References:Corel
Microsoft
Sun |
|
A previous SIGPC musing in April
described an early beta of Ottawa, Canada-based Corel Corp.'s "Office for Java"
(COJ), the first large-scale Java application suite. It looked promising. It was
ambitious. It has been canceled. Well, sort of canceled. The stories coming from Corel's
CEO Michael Cowpland do not seem to agree with that of other Corel representatives. He
revised his initial comments that COJ was dead, saying that it would simply be merged with
their groupware product, Corel Central. Corel staff are, to put it mildly, confused. One
analyst theorized that Cowpland was simply attempting to calm customers who have already
agreed to purchase COJ. The announcement had only a small detrimental effect on Corel's
stock price, which has experienced a dramatic decline in the last 2 years.
Office for Java was an ambitious project to begin with. Started a year and a half ago,
it ported existing Corel applications and the newly-acquired WordPerfect to Java. Intended
to be sold to corporations deploying cheap network computers, it would be downloaded on
demand to an employee's desktop machine and satisfy all of their productivity software
needs. The promise of network computing (NC) in the ideal world.
So what does this mean for Corel's future in network computing? Corel maintains that
their replacement for COJ will better secure their place in the NC market. This new
product will use a new Java-based "universal thin client" technology, code named
"Remagen". It is designed to host the existing Corel application suite on
platforms from Unix workstations to Windows 3.x PCs (which many corporations still use) to
the Network Computer. Remagen was the name of a bridge on the Rhine where a battle was
fought in World War II, an obvious reference to Corel's ongoing struggles against
Microsoft.
And what about Sun? They certainly can't be happy about the demise of COJ, since it was
the first application to be certified "100% Pure Java". (At current count, there
are 53 certified applications.) However, Sun shouldn't be too disappointed, since Corel's
new product will still be Java-based. However, Corel's not going to appear at the
inaugural Java Internet Business Expo
trade show next week in New York.
Related information:
From Corel, The Ottawa Sun, and other sources. |
![[Line]](../images/Turquoise_and_GrayB150.gif){kind=small}
