Linux, the Linus Torwald and Internet community developed OS has now an estimated user base of around 3 millions which made it a serious alternative to Windows NT from Microsoft. Linux has always been a good alternative to NT in Networking thanks to a natural integration of TCP/IP networking concepts in linux core. In terms of products the availability of Apache web server and My SQL have made linux platforms very attractive for small to medium size web site administrators. From the developers point of view, the availability of the GNU development environment ( gcc, the gnu C compiler and gnu emacs the gnu editor  ) has for a long time seduced a lot of us. But one of the things linux was lacking in order to compete ( in term of democratization ) seriously with Windows NT  was a good Office like environment and this is what Corel is bringing to the linux community.

   Corel, well known for Corel  Draw suite has reported $71 million dollars of losses for the third quitter 1998, these losses expert said are mainly due to the hard competition Corel is facing in the Office suite market from Microsoft. The recently announced move of Corel of its Office suite to the linux platform will re-launch the struggle and give hope for all the Corel Office suite developers as it is hardly conceivable ( but nevertheless possible ) that Microsoft will move its Office suite on Linux ( for competition reasons ). 

    In conclusion, Corel announcement should pleased many Linux users who with the arrival of great software such as KDE and Wordperfect 8.0 are starting enjoying the power of linux.
 

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