Re: [comp.os.linux.announce] LOCAL: Corel VNC/Open Source Public Announcement at OCLUG meeting

[al...@ox.org]

>  am giving a talk on Open Source on May 7th in Copenhagen.  It would be
> very nice to include this Corel announcement in my presentation.
> Unfortunately Denmark is 6 hours ahead.  Anybody have any inside info on
> this one?

  I've been following the developments for a while.  I know many of
the people at Corel Computers who've worked on the project, and the
people at the Ottawa Carleton Linux Users Group (OCLUG) who started
the talks.

  The key people are San Mehat at Corel, and Chris Herrnberger from
the OCLUG.  They managed to convince the suits not only to use Linux,
but to establish a close relationship with the users group in order to
promote the development of  free software.

  For background, the computer is an Arm 266, 32M Ram, .5G to 1G
drive, 10Mbit, 100Mbit ethernet, infrared in/out, telephone in/out (it
does modulation/demodulation to 33k in software and rings the
telephone).  4 video inputs (only one comes out the back of the box) 5
stero audio inputs (only one comes out the back), stereo audio output,
SVGA/NTSC output.  Retail is projected to be near $700 US, with
special deals for Linux users groups.  Oh, and it'll run for a few
hours on 6 D cells.

  See: http://www.corelcomputer.com/ for a nice picture.  This thing
will look good next to your stereo.

  The original idea was to sell a Java NC, using Linux as the hidden
base OS.  Consumer interest and the changing java NC market have
influenced them that a Linux computer may be the way to go.

  The announcement will have to do with Open Source, and Netscape and
RedHat may be there.  The president of RedHat has already talked to
them.  Corel has already committed to hosting free web/ftp sites for
NC related software, and are encouraging the porting of free software
to the NC.  Corel is 100% behind the idea of free software, and have
already given a number of presentations to the local Linux group.
Many people think it would be a good idea for them to NPL their office
suite.

  I don't think I can make it any clearer without getting my head
chopped off.

  Alan DeKok.