Corel Linux

Last updated
Corel Linux
Corel Linux.png
Screenshot of Corel Linux running WordPerfect and Netscape Navigator
Developer Corel
OS family Linux (Unix-like)
Working stateDiscontinued
Initial releaseNovember 15, 1999 (1999-11-15)
Latest release Second Edition / August 15, 2000
Platforms IA-32
Kernel type Monolithic
Default
user interface
CDE (variant of KDE)

Corel Linux, also called Corel LinuxOS, was a Debian-based operating system made by Corel that began beta testing on September 21, 1999 [1] and was released to the public on November 15, 1999. It mainly competed against Windows 98 and Windows 2000 by Microsoft, plus Mac OS 9 by Apple. Corel later discontinued the distribution, but did not remove the former Corel Open Source Development website until March 2002.

Contents

Corel did not use KFM, the standard KDE file manager. It instead used its own file manager, CFM. This, along with other modifications Corel made, made the operating system incompatible with other versions of Linux much more so than other competitors in the industry. At a time when there was relatively little commercial Linux software available, this was a serious hurdle for Corel and its users.

The operating system's Second Edition was released on August 15, 2000 in download, regular and deluxe editions. The latter bundled Corel WordPerfect Office for Linux.

Xandros purchased the Corel Linux source code and development team when Corel scrapped its Linux business in August 2001.

System requirements

Corel Linux has the following system requirements: [2] [3]

MinimumRecommended
Processor Pentium (P5) or compatible/newer
Memory24  MB of RAM At least 64 MB of RAM
Video adapter and monitor VGA (640 x 480) or higher resolution with 2 MB of VRAM
Hard disk drive free space500 MB for initial release
800 MB for Second Edition
Optical drive CD-ROM drive [4] (only to install from CD-ROM media)
Input devices Keyboard, mouse or a compatible pointing device
Sound Sound card and Speakers or headphones (only for sound playback)

Features

Corel Linux featured a file manager that was very close in look and feel to Windows Explorer. The file manager provided an integrated Windows SMB network browser. The company also advertised that the operating system was compatible with its flagship software.

Applications

The key selling point of Corel Linux was its compatibility with the company's WordPerfect applications. The eponymous word processor's eighth version was given away to personal customers in the hopes that they would purchase WordPerfect Office 2000. This suite added the Quattro Pro, Corel Presentations and CorelCentral programs. The Deluxe version of that suite added the Paradox database manager and Railroad Tycoon II: Gold . The latter omits a level editor, the network mode and some scenarios from the original game. The 'Limited Edition' of Corel Linux Deluxe came with Civilization: Call to Power instead of Railroad Tycoon II. [5] Unlike the free WordPerfect 8, the office suite was not written natively for Linux, but instead consisted of the Windows programs powered by Corel's fork of the Wine compatibility layer. As a result, the Linux suite suffered from a performance penalty compared to the Windows version and WordPerfect 8.

As with the WordPerfect suite, Corel adapted its graphics applications to run on Linux using Wine. This consisted of the CorelDraw (stylized CorelDRAW) suite. While the eponymous program was paid software, Corel Photo-Paint was available as a free download.

SmartMove

Corel SmartMove was a part of Corel Linux. This application provided the following:

  1. Migrate Microsoft Windows settings to Corel Linux.
  2. Automate restoring settings that are changed by SmartMove.
  3. Provide an easy way to access network folders through Corel Linux.

SmartMove was built around the Wine libraries to read the Windows Registry settings for the Windows applications and thus be able to migrate them. SmartMove core libraries created a wrapper for the Windows registry to easily look up the settings.

SmartMove looks for existing Microsoft Windows installations on the machine, looks a little further for individual users, and offers to transfer application settings to analogous programs under Linux. It understands how to deal with Internet Explorer and Netscape cookies and bookmarks, Outlook, mIRC, and ICQ settings, and a variety of desktop preferences, including wallpaper, color scheme, and even mouse "handedness". We tried it out with a few settings, but since our Windows installation was fairly new, we didn't have much to check against. [6]

With the death of Corel Linux, this application faded away and is no longer maintained, however similar functionality is now available on at least Ubuntu when installing a dual-boot configuration on a machine that already has Windows on it. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WordPerfect</span> Word processing application

WordPerfect (WP) is a word processing application, now owned by Corel, with a long history on multiple personal computer platforms. At the height of its popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the dominant player in the word processor market, displacing the prior market leader WordStar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wine (software)</span> Windows compatibility software

Wine is a free and open-source compatibility layer that aims to allow application software and computer games developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, named Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alludo</span> Software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario

Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo, is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation, the company is known for producing software titles such as CorelDRAW, and for acquiring AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio and WordPerfect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xandros</span> Linux distribution

Xandros, Inc. was a software company which sold Xandros Desktop, a Linux distribution. The name Xandros was derived from the X Window System and the Greek island of Andros. Xandros was founded in May 2001 by Linux Global Partners. The company was headquartered in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPS Office</span> Office suite software by Kingsoft

WPS Office is an office suite for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and HarmonyOS developed by Zhuhai-based Chinese software developer Kingsoft. It also comes pre-installed on Fire tablets. WPS Office is made up of three primary components: WPS Writer, WPS Presentation, and WPS Spreadsheet. By 2022, WPS Office reached a number of more than 494 million monthly active users and over 1.2 billion installations.

Software versioning is the process of assigning either unique version names or unique version numbers to unique states of computer software. Within a given version number category, these numbers are generally assigned in increasing order and correspond to new developments in the software. At a fine-grained level, revision control is used for keeping track of incrementally-different versions of information, whether or not this information is computer software, in order to be able to roll any changes back.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corel Photo-Paint</span>

Corel Photo-Paint is a raster graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel since 1992. Corel markets the software for Windows and Mac OS operating systems, previously having marketed versions for Linux. Its primary market competitor is Adobe Photoshop.

A number of vector graphics editors exist for various platforms. Potential users of these editors will make a comparison of vector graphics editors based on factors such as the availability for the user's platform, the software license, the feature set, the merits of the user interface (UI) and the focus of the program. Some programs are more suitable for artistic work while others are better for technical drawings. Another important factor is the application's support of various vector and bitmap image formats for import and export.

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of office suites:

Parallels is a software company based in Bellevue, Washington; it is primarily involved in the development of virtualization software for macOS. The company has offices in 14 countries, including the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Japan, China, Spain, Malta, Australia and Mauritius and has over 800 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quick View</span>

Quick View is a file viewer in Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems. The viewer can be used to view practically any file.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CorelDRAW</span> Vector graphics editor

CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Alludo. It is also the name of the Corel graphics suite, which includes the bitmap-image editor Corel Photo-Paint as well as other graphics-related programs. It can serve as a digital painting platform, desktop publishing suite, and is commonly used for production art in signmaking, vinyl and laser cutting and engraving, print-on-demand and other industry processes. Reduced-feature Standard and Essentials versions are also offered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peppermint OS</span> Linux computer operating system

Peppermint OS is a Linux distribution based on Debian and Devuan Stable, and formerly based on Ubuntu. It uses the Xfce desktop environment. It aims to provide a familiar environment for newcomers to Linux, which requires relatively low hardware resources to run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nova (operating system)</span> Cuban state-sponsored Linux distribution

Nova is a Cuban state-sponsored Linux distribution launched in February 2009. It was developed in Havana at the University of Information Science (UCI) by students and professors to provide free and open-source software (FOSS) to inexperienced users and Cuban institutions. While the initial version was Gentoo-based, the developers switched to Ubuntu beginning with Version 2.1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linspire</span> Linux distribution

Linspire is a commercial operating system based on Debian and Ubuntu and currently owned by PC/OpenSystems LLC. It had been owned by Linspire. Inc. from 2001 to 2008, and then by Xandros from 2008 to 2017.

References

  1. "Corel Begins Beta-Testing of Corel® LINUX®". Bloomberg. 1999-09-21. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
  2. "System Requirements". Archived from the original on 2000-03-01. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  3. "System Requirements". Archived from the original on 2001-08-06. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  4. Any optical drive that can read CD-ROM media.
  5. Knight, Will (1999-12-09). "Corel Linux Deluxe won't cross the pond". ZDNet . Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  6. Hall, Michael (2000-08-07). "Sneak Preview: Corel Linux OS Second Edition". LinuxPlanet. Archived from the original on 2000-08-15. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  7. Ubuntu feature announcement from Ubuntu 7.04 release

Further reading