[aclug-L] Strategic Alliance Between Corel, KDE and Debian

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Well, I had been asked about Corel's Linux plans a few meetings ago
and had to be evasive about it, because we had been working on Secret
Plans :-)

Now the cat's out of the bag.

-- forwarded message --

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debian Project
http://www.debian.org/
Strategic Alliance Between Corel, KDE and Debian
April 21, 1999
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Original text available at 
<http://www.corel.com/news/1999/april/april_21_1999.htm>]

>> News

Strategic Alliance Between Corel, KDE and Debian to Advance Development of a 
new Linux® Distribution Corel on track to deliver easy-to-use Linux GUI and 
OS to consumers and OEMs this fall

Ottawa, Canada - April 21, 1999 - Corel Corporation (NASDAQ: COSFF, TSE: 
COS) today announced an alliance with two major Open Source developer 
communities to advance the development of its proposed Linux® distribution; 
a user-friendly Linux installation and graphical user interface (GUI) for 
the desktop PC.

Corel and the K Desktop Environment (KDE) Project will be working together 
to enhance the KDE GUI for inclusion in the upcoming Corel version of Linux, 
aimed for the desktop user.

"Corel has chosen to work with KDE as our preferred desktop interface 
because we believe its development is further ahead than other offerings at 
this time," said Derek Burney, Corel's executive vice president of 
engineering. "KDE can easily be configured to offer a strong Windows-like 
look and feel, which we see as being very important to our strategy of 
making all aspects of work in a Linux environment compatible with 
present-day Windows offerings.

"Corel will also be releasing all its improvements and development on open 
source software to the Open Source community," said Mr. Burney. "The 
developers in that community are the strength of Linux, and with our recent 
work and contributions to the WINE project, Corel strongly supports their 
efforts."

"Our project's continuous dedication to create an attractive, stable and 
functional desktop environment and Corel's experience in building 
state-of-the-art graphical interfaces will help offer users an even better 
experience with the award-winning KDE," said Cristian Tibirna, KDE's 
representative in Canada. "We're all very excited about the new prospects."

Corel will also build its desktop Linux offering around the Debian GNU/Linux 
distribution, which already has one of the largest installed bases in the 
Linux community, and is known for its stability and security.

"Debian has already made significant strides toward Linux on the desktop, so 
this is a natural partnership," said Erich Forler, Corel's Linux product 
manager. "The Linux community has also recognized that Debian's Linux 
distribution is built around extremely clean code, and their commitment to 
documentation within their code, and for the applications, makes Open Source 
development more efficient and organized."

"I am very happy to see Corel taking this step into the Open Source world 
and cooperating with non-commercial organizations such as Debian and KDE," 
said Wichert Akkerman, Debian's project leader. "By combining Debian's 
strengths, which include having a large number of developers, a very open 
development model and a public bug tracking system, with the experience 
Corel has with making office and desktop products, I think we will be able 
to produce an outstanding system with the best of both worlds."

With a recent strategic alliance with Cygnus, which will provide Cygnus 
GNUPro software technology to enable Corel to move its market-leading 
productivity applications to Linux, Corel is firmly on track to deliver its 
proposed Linux distribution to the market by the fall. This will be in 
advance of its WordPerfect® Office 2000 for Linux productivity suite and 
CorelDRAW® 9 for Linux graphics application in the fourth quarter and 
beginning of 2000 respectively.

The strength and popularity of Linux is growing steadily, everyday. 
International Data Corporation (IDC) recently announced that through 2003, 
total Linux commercial shipments will grow faster than the total shipments 
of all other IDC covered client or server operating environments. IDC 
estimates that Linux commercial shipments will increase at a compound annual 
growth rate (CAGR) of 25% from 1999 through 2003, compared with a 10% CAGR 
for all other client operating environments combined and a 12% CAGR for all 
other server operating environments combined.


>> Corel Corporation
Corel Corporation is an internationally recognized developer of 
award-winning graphics and business productivity applications. Development 
of market-leading products such as the CorelDRAW® line of graphics 
applications and the Corel® WordPerfect® Suite of business tools is 
continually evolving to meet the demands of the corporate, retail and 
academic markets. Committed to performance, compatibility, value and open 
standards, Corel develops products for the Windows®, Macintosh®, UNIX®, 
Linux® and Java[tm] platforms. Corel's common stock trades on The NASDAQ 
Stock Market under the symbol COSFF and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under 
the symbol COS. For more information visit Corel's Web site at www.corel.com.


>> KDE Information

The K Desktop Environment is a non-commercial, international, Internet-based 
project which develops the freely-available graphical desktop environment 
for the UNIX® and Linux® platforms. The completely new Internet-enabled 
desktop, incorporating a large suite of applications for UNIX workstations, 
currently supports more than 30 languages. The strength of this exceptional 
environment lies in the interoperability of its components and the 
functionality of its applications. For more information about KDE and its 
technology, please visit the web site at [www.kde.org], or contact 
press@xxxxxxx.


>> Debian GNU/Linux

Debian GNU/Linux is a free, or Open Source, operating system (OS) for your 
computer. Debian is a project of Software in the Public Interest Inc. (SPI). 
SPI is a non-profit organization which was founded to help organizations 
develop and distribute open hardware and software. SPI encourages 
programmers to use the GNU General Public License or other licenses that 
allow free redistribution of software, and hardware developers to distribute 
documentation that will allow device drivers to be written for their 
product. Open Source is a trademark of SPI. Open Source is managed by the 
Open Source Initiative, which manages the [www.opensource.org] resources, to 
develop branding programs attractive to software customers and producers, 
and to advance the cause of Open Source software. For more information about 
Debian and its technology, please contact press@xxxxxxxxxx, or visit its web 
site at http://www.debian.org/

Corel, Corel Print House and the Go Further logo are trademarks or 
registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. 
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered 
trademark of The Open Group. All other product and company names are 
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Debian is a registered trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

-- 
Nils Lohner                             E-Mail: lohner@xxxxxxxxxx
Debian Press Contact                    Press:  press@xxxxxxxxxx