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

To: Michael Perrault who wrote (9318)	6/14/2000 3:34:00 AM
From: Kashish King	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9798

The little secret is that Office 2000/Linux programs (WP,Paradox, Quattro, etc.) are not Linux programs at all but are simply the Windows version running under translator called "Wine" I found this 'sandwich' to be buggy and crash prone to the point of, in my opinion, being completely unreliable for any kind of serious production setting. There are a lot of naive, anti-microsoft numbskulls in the Linux community and these Linux rags are the worst. They're fringe elements of the Linux community who will support any effort that is counter to Microsoft. That includes hitching their wagon to industry slime and holding their noses. The only review I read on the "Linux" version of Word Perfect refused to give it a rating because it was a beta product. I have zero faith in that publication now as they were too quick to sweep everything under the rug of a "beta" release, but generally panned it. These people are damaging Linux's reputation as a rock-solid, seven-twenty-four system. Nobody in the Linux community want's a POS from Windows pretending to be a POS on Linux through the use of an emulator. That is, nobody wants a refried version of what was already thrice-warmed-over 80's bloatware. Star Office is written portably and natively compiled on Linux, and it's free of charge from Sun or you can order the CD for 10 bucks. The Corel "Linux" product is is a cruel joke being played on naive investors.

To: Michael Perrault who wrote (9318)	6/14/2000 7:45:00 PM
From: caveat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9798

"(WP,Paradox, Quattro, etc.) are not Linux programs at all but are simply the Windows version running under translator called "Wine" I am confused. I thought that Corel was using the native API libraries, not the "translator" approach. Below is an explanation of the two forms of wine. Are you saying that Corel is just using the translator approach? Explanation I found... "The program loader provides developers with a quick method for making applications available under Linux; however, this approach alone does not take full advantage of the features and strengths of the Linux operating system. The second channel of Wine development includes libraries that provide the required API functionality that is expected from Windows libraries. The Wine libraries let developers recompile their Windows applications to create native Linux applications from the original code base without having to make major modifications to the code. Once compiled as native Linux applications, the applications can make use of Linux features, such as enhanced performance, compatibility across different processors, and, eventually, increased native user interface integration, which lets the applications use graphic user interface calls to desktops, such as KDE and GNOME." See linuxtoday.com Also, your experience doesn't jibe with the recent Winmag.com article - see post 9293. Why do you think there is such a big discrepency of experience? BTW, what is your position in this stock?

To: Michael Perrault who wrote (9318)	6/16/2000 10:22:00 PM
From: Michael Perrault	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9798

So far here the discussion here seems to be comparisons between Corel Office 2000 and Microsoft Office - with Star Office- poking its nose in here and there. When discussing the windows platform the discussion is still Corel vs. Microsoft. There is another player: namely IBM-Lotus Smart Suite. While I work with Corel/2000/win/linux I envy and have been 'seduced' by Lotus Organizer. My previous passion was OS/2-warp which I was committed to for nearly 10 years; If only IBM had been as committed as I and the thousands of other dedicated OS/2 users - who haven't yet given up!!! IBM did release a feeble OS/2 version of Smart Suite - minus the database "Approach" - which is a pretty big omission. The Smart Suite OS/2 got very bad reviews (I suspect it was a windows port and it was very slow) and IBM (as with OS/2) just quietly dropped it. Interestingly, the "offical press" generally reported that Microsoft never considered OS/2 as a threat. What came out in the Microsoft vs.US Government trial was just the opposite! There was a relatively long period of time between when users began to grow tired of the limitations of win3.1 and the long promised and eventual release of win95. And the Microsoft advertising hype during that time ran like a forest fire in dry conditions in a high wind! During this time IBM ran a feeble marketing campaign to promote OS/2 but then Microsoft (as I understood from the trial) told IBM point blank to stop promoting OS/2 or they would not grant IBM a license to preload Windows 95 on their desktop computers. OS/2 - with effective marketing and promotion and true IBM support could have been positioned (IMO) to surplant Windows as the client/desktop operating system of choice). In fact I seem to recall from the trial reports that IBM's MS licensing cost soared just prior to the 'order' to stop promoting OS/2. Amazing!! - and they got away with it. And Microsoft told IBM point blank (trial paraphrase) "Hey, we're the only game in town! Where ya gonna go? Well, this has gotten to be a long windy epistle. My point of focus: IBM has developted their own flavor of Linux and apparently are offering desktop/client computers with Linux pre-installed. If Linux really takes off with consumers is IBM likely to write/release a Linux version of LOTUS Smart Suite? If they did, this would be a real competitor in the Linux - and I truly hate this term! - "marketplace". nuf sed michael