A marriage made in Antarctica
Topics
Windows 2000... as reliable as your mom.For the first time ever, I agreed completely with a Microsoft ad. Thenagain, if they'd ever met my mother they'd know that this was not a compliment.But that's a different story that I'm sure most of you don't want to hear...
Today's subject-du-jour is the recently announced merger between Corel andInprise/Borland. I don't know about the rest of you, but to me, this is fun to watch!
Personally, I think it's a wonderful move for a couple of reasons, not only for Corel but for theLinux universe in general. It not only solidifiesthe position Corel is aiming for, which is to be king of the Linux desktop,but it also makes Linux even more attractive to existing Windows users and developers.
Most analyses of the merger to date have either focused on the stock valuesor on the premier software products of each company. But there are someother perspectives if you step back a bit.
Marketplace math Well, duh. It's no sure thing that Linux will become mainstream on thedesktop. But consider this: most of the same news reports (including the ZDNet piece linked above) are also referencing newIDC data on the operating systemmarketplace. While these reports are trumpetingLinux's faster-than-expected rise to the number two position in server space(leapfrogging NetWare and Unix in the past year), I'm more drawn to the small printthat has Linux pegged at a measly four percent of the 1999 desktop market. What many of the reports based on this data aren't saying is that this four percent has been achieved with, essentially, no desktop-specific push by Linux vendorsor the Linux market in general. Caldera's ground-breaking graphical install systemdidn't arrive until April of 1999. The GNOMEdesktop wasn't even stable until the fall, and Corel only came into the Linuxmarket in mid-November. In other words, the Linux desktop effort hasn't even startedbuilding up steam. Consider that this four percent also comes amidst hand-wringing from peoplecomplaining about Linux's so-called lack of applications (a topic that I And lastly, when looking at the IDC numbers, consider than Linux, with no desktoppush and nowhere near its potential for attracting applications, is just one percentbehind Apple, the current desktop runner-up behind Windows. I personally have no doubt that Linuxwill pass the Macintosh in installed base, if it hasn't already done so. (Bear in mind that the IDC numbers don't take into account that a single Linux CD can be legally passed around and installed on multiple systems, so their numbers may fall short of what's actually out there.) Marketplace moves Now we add Inprise/Borland to the mix. In this company we have a family of well-respecteddeveloper tools that simply got bullied by Microsoft. But Inprise/Borland also has experience incross-platform tools, and that experience is growing daily as the company develops a toolto allow software written in its popular Meanwhile, Inprise/Borland tools may not be as well-known to the Linux community as, say,those from Cygnus, but they are familiar to Windows programmers, not all of whom may havebeen aware of the company's big Linux push this past year. As it should be, the target of the new merged company is not to take people away fromexisting Linux distributions, but to offer a comfortable point of entry to those whohave never touched Linux before. The combined product line of Corel and Inprise/Borland now comprises a fairly complete range ofproducts that compete with Microsoft on many fronts. The merged companies are still popular in the Windows world, and may be even more so once the U.S. Department of Justice is finished with Microsoft. And the fact that most analysts are describing this as amerger based on a bright Linux future only bodes well for people looking for mainstreamsupport. All this means that the task of getting Linux into the mainstream just got a little easier. Do you see a bright future for Corel-Inprise/Borland? Let usknow in the TalkBack below or in the
Certainly we have seen the
In light of this, let's come back to the Corel-Inprise/Borland deal. Look at the companies'core strengths. Corel is heavily into the consumer market. While most people focus on the flagship professional products, CorelDraw and WordPerfect Office, let's not forget that thecompany also makes a
The discussion hasn’t started yet. Why don’t you begin it?
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Vendor Showcase
