have a product similar to Cobalt, which has a market capitalization of 3-4

billion US$. We are very happy with our 25% ownership of rebel that we got in

the Netwinder project. We just felt it was better off as a separate company

because hardware does require a separate focus.

Will Corel do something similar with Corel Linux?

No, because we are enabling 90% of the work between Windows applications and

Linux applications and to some extent Macintosh applications. That is more

proficient than other companies doing both Linux applications and Windows

applications.

Are all Corel applications going to be available for Linux?

Yes, absolutely. We are also considering acquisition of other applications of

Windows to port over to Linux, to make our portfolio even more complete. We are

also looking at companies who have a dual platform strategy. It is easier to

buy technologies than to buy the whole company in a non-exclusive way.

(Mike Cowpland refused to give any further details about the companies that

they plan to or are considering to acquire. Said it was too pre-mature to

discuss this now.)

Corel Office for Linux was expected by the year-end of 1999? Apart from Word

Perfect none of the other applications are ported to Linux yet. What is the

progress on that?

It should be available in beta form in a week's time and that's very close to

year-end.

What about the competition to your office suite from Star Office?

The downloads of their office suite are running at 10% of our volumes which is

not very competitive. If you look at Sun's history of software it has been

dismal. Even now people complain that they are not even freeing up Java. IBM is

very upset that they are charging 3% license fees for anybody using Java

program. Sun's history on software has been the pits.

What would happen if Microsoft office were available for Linux?

That would be good for the industry. More the applications on Linux, the

better. In fact we are working on that. With our GraphOn Bridges you will be

able to run Microsoft applications on Corel Linux without Microsoft having to

do any work. You still have to pay Microsoft's license but it will enable

people to rely on Linux without giving up on their favorite Windows

applications.

Both Microsoft and Sun are offering their office suites over the servers with