[oclug] Corel getting out of Linux

[Dean Staff]

On 29 Aug 2001 at 14:49, cbbrowne at hex.net wrote:

> Dean wrote: 
> > I was one of the original Beta testers and did a review for Maximum
> > Linux. I rather liked it. As a desktop distro, it was the slickest I
> > had seen. I was very disappointed when Corel decided to stop
> > developing it.
> 
> Ah, so one of the people to "blame" for Maximum Linux :-).  (Hopefully
> your review was one of the bits of sanity and/or technical
> correctness; the magazine was prone to _needing_ to have
> articles/columns that full of "Cool Profanity" as well as being _So Up
> To Date, Dudes That We Make Rashly Wrong Statements_.)
>
I won't take that personally... ;-)
Actually, while my articles for Max Linux were a bit more "irreverent" than the ones I wrote for 
Linux Journal, I refrained from the "Cool Profanity" thing.  I figure if you can't get your point across 
without swearing, then keep your mouth shut. 

As for the rest of the Mag, I thingk they did a pretty good job concidering they only had 3 or 4 full 
time people. The rest were freelancers like me.

The unfortunate part was that Max Linux was just getting off the ground when the parent company 
pulled the plug. They were even changing styles.. (They did listen to critizim) 
 
> > I'm hoping this new company, Xandros, will start refining the Corel
> > Linux OS further. 
> 
> The problem is that this begs a few issues...
> 
> The main problem with Corel Linux was that its development seemed
> pretty separate from that of Debian, on which it was based.
> 
> That is, Corel built a few components (mostly Qt-based, which was, at
> the time, controversial) to help with system administration, making it
> somewhat artificially distinct from Debian "proper."
> 
Agreed, this was one of the problems. They also forked off from the wine tree for Corel Office too. 
But that's another issue.

> As soon as you wanted to do anything that wasn't pre-bundled into it,
> like, say, compiling programs, you'd need to use apt-get to sync it
> with a "fuller" version of Debian.  And since Corel wasn't making much
> effort to stay up-to- date with "official Debian," this meant that
> vast quantities of software would suddenly get pulled in, making your
> system "no longer Corel Linux" anymore.
> 
I still feel that concidering this was their first attempt at an OS, they did very well. As long as you 
had supported hardware, the installation was a cake walk. And integrating into an existing MS 
Windows networks was as simple as plugging in the network cable.
And that if development had continued, all the short comings would have been addressed. It was 
shortly after Michael Copland stepped down and Derek Burney took over that development on the 
Linux OS effectively stopped.   

> The next problem evoked by that is that Debian [and many of its
> components] represents a pretty fast-moving target: 
[...]
> There's the "yet another issue" that in these days of Red Code and
> such, it's quite critical to keep security updates rather up-to-date,
> which _again_ means that if Corel/Xandros aren't keeping things fairly
> much in sync with Debian/stable, Trouble Will Lurk.
> 

Agreed. But only time will tell Xandros can pull it off. I hoping the answer will be "yes"

Dean
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