Hey Guys. This is the summary of the Corel announcement today, written by
Russell Nelson (written to slashdot.org):
Eid Eid said (as head of corelcomputer) that all the system software for
the NetWinder (their desktop computer originally envisioned as a Java thin
client but which is now a Linux desktop) will be under the GPL. He noted
that, if you want to be a major player, you can't play by Microsoft's
rules. IBM couldn't do it with all their resources. Nobody can. You must
build success elsewhere. Freedom is the key to that success.
He pointed out that restricting distribution of your software is only a
small part of creating value. Particularly for a hardware company such as
his, the OS is infrastructure.
Michael Cowpland said that he was proud to become a part of the Linux
community. He committed to making native ports of all Corel software to
Linux. He liked the idea of the OS being free and open. He likes Java, but
Java is building slower than Linux. Java can act as the glue to pull
various bits together.
In later questioning, he said that he couldn't see how he could GPL
Corel's software and still make money.
Some points of the NetWinder:
300 MHZ Dec StrongARM, delivering ~250-260 MIPS
32 Megs of 10ns SDRAM, expandable to 128 Megs
Up to 3 gigabyte internal EIDE Fast-ATA disk, laptop formfactor
DUAL ethernet interfaces, one 10 and the other 10/100, both TP
16 bit soundblaster(tm) compatible sound, onboard speaker and
onboard microphone with stereo audio in and out jacks.
SVGA Graphics with onboard 64 bit 2 meg video ram, both SVGA *and*
NTSC jacks, 30 fps NTSC video capture
Will boot in many different ways (uses a mini kernel to boot)
winmodem with driver.
NO floppy.
IRDA AND 40Khz IR for remote control (in and out)
one parallel, one serial
telco handset jack (e.g. for Plantronics headset)
telco line jack (e.g. for 2600 set), only it doesn't generate
ringing voltage, but you can dial out with it
This is one way cool box, with lots of interesting I/O.
I buttonholed one of the marketeers, and he said that there's going to be
a program to sell at cost to developers. The price I heard was CDN$1,000
(~US$700). Not sure if that was developer or end-user cost. Probably the
latter.
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