I installed Corel Linux on the family computer when I was 13. It was my first Linux distribution. Someone from school got the disc out of a magazine if I remember correctly.

I couldn't get the modem to work and the installer didn't add a boot option for the Windows 98 partition (LILO bootloader), so my family was understandably pretty pissed off. I ended up figuring out how to restore the Windows MBR, and eventually figured out how to dual boot.

To this day, when I mention Corel Linux was my first Linux distribution people tend to think I'm confused since "Corel makes graphics software, not Linux distributions!"

Ah getting my first modem under linux working - the autovtest was dialling 999999 - I got a call back as soon as I managed to hangup. Explained to the 999 operator I was just testing Linux....

Probably you had one of those ‘winmodem’ monstrosities that were prevalent at the time. I experienced similar problems.

There's nothing inherently wrong with a software modem. It's just a different way of implementing the hardware. Some software modems were effectively programmable DSPs, almost like a software defined radio for a wired connection.

I doubt they ever claimed Linux driver support so it's not their fault people weren't able to get them working.

The good old dot com days. I remember buying Corel stock at $6 and it popping to $32 in a few weeks (or was it a few months, I can't seem to find Corel listed as a public company now to check the price history) on the Linux hype, only to crash down soon after (got out at $8 :) ).

Vector Capital took them private in 2008 at $4.00 a share. Odd that nobody has historical charts, I can't find it either.

Used to be COSFF ticker. I worked for Corel in Ottawa long while ago.

Not sure how to dig charts now.

> stock at $6 and popping to $32 on the Linux hype

These words don't sound right.

Hard to believe, but true. Wish I had a chart of the Corel stock price but from Wikipedia[1]:

"Corel Linux, also called Corel LinuxOS, was a Debian-based operating system made by Corel that began beta testing on September 21, 1999[1] and was released to the public on November 15, 1999." ... "Corel later discontinued the distribution, but did not remove the former Corel Open Source Development website until March 2002."

So at least I did not just dream it. Did you live through that era? It was very similar to the blockchain hype but lasted a bit longer.

Edit: Confirming the Linux hype:

"Red Hat's initial public offering was on August 11, 1999. A total of 6,000,000 shares were priced at $14 ($7 post-split) per share."[2]

On January 10th, 2000, four months later the price peaked at $140, which would have netted you one of the fastest 10 baggers in history. By July of 2001 it was under $4

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corel_Linux [2]https://investors.redhat.com/ir-resources/investor-faqs/when...

VA Linux is often forgotten too. Due to Linux in the name, and even a sexy ticker symbol, rose a crazy 700% for those in on the initial offer price. And there were a lot of those people because they added everyone who had their names on any software included in their Linux distribution. Myself thankfully included.

Well, this outfit sounds much more impressive than the vague prospects of Corel's Linux offering:

> Geeknet, Inc. owns the online retailer ThinkGeek and is a subsidiary of GameStop. The company was formerly known as VA Research, VA Linux Systems, VA Software, and SourceForge, Inc.

> VA Research was one of the first vendors to build and sell personal computer systems installed with the Linux operating system, as an alternative to more expensive Unix workstations that were available at the time. It was the largest vendor of pre-installed Linux computers, with approximately 20% of the Linux hardware market.

> Intel and Sequoia, along with Silicon Graphics and other investors, added an additional $25 million investment in June 1999.

> In fiscal 1999, the company's sales grew to $17.7 million, up from $5.5 million in fiscal 1998. In fiscal 2000, the company's sales were $120.3 million.

> owned Slashdot from 2000 till 2012

I vaguely remember that the VA Linux computers were quite inexpensive but basically unusable due to software problems. Another nail in the Linux desktop coffin.

I've heard about the distro, but not a reason why it existed or why anybody would buy it. Apparently, it was marketed for desktop use, which I guess wasn't yet universally seen as ridiculous in '99.

About that time every company and its dog was trying to push in the commercial Linux distribution space, trying to get a piece of the sweet pie that Redhat was eating.

They were also bundling/selling Wordperfect Office for Linux at that time, since the only real competitor on Linux was StarOffice which later purchased by Sun and open sourced - and later because of the acquisition by Oracle, was forked into LibreOffice. Hard to believe that was all nearly 20 years ago now.

WordPerfect runs perfectly on modern Linux. For fresh Debian installs, I have a standard set of tweaks to apply, and then it's up and running. I love it because it's relatively compact, very fast, and really has all the word-processing features one needs.

Woah. Memory lane. I remember helping with a Corel Linux install fest way around that time at the University of Ottawa. It was pretty good for that time in that the installer was "friendly"...I think...this is going back many years here.

I remember using that. It’s was good then I got scared off when my machine didn’t boot one day and I didn’t understand the error.