You're aware that the massive Slashdot thread was about the Beta version of their first distro release, right?

I was not on the Beta program but I did use the final product.

I cut them some slack because this was their first FOSS product and their teams were not good with the transition.

That got straightened out between beta and release, which means the beta served its purpose.

The license jargon was cleared up and source code was made available in the first and subsequent releases.

(down the shashdot thread someone actually examined the Corel legalese and found that it did NOT violate the GPL or usurp original author rights.)

The wrapper around apt was to make it easier to use, I was able to use apt without restrictions from the shell. Since then many other graphical wrappers around apt have been released.

Did you actually use it, or are you basing your views on a typical /. overreaction thread?

Still... regardless of one's thoughts on the quality or utility of their release, Corel did break ground in introducing Linux to a mainstream audience. They had a large presence at COMDEX where they launched the product and were the only mainstream consumer software company talking up FOSS, at a time when Microsoft was in all-out attack mode.

"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do": Joe Walsh and most of Slashdot