
    CORL closed on 02-AUG @ 4 5/16 and on 31-AUG closed @ 5 3/4. Altogether not a bad 1 month gain.
    The high close for the month was 6 3/8 on 30-AUG. The low close was 3 3/4 on 5-AUG.

    The stocks low since 02-AUG was 4 3/8 on 18-AUG, down from the higest of the previous 10 trading
    days close of 4 7/8 on 16-AUG. So at best he saved himself 1/2 a point on the "insider trades". Not a bad VERY short term short, given massive quantities. Looking at a longer term however...

    why not wait until 10-JAN-00 when CORL closed at 20 1/16 (a 52 week high) to sell? [14-JAN close of 20 5/8 up from a recent low of 19 1/16 and a Y2K low of 15 1/4]

    Looking at this MC should be convicted of a seveal crimes.' 1) Needing cash for some purpose, 2) lacking foresite in knowing his company was on the way out of the depths of stock hell, and 3) poor market prognostication (as most of us are).

    About the biggest 'crime' I see here is (2). The other possibilty is that the Canuck version of the SEC is looking for some publicity, or they are upset that the Corel Centre is about to (saddly) loose its prime tenant to some schmuck US city?

    Hmmm, if MC made all this money, why is Yashin still not signed (other than the fact he's ignoring a vaild contract)?
  • What ever happened to the Larry Augustine bonus interview [slashdot.org]?
    ---
  • I think you are sadly mistaken if you believe Corel's headquarters are still in Canada. Several years ago Corel moved their world headquarters to Dublin, Ireland for tax and wage reasons.
  • Hmmm... I seemed to have touched a nerve. The documentation in question is on the screen during the 6.1 install from CD. The message says something to the effect that you should NOT install to the MBR if you are trying to dual-boot with NT. Instead, you should install lilo on the boot partition, and make a boot disk. Corel's loader just installs next to NT without a word, and boots into this fancy screen that lets you choose (semi-graphically) from the various boot options.
  • This was asked at The Bazaar. Mr. Cowpland's repsonse was that they would wait to see how thier release of the modifications to Debian went. They have contributed a lot of Open Source code, and it really should not come as a surprise that they are being cautious about their flagship products. Certainly this is a good question to ask, but I would expect them to want to see Corel Linux at least match the sales of one of those products before they would change the licensing on, say, Corel Draw or Word Perfect.
  • I'll tell you what *I* see. I see Corel Linux dual-booting my Windows NT system with a better boot-manager than NT. Red Hat 6.1 documentation tells you that if you want to dual-boot an NT system, you have to boot from floppy!

    Corel has a video-mode control widget (open source) which is nicely integrated into the KDE control panel. They also have some very nice (don't know if this is Debian or Corel) Samba integration, to the point where it's easier for me to deal with the NT network at work than it is for the NT users!

  • Continuing this statement.

    If you don't, then why?

    Steven Rostedt
  • I noticed that the Wordperfect Office bundle does not include a database product ?

    How does Corel intend to fill this 'gap' in its suite ? It seems to me that any newcomer to the area would simply be overwhelmed by Access on Windows, but on Linux and other platforms (Such as Apple) there may be more opportunity.

    What about using an open source product, such as PostgreSQL ? Naturally this is already included in many Linux distributions, but you could include it in your Office suite as a way of giving customers on other platforms greater value and leveling the playing field with Microsoft Office.

    (Interactive PostgreSQL for Windows is available at http://www.zeos.dn.ua/download/ipg sql-latest.zip [zeos.dn.ua]. It seems to be mostly a way of interacting with PostgreSQL. I am not clear on its license.)
  • Actually, the professional edition comes with Paradox, Corel's RDBMS


    Oh, I thought Borland/Inprise still had that.

    Consider my question officially retracted.

    I feel silly. Especially since I just noticed that cute little 'No Score +1 Bonus' button. When did that show up ? (I'll leave the +1 on this so you can all see my retraction.)

    On another note, I wish there were someway I could go back and take that bonus off the original post.

  • Why stay Canadian is the question.

    Perhaps Corel should consider relocating their headquarters - and operations - elsewhere for the same exact reasons you yourself are tempted. Namely, money.

    IIRC, not long ago the Canadian government agreed to buy Microsoft's software exclusively, shutting COrel out from such deals for years to come. There's little in Canada in form of synergy between technology companies (which are practically all south of the border anyway) and this also reduces the workforce mobility; and I'm not referring to the arctic climate versus, say, the tropical one in California in terms of motor oil viscosity.

    Back to finances. Have you noticed that every time a Canadian stock analyst mentions Corel or Linux, they attach the word "roadkill" in the sentence. When Corel lost to MS in the Windows Office "battle" (where one side happened to have all the weapons) those analysts took it to their cellular level memory never to forget what a loser Corel "is". And every time the press needs a comment on Corel, guess who they'll turn to if not these Canadian specialists...

    The Canadian version of SEC in Ontario, the OSC, is hellbent on putting Cowpland behind bars (and not of Greyhound variety mind you) because the man sold some shares below $10 and a month later the stock price tumbled due to worse than expected earnings. The same stock is now valued at ~$20 after hitting 40's recently, and with potential to hit $100 or more in a year or two as the MS monopoly self-destructs. The shares Cowpland sold back then have made a lot of money to people not surnamed Cowpland, but OSC needs to prove that they can nail someone, anyone.

    What comes to the "nearly twice the pay, and lower cost of living in some US cities" reasons tempting you to emigrate, wouldn't it also mean that were Corel to move out of Canada they, too, would be more competitive in attracting talent? After all, why do the companies in south afford to offer better pay packages in the first place?

    My question to Mr. Cowpland would be: Have you ever considered leaving behind the provicial mindset of Canada, relocating Corel's headquarters to sunny California while also moving most of the operations there and elsewhere around the world, e.g. in India where talent is plentiful yet labor costs lower? Would Corel not become more competitive by having development crews working around the globe for the 24/7 effect?

    (I can hear Tom Waits croaking "California, here I come..." already :-)
  • How important do you think Windows compatibility is to the future of Linux on the Desktop? Do you think that Linux can be a viable alternative running only Linux apps, or do you think that Windows compatibility projects like WINE will be necessary to advance Linux?
  • I look at Corel as setting the example for software vendors who are thinking about porting their software to Linux. I assume that Wordperfect was not that difficult to port, since you already had UNIX versions. If I'm not mistaken, other software that you are porting is relying heavily on Wine libraries. What is it about Linux that makes you pursue this method of porting as opposed to producing "native" Linux code? I think the Wine effort is great to allow users to use software that they have already purchased under Linux, but it would be nice to see large companies such as yours porting natively. Is that too much to hope for?
  • The reason Linux is being adopted by corporations is because it's Unix. The reason why there are so many Linux developers is because it's Unix. If you take Unix away from Linux you end up with something like Windows - that's where DOS came from, btw, a subset of Unix. You don't like permissions? Run as root! You don't want to know about Unix intricacies? You don't have to: just install RPMs and you're game. In over 20 years of experience, if I learned something it was this: every time they try to make something easy by hiding the complexity they end up with something that fails more and is harder to fix.

    just my 0.02.
  • From what I have seen in media outlets, Corel Linux seems to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. Linuxplanet notes, "... there's no reason why hundreds of thousands of Windows-based PCs can't be replaced by running Corel Linux..." This is high praise. Is it a goal of Corel's to use Linux to compete directly with Microsoft and Windows for the desktop market. Also, what makes this so different from previous attempts to get at Microsoft? (ie: Novell DOS, OS/2, etc.)
  • No, you're thinking of the former CEO of a shoe maker in Lynn, MAssachusettes, who told a reporter "I am not in the business of making shoes. I am in the business of making money for my shareholders." That was the quote I was working with.

    See, all companies have one goal in mind: To make money for their owners, the shareholders. When that is given utmost priority, all other issues - safe working conditions and fair wages, ensuring software integrity, ensuring safe disposal of hazardous materials - become secondary. The products and services themselves become secondary. MAKING MONEY BECOMES THE PRIMARY GOAL.

    Oh, and the government is in the business of helping private enterprise make money. We're still 5.something trillion dollars in the hole, so don't think the government has cash to spare.
    --
    Matt Singerman
  • Photopaint is by far my favorite bitmap editing program. At home I keep a windose box going (an old 200MHz Pentium / 32M), just so I can run PhotoPaint and Quicken.

    Will there be Linux versions of Corel Photopaint and Corel Draw? I could live without Quicken, but I cannot live without Photopaint. I would also like to use it on my more capable hardware. You would definitely have one sale :).

  • Do you see Corel working to provide support on other platforms of Linux, such as PowerPC, Alpha, etc...? If so, do you think that opening the source of Corel Office/Corel Linux would aid porting efforts? Or would you prefer to do something like Netscape/Mozilla, releasing a fully functional open source project but creating your own brand of the Office suite/OS? Also, where do you stand on porting the rest of Corel's apps to Linux?

  • For the record, I wouldn't necessarily blame him for being cautious in just recklessling letting all the cows out of the barn, so to speak.

    That being said, I think the rules change a bit when they decided to release their own distribution. At that point, they aren't just developing products for Linux, they are embracing the entire development model. So do they believe in the model or not?


    ---

  • That's what I thought at first, but just to set the record straight, BrettJB (see other note) accidently moderated me as a troll. He wrote an e-mail apologizing to myself and asked SlashDot to fix the moderation. They (or someone) restored it to 5, but left the "Troll". As Brett pointed out, I'm probably the only +5 Troll post.

    I feel strangely honored. :)


    ---

  • This is my polite way of asking, "Have you jumped on the Linux bandwagon as a cynical attempt to save Corel, or have you really become a believer in Open Source? If so, prove it."


    ---

  • Red Hat 6.1 documentation tells you that if you want to dual-boot an NT system, you have to boot from floppy!

    Err... Where exactly does it say so? It's a bug in the docs (and one I don't want to see in 6.2 again). You can dual-boot Red Hat Linux and NT without problems.
  • The file manager and stuff have actually been released already (somewhere on ftp.corel.com). Unfortunately, they heavily depend on Corel's modifications to Qt and kdelibs; porting it to work on "normal" systems will be a lot of work. (And considering KDE 2.0 will be out soon, I don't think anyone wants to put that much work into it)
  • you always have to carry around some of the weight of Unix, like permissions, which make almost no sense on the desktop

    I disagree absolutely. If I ever were to marry, maybe even someone who isn't familiar with Linux, I probably wouldn't want to have her mess up my /etc files.
    If I ever were to get kids, I'd definitely not let them tamper with anything /etc, /bin, /sbin, /usr/sbin or /usr/bin.
    I'd let them use Linux as a normal user though... No problems at all.

    Much the same holds true for businesses - why would I want a "This stupid box has a spell checker, so why doesn't it correct me when I mistype my password"-type of secretary to mess with config files, or delete vital files (Those of you who work in support/help desks/...: How many times did you have to fix the "I never use that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM stuff, so I deleted it to save some space" problem?)
  • Just in case you want to take a break from serious questioning:

    Was your wife's dress really worth a million dollars? No, really?
    Where do you find such a dress? I don't really want one, but the concept kind of amazes me.

    -Noiz,
    Who's in a weird mood.


    ---------

  • Interview Moderation Suggestion (Score:3)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:27AM (#1365017) Homepage
    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.

    ----

  • 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 (Score:3)

    by Kenneth Stephen ( 1950 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:13AM (#1365019) Journal

    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 (Score:3)

    by Stephen ( 20676 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:11AM (#1365020) Homepage
    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 (Score:3)

    by jstepka ( 20825 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:04AM (#1365021) Homepage
    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*?! (Score:3)

    by timothy ( 36799 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @10:19AM (#1365022) Journal
    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 (Score:3)

    by J-freak ( 90875 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:07AM (#1365023) Homepage
    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 (Score:3)

    by jw3 ( 99683 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @09:33AM (#1365024) Homepage
    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 (Score:3)

    by vanza ( 125693 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:10AM (#1365025)

    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?


    --
    Marcelo Vanzin

  • Re:Open sourceing small pieces (Score:3)

    by wildernapt ( 135554 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @09:30AM (#1365026)
    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 (Score:4)

    by xeno ( 2667 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @10:29AM (#1365027)
    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
    xeno@wolfenet.com

  • Re:What are the issues in the Corel stock case? (Score:4)

    by Dr. Evil ( 3501 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @02:05PM (#1365028)

    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 (Score:4)

    by The Iconoclast ( 24795 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:12AM (#1365029)
    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 (Score:4)

    by twdorris ( 29395 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @10:04AM (#1365030)
    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 (Score:4)

    by yoshi ( 38533 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:10AM (#1365031)
    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 (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:17AM (#1365032)
    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? (Score:5)

    by dave_aiello ( 9791 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @09:03AM (#1365033) Homepage
    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 (Score:5)

    by Th0th ( 15289 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:20AM (#1365034) Homepage
    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 (Score:5)

    by Jon Trowbridge ( 24980 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @09:05AM (#1365035) Homepage

    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 (Score:5)

    by LRA ( 32730 ) <LeoRochael@g m a il.com> on Monday January 17, 2000 @01:09PM (#1365036) Homepage
    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 (Score:5)

    by ajs ( 35943 ) <{ajs} {at} {ajs.com}> on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:03AM (#1365037) Homepage Journal
    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 (Score:5)

    by LostOne ( 51301 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:08AM (#1365038) Homepage
    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 (Score:5)

    by dbarclay10 ( 70443 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:08AM (#1365039)
    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
  • 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) (Score:5)

    by ArtDent ( 83554 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:29AM (#1365041)
    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... (Score:5)

    by Schnake ( 99890 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @08:18AM (#1365042) Homepage
    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 (Score:5)

    by ManishIShah ( 138675 ) on Monday January 17, 2000 @09:17AM (#1365043)
    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 ?

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