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Technology Stocks : Corel Corp. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (7819)	11/21/1999 1:13:00 PM
From: Ellen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9798

techweb.com Corel Linux Beta Our experience with Corel's Linux beta CD was mixed to say the least. The company's apparent raison d'etre is to create the easiest to use Linux distribution on the market. In that, we'd say it is well on its way. As it has based this product on Debian Linux (one of the more stable distributions), Corel has done an admirable job of making its version not only easy for network administrators, but downright usable right into the home market. Unfortunately, this review wasn't aimed at the home market, but rather the aforementioned network administrator. And that person is left out in the cold for the moment as far as Corel is concerned. During installation, Corel offers users a choice of four basic install scenarios: typical desktop, development desktop and two forms of network server. That's too bad for us, as the two forms of server installations were still unavailable in this version of the beta. We opted for the development desktop as a close substitute. We also had some hardware complaints, but we're fairly sure that most of these are beta troubles you won't find in the final release. For one thing, the system balked at being installed on our Compaq ProLiant 800 when we attempted to make it share that platform with Windows NT. Turns out that while the software supports a dual-boot installation, Corel has not included a partitioning device on the CD. Once we used PowerQuest Corp.'s Partition Magic to repartition our drives manually, our installation went along fine-right up until it hit our Netelligent network interface, at which point we had trouble again. This time, however, even our Linksys card wouldn't install, and we had to move to an Intel Pro 10/100 NIC to solve the problem. Running the software on our HP Pavilion proved different from the server, but it was still fraught with its own troubles. This time, our ATI Rage 128 video card wasn't supported in the base installer. We still got the OS up and running by choosing default VGA, and we soon found ourselves in the KDE desktop from which we figured we could install the ATI drivers manually. Not so. These drivers aren't included on the Corel beta CD at all, apparently, because the company is using an older form of XFree86-not a critical error as you can still install those modules from another source, but Corel had better work out this problem in the final release. On its own, Corel's version of the KDE desktop is fairly standard, which disappointed us as we hoped to see more in the way of user enhancements to suit the target audience. The overall look of the desktop, however, has been changed for Windows users. Corel did point out a few other enhancements along this line, including a new system administration event viewer that records all system messages as they occur and a new Package Manager that lets users automatically update their existing Linux applications via this GUI. These are nice, but not earth-shattering. What we really liked was the new Corel File Manager for KDE. Using it, however, required connecting our system to the test network and its resident Windows NT and NetWare 5 server volumes. This didn't prove to be much of a problem, though basic network connectivity was more automated in the Caldera distribution. Once connected, the new file allows users to drag and drop files directly from Windows NT, FTP or Linux network drives. We were unable to connect this way to NetWare, which is not supported in the system's documentation. Bundled applications are another weak spot this time around, as we got only Corel's WordPerfect 8 for Linux and the Netscape Communicator suite. Corel promises to deliver more in the way of bundled productivity and server applications in its final release. Overall, we can see where the company wants to go with this package, and though it doesn't entirely succeed in this prereleased version, the company is well on its way. Corel says it will include both a partitioning module as well as automatic PCI-bus hardware recognition in the final version, which could make this the easiest to use Linux distribution available. Add a realistic number of server applications and technical support, and Corel could be a very big player.