So what makes HowToForge so darn special? The collaboration of the written word? Perhaps the sheer number of how-tos? No, what really makes it so dynamite is the ingenuity many of the articles there reflect.

When I met the Chairman of Corel in 1999 at the inaugural LinuxWorld in San Jose, I decided I wanted to change my consulting work and focus strictly on Linux. I recall Michael Cowpland’s commitment to Linux before any other major software vendor came along. First, he chose to bring out WordPerfect 8 for Linux. That was the first commercial word processor for Linux distributed free.

Michael also committed to have Corel work on WINE and contributed back to the project. Corel also ported their WordPerect Office Suite and Corel Draw using WINE and made it available for Linux.

Michael then brought out Corel 1.0 Linux and put it into retail stores across North America. He had the clout to make Corel Linux the number one selling distribution by getting and paying for premium aisle space and putting out a remarkable package that retailers and customers liked. [Read the rest]

Tags: xandros, wine, corel, linux tutorials