Linux Weekly News, Corel preview

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LinuxWorld coverage - Corel preview

Here I am, typing from the VA Linux Systems "email garden" on the exhibit floor. The floor technically isn't open, but Corel got us in early to check out their preview of their Linux distribution, so here I am...
The Corel booth is large, and right by the door - prime real estate. They are clearly taking this Linux thing seriously.
The preview started with a demonstration of the installation process. It may well be that Corel has outdone Caldera in the "ease of installation" category - at least, if you don't use Caldera's automatic repartitioning. They have deliberately set things up to ask a minimum of questions, on the theory the people don't want to have to hassle with it. They want it to just work. Along those lines, the system boots up into X before anything else even really gets going.
They ask all of four questions - and not always ones that one might expect. The first one is for a username, so that they can create a nonprivileged account. Then you get the option of creating a recovery disk. There is a partitioning question (with a graphical partition editor available), then there is a set of canned package choices ("minimal desktop," "server", etc.) You can also pick and choose packages.
Then it's done, it just goes and installs itself. No tetris during the installation, unfortunately.
The actual system is very strongly aimed at people trying to integrate into Windows-dominated networks. The login box, for example, includes a field for the NT domain... Their file manager can also do "network neighborhood" type browsing. They want to sell this system to office workers, and much of their effort has gone into making things easy for them.
They have added some nice system administration goodies to the KDE desktop. There is an interface to syslog, for example; not only a logfile browser but a graphical tool for configuring what gets logged. Real Linux people will continue to just edit syslog.conf, certainly, but others will likely appreciate this interface.
Their package management tool is actually quite nice. It ties in seamlessly to their FTP site, so that updates can be pulled down and installed with minimal effort. It's probably the nicest graphical package tool I've seen yet. One thing, though: the bottom of the tool included an ad for CorelDraw and some dancing imagery. Corel seems to see this tool as an advertising channel, and that could get old in a big hurry.
There is a cute graphical desktop manager, which lets you drag windows between desktops in a (roughly) 1/16 view. That lets you see enough of the (miniaturized) windows to know what you are manipulating. It's kind of nice.
Corel plans to return all of its Debian and KDE changes, of course - the licensing requires it. For the applications they have developed themselves, they say they still haven't figured out what the licensing will be, but it will be "open source." WordPerfect and such will remain proprietary, of course.
The distribution is currently only supported on the Intel architecture (they demoed it on a Dell system). StrongARM is next on their list, and it doesn't currently seem like they plan to go beyond that. There will be a beta version of the distribution available in September; they say they will post a request for beta testers on linux.corel.com in the next few weeks. Actual product launch will be around the end of the year.
My impression - as much as can be determined from a demo - is that Corel is putting together a very nice distribution with a very strong office focus. If it all comes together well, they may find themselves very successful with it. It is certainly worth watching.
Some screen shots from the demo will be available later on in the day.
--jc