Corel to bring Linux to the desktop.

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1999--COREL(NASDAQ:COSFF) 0(TSE:COS.) Plans include 'invisible' Linux Operating system and user-friendly interface.

Corel Corporation has announced today its plan to introduce a user-friendly, easy to install interface for the Linux(R) Operating System (OS), at the LinuxWorld conference in San Jose, California.

At the first major trade show devoted to commercial applications in Linux OS, Corel president and chief executive officer Dr. Michael Cowpland announced the expected November release.

"We plan to simplify Linux by creating an easily accessible desktop environment," said Dr. Cowpland. "Linux will then be available to all computer users who wish to experience its benefits."

The emphasis of the new Corel version of Linux will be on simple installation and a graphical user interface (GUI) that sits on top of the operating system, similar to those used on the Windows(R) Macintosh(R) OS. Corel is also anticipating Linux versions of its WordPerfect(R) Office 2000 this year, and CorelDRAW(R) and Corel PHOTO-PAINT(R) for Linux in 2000.

"The difficult-to-use reputation of Linux will be left behind," said Dr. Cowpland. "Everyone will be able to experience the power and stability of Linux without learning complicated codes."

Corel's decision to provide a user-friendly version of Linux is consistent with its corporate vision that consumers should be able to use their applications on the operating system of their choice.

Corel Corporation

Corel Corporation is an internationally recognized developer of award-winning graphics and business productivity applications. Development of market-leading products such as the CorelDRAW(R) line of graphics applications and the Corel(R) WordPerfect(R) Suite of business tools is continually evolving to meet the demands of the corporate, retail and academic markets. Committed to value, compatibility, choice and open standards, Corel develops products for the Windows(R), Macintosh(R), UNIX(R), Linux(R)and Java(TM) platforms. Corel's common stock trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market(SM) under the symbol COSFF and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COS. For more information visit Corel's Web site at www.corel.com.

Corel, WordPerfect, CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT and the Go Further logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation or Corel Corporation Limited. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Q&A to follow. Corel and Linux

Why is Corel supporting Linux?

At Corel, we believe in value, compatibility and performance and this is enshrined in our corporate mission statement. We have always believed consumers should be able to use their favorite application on the operating system of their choice. Our decision to support Linux is consistent with our corporate vision and is similar to our Mac endeavors.

Is Corel supporting the Wine project and why?

Corel is supporting the Wine project because it is the best technology at our disposal to speed the process of moving our office suite applications to Linux. Wine allows us to move Win32 code quickly and easily to Linux. We believe Linux won't be able to achieve a critical mass on the desktop until more applications are available. Contributing our efforts to the Wine project not only helps us with our applications, but creates the opportunity for many other application vendors to come on board.

What is Corel's involvement with the Wine project?

Corel is actively participating in the development of Wine, both from a source and binary compatibility standpoint. We are putting significant resources into this development effort and are sharing our work with the Wine community on an ongoing basis. Our involvement with the Wine project is a demonstration of our commitment to the open source community and its philosophy of offering platform-agnostic solutions. For more information on Wine, please refer to www.winehq.com.

Isn't Corel fragmenting the market by offering Corel Desktop Linux(1)?

In order for Linux to become the operating system of choice among desktop users, we must offer a simple-to-use installation and GUI. That's where Corel Desktop Linux will fill the gap. Corel Desktop Linux will expand the Linux market by helping average desktop users install the operating system quickly and easily. We are not fragmenting the market but rather consolidating it by putting our resources behind the GUI. And by returning source code back to the community, we are helping to support and strengthen the open source community.

In addition, regardless of the installation process or GUI used, WordPerfect Office 2000 and other major Corel applications for Linux will run on all distributions of the operating system. Again, we believe users must have a choice, even when it comes to using our products.

Will Corel Desktop Linux support KDE or Gnome? Or will Corel develop another GUI?

At this point, we are in the discussion stage only and no decision has been made. We need to evaluate all available technologies and determine the most effective way to bring Linux to the desktop.

What exactly will Corel Desktop Linux contain?

Our emphasis will be on simple installation and the GUI environment that sits on top of the operating system. Because we are in the early exploratory stage, the packaging format is undefined at this point. Our goal is to provide a Linux solution for the desktop and we will provide as many of our own and third-party applications as possible.

When will Corel Desktop Linux be available?

We anticipate the product will be available by November 1999.

Will Corel Desktop Linux be available as a standalone or bundled with Corel's applications?

We are still in the process of determining whether Corel Desktop for Linux will be bundled with our applications only, or if it will also be available as a standalone product. Our objective is to give as many desktop users access to Linux as possible and if there is a demand for a standalone product, we will certainly investigate the opportunity.

Will Corel Desktop Linux work on other architectures that the Linux kernel supports, i.e., PPC, SPARC, Alpha, etc. or will it only run on x86 architecture? If not, does Corel have plans to support these platforms in the future?

Our priority is the x86 environment but many others, such as the StrongARM(R), will follow.

IBM has recently announced plans to co-market its upcoming Linux distribution in cooperation with Red Hat. Does Corel have any plans to follow a similar marketing strategy?

Corel is a commercial enterprise but we fully support the objectives and goals of the open source community. We demonstrate that commitment by dedicating resources to open source projects and returning our work to the open source community. We're doing this because we believe in Linux and have the same objective as many people in the Linux community - to make the OS accessible to as many people as possible.

Traditionally Linux has been focused on the server market but we believe the key to its future is moving Linux to the desktop community. This is a different distribution focus and a different market. We want to combine Wine with our native applications and other applications to provide a package suitable for everyone.

Will WordPerfect Office 2000 run under Wine emulation, or will it use the WINElib option (be natively compiled and linked with WINElib)?

Our intention is to have a natively compiled version for Linux but it will also run in binary mode. The exact configurations of the two have yet to be determined.

Will Corel release the source code for its major applications?

While Corel recognizes the value of open source development in many areas, and is actively participating in a number of open source efforts such as Wine, we have no plans to release the source code for our major applications. Our major applications contain many features that rely on code licensed from other vendors, with whom we have a variety of contractual obligations - one of which is to keep their source code private. We could not release our application source code without a tremendous amount of development work to isolate the licensed code, and this work would have a significant impact on our release schedule.

When will Corel release further applications for Linux?

We anticipate releasing WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux by the end of this year. This will include WordPerfect 9, Quattro(R) Pro 9 and Corel Presentations(TM) 9. We are targeting release of CorelDRAW(R) 9, Corel PHOTO-PAINT(R) 9 and Corel VENTURA(TM) for Linux next year.

(1)Please note this is a code name only and is not official.