Even before it was officially released, Corel Linux was the talk of the Linux world as being the harbinger of tomorrow's Linux, a blueprint for how Linux could complete against the likes of Windows and the Macintosh—talk that came directly from Corel officials themselves in a marketing push. And, as if to prove their confidence in Linux, Corel officials took to the media and declared that they were basically betting the company's future on Linux. (Probably not the best bet, as the Corel Corp. stock price has floundered lately.)

So, with that heavy weight on our shoulders—we like Canada and would hate to see any Canadians unemployed as the result of a poorly researched review of Corel Linux—we embarked on an evaluation using the same criteria applied to our previous DistributionWatch review of Red Hat Linux. Namely, how well does Corel Linux stack up against Windows and other Linux distributions when it comes to installation, configuration and usability? And how well does Corel's Windows workalike strategy play in the real world?

Rather well, as it ends up: better than any Linux to date, including Red Hat Linux. Newcomers who have little or no exposure to Linux will find this a user-friendly and usable operating system that can serve the needs of most mainstream computer users. Experienced Linux users will marvel at how well Linux can be positioned for the mass market, both in terms of installation and in terms of everyday usability. And while there are many little things that we find disturbing in Corel Linux (particularly for users of older PCs), on the whole it's a major advance in the positioning of Linux as a mainstream operating system.

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