August 3, 2008
There are many places to get help on Corel Linux and its bundled software. Users can check out the various KDE efforts where applications are in various stages of development. They do have a full fledged word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation program, illustration program plus other miscellaneous features. The StarOffice, a strong suite, is offered for free by Sun Microsystems. However, no PCs less than 300 – 400 MHz should apply because it suffers from feature bloat. There is also the excellent WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux. The Knowledge Base on the Corel site itself may prove to be the most helpful since the articles it contained hit the spot.
It might be a good idea for users to ditch some of the installed apps and go for the equivalent KDE app or upgrade. A Linux partition is the way to go when installing Linux.
Towards a Commercial Direction
July 30, 2008
When Caldera Open Linux took on the form it would be most remembered for, it had switched over to the high-end Linux product. It was seen more as a business distribution rather than a hobbyist distribution. It was easy to install and configure as compared to other Linuxes at the time. The Caldera became more feature rich but bundled with proprietary software and became less community-oriented.
The Caldera Open Linux was the first distribution to create certification since the people behind it were firmly convinced that vendor neutral certification was the key, thus the founding of the Linux Professional Institute. They also provided funding for the Linux Standard Base. The realization that vendors needed a binary compatible set of standards for porting came early for Caldera.
July 29, 2008
An alliance of large business-oriented Linux distributions which utilized the KDE desktop consisted of the SUSE, Linux Turbolinux, Connectiva and Caldera. SUSE Linux was one of the largest distributions in Europe while being the most business-oriented. Turbolinux is the largest distribution in Asia while Connectiva is the premier business-oriented Linux distribution in South America. The formation of such an alliance was for the purpose of establishing Caldera as the premier Linux brand. All members of the alliance agreed that each member would have an irrevocable, perpetual and worldwide license to use and unlimitedly exploit any intellectual property rights of the other members.
Business responded favorably to the move and for the first time, there was a Linux distribution that had global scope and support at the VAR, a full training organization, enterprise applications and an actual production GUI that ran well on a variety of hardware.
Linux can be obtained in two ways. The operating system can be assembled for almost nothing as all the necessary components can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet, which is one way of doing it. The other way is through a distribution which is offered by various companies that also includes a wide range of applications and installation programs that make the installation of Linux a lot simpler.
Linux and its variants are considerably less expensive to run. Aside from its many free versions, those that are not are generally very affordable. Issues are usually resolved more quickly than Windows NT or even UNIX. It is seen by many user groups such as training companies, universities, research centers and private users as a real alternative to other operating systems.
