OK, time for examples.
Exhibit 1. Any bitmap editor from Corel
Select a square from within a bitmap file. Easiest to see if the square contains text. Rotate the square. Do it again. Give it say 5 full rotations. By this time, you will see that is has clearly lost resolution. Try it with Photoshop.
This is a problem that has been noticed in Q&A at several versions, and never fixed - the need to get product out the door overwhelms it.
Exhibit 2. Quattro Pro
Take a spreadsheet from any format, involving calculation of any significance. Benchmark Quattro Pro 9 vs 8 vs 7. For speed, it is the reverse order.
There is a damn good reason that Corel purchases copies of Excel for in-house use, despite the fact it requires managerial permission.
For bonus points, try the old QP fix to an MS bug. In Excel, if you enter the digit 1 in cell ZZ999 of a new spreadsheet, save the file, then delete the digit, save the blank sheet, you will find that the spreadsheet is massively larger than a true blank. Open it in QP7, make no changes, and save it back to Excel, and it will be much smaller.
QP 8 and 9 no longer do that.
Exhibit 3 Wordperfect
Try using the Acrobat export function sometime - an exercise in frustration.
Corel's quality control sucks. MS isn't the greatest, but bugs usually last one version. Corel will allow ongoing problems to fester.
There is no way that any serious business user can suggest that Excel is not a world better than QP9. Perhaps it is through unfair means, but the simple fact is there. It is far more powerful. For word processing, I am not sure who really gives a damn, but Corel botched the purchase.
Corel never rebuilt the flawed edifice that is WP, instead adding to features. Corel bought a flawed product with potential and market power, and never addressed those problems. People who attempted to take a view with a horizon of longer than 3 months are dismissed, often fired, as not 'get-it-done' people. Any structural rebuild is not seen as a management priority. As they lose people, Corel becomes less able to even understand their own products - and that was before the 20% layoffs.
The poor management is not just the CEO, it's the guy who used to drive his limo who is EVP of Sales or some damn thing, and a host of cronies. Read "Random Excess" for a full listing of sycophantic but athletic numbskulls who have constituted the management of Corel over the years, guys whose main qualification was hitting round objects with Cowpland.
The consequence is an eye-popping level of employee turnover, and people two years out of a IT course after a liberal arts degree becoming the product development manager for a core asset. They may be smart, which means they figure out they haven't a prayer, and get the hell out when they can.
I wish it was otherwise, but with Corel's management, it is not a matter of getting rid of Cowpland. I would guess that the board has even thought about it, and realized that the resultant lack of leadership would destroy the company before they could install someone who could turn it around. The real sign of the weakness of the board is that none of them have resigned in the face of their inability to see a way out.
</RANT>
As an aside, did anyone else notice the piece in the Globe and Mail containing this little gem....
"The company also said yesterday that its deadline for filing a final prospectus for its $30-million (Canadian) cash-for-stock deal with Canaccord Capital Corp. has been extended to as late as July 14. In exchange, Corel has granted Canaccord the right to cancel the deal at any time until the final prospectus has been filed."
globeinvestor.com
One sharp plunge in the stock price below the 4 day trading average *.8 that establishes the price, and Canaccord walks away. |
