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Corel confirms it has acquired virtualization specialist Parallels
- paul_milovanov 8y agoCorel still exists?! Good for them!
- raverbashing 8y agoI suppose Corel Draw is still popular, even though it's not the favourite of most graphical artists/designers.
- cwbrandsma 8y agoOther than Photoshop, what are the favorites these days?
- bulletsvshumans 8y agoSketch for UI/UX design.
- themodelplumber 8y agoSerif products (Affinity) have been on a roll, last I checked.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- kup0 8y agoI switched to Affinity and never looked back at Photoshop/Illustrator. That being said, I used them at a hobbyist level, nothing very complex, so while it was an easy transition for me, it may not be for everyone. But I've seen quite a few people state they have moved off of Adobe products over to Serif. I've been very happy with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.
- tecklenburg 8y agoThey now just released Affinity Publisher in Beta as a replacement for Adobe InDesign. Already using it and very pleased!
- bambax 8y agoAffinity products are fine and fast and stable, but there are many things they don't do. Tracing for example: Corel Draw does tracing beautifully.
- raverbashing 8y agoCorel Draw is similar to Adobe Illustrator, not Photoshop
- watersb 8y agoPixelmator still great, as is OmniGraffle (a better Visio) for vector diagrams and my vector-image pirposes. https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/ https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/ https://www.omnigroup.com/ https://www.omnigroup.com/
- mortenjorck 8y agoI used Corel Draw back when I worked at a T-shirt and jersey shop in college, and frequently used it to drive a vinyl cutter for jersey numbers and other decoration. From anecdotes I’ve read since then, it appears the software is still the preferred choice in custom apparel, signage, and vehicle livery shops because it interfaces well with the cutting machines those industries use.
- allannienhuis 8y agoyes, Corel Draw was the #1 choice among the sign shops I worked at. Almost every vinyl cutter or large-format digital printer supported Corel export formats really well. I spent years working with it daily - it was pretty solid, and had an amazing amount of features & flexibility. It was also expensive and so pirated a LOT.
- footpath 8y agoCorel Painter has its niche among digital artists - it's still one of the higher end digital painting programs that simulates real life mediums (acrylic, oil, watercolor) remarkably well. There's really no iPad equivalent to Corel Painter, but Corel registered the procreate.com domain to redirect to their Painter product page (Procreate (procreate.art) by the Australian company Savage is one of the strongest digital art applications on the iPad). Corel has also recently purchased Gravit Designer, which presumably will stand as their main digital design app that competes with Sketch and Adobe XD.
- mattkrause 8y agoThey really named it Procreate?! (Yes)
- kirykl 8y agoCorel still maintains WordPerfect too, last release was 7 months ago
- paulddraper 8y agoAnd they've been plenty active in court; SCOTUS just turned down an appeal for the Microsoft case a few years ago https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/28/victory_for_microsoft_as_supremes_decline_to_hear_novells_wordperfect_whine/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/28/victory_for_microso...
- Shorel 8y agoWPS Office seems to have cornered the market for MS Office alternatives, i.e. WPS runs in Linux, Wordperfect doesn't.
- mistrial9 8y agocitations?
- petepete 8y agoYes, WordPerfect has supported them for many years. https://support.corel.com/hc/en-us/articles/215963808-How-to-create-a-Table-of-Authorities-in-WordPerfect https://support.corel.com/hc/en-us/articles/215963808-How-to...
- mkl 8y agoI think they're asking about the assertion that "WPS Office seems to have cornered the market for MS Office alternatives", which would be pretty surprising. Libreoffice, Google Docs, and iWork all exist, and all seem more popular.
- justinclift 8y agoThat's not even slightly a credible citation for usage/popularity stats. :/
- slantyyz 8y agoThese days it seems like basically acquire software companies. They own Winzip, Paintshop and Painter, for example.
- ergothus 8y agoIt's been a long time since I've heard of an acquisition that was actually positive for the aquired/their users - can anyone working on any of these groups share such a story?
- SyneRyder 8y agoOn the user side, Corel has been okay-ish with PaintShop Pro. I write Photoshop plugins and I still have lots of customers who are happy Paintshop Pro users, some 14 years after Corel acquired JASC. That said, Corel added a kind of adware to PSP, where it will display promotions for upgrades to the new version of Paint Shop Pro even when you're not using the program. I really wish there was an easy way to disable it, but I'm sure their metrics show it is effective. Parallels are already doing a version of that (but only when you launch the program), and now even Apple itself is using notifications to advertise products & distribute discounts [1]. There's probably no avoiding it now. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2018/12/18/apple-push-notifications-complaints/ https://9to5mac.com/2018/12/18/apple-push-notifications-comp...
- tracker1 8y agoI loved PSP under Jasc, after I think XII after the Corel buyout, I gave up on the product... Paint.Net or Gimp (painfully) give me the little utility I usually need. I really do miss PSP, but I think 9 was the last really good version, and I don't have a key or media for it anymore. It sounds like it's gotten a little worse.
- SyneRyder 8y agov9 was good, but I still prefer 7, the version just before JASC switched to .NET. v7 is lightning fast, and nearly 20 years later it's still the version I use first for Photoshop plugin development, because of its speed. From memory, v9 isn't compatible with Windows 10 (the installer won't work properly), so don't feel you're missing anything. Serif's Affinity Photo is giving PSP real competition, but Affinity is still quite buggy in some ways on Windows. I'd probably recommend Corel PSP 2018 / 2019 over Affinity for the moment. Paint.NET is great too.
- AdmiralAsshat 8y agoThe bigger surprise to me is that they not only exist, but have the money to buy Parallels.
- code_beers 8y agoYeah, I would have expected this to go the other way around. “Parallels bought Corel? Corel still exists? Why would Parallels even want them?”
- tlrobinson 8y agoI don't much about private equity, but Corel is owned by Vector Capital, so maybe they're providing the money? https://www.vectorcapital.com/investments/case-study/corel https://www.vectorcapital.com/investments/case-study/corel
- ungzd 8y agoDo Vector Capital specialize on Vector Graphics software companies?
- sodosopa 8y agoI'm kinda shocked they both exist. Both were good products back in the day, but in 2018? Come on.
- mosselman 8y agoWhat do you base this on? Is it that neither has released a front-end javascript framework or an in-house container orchestration tool as open-source (that I know of)? Or is there some other hipness criterium that they failed to meet?
- sodosopa 8y agoNah, I'm old or at least in tech years I'm old. I've worked with projects before containerization I have been a former user of both products. I didn't imagine Corel had the capital to move out of bargain-bins.
- qubex 8y agoOne of the first Linux distributions I tried (after the venerable Slackware) was the short-lived Corel Linux way back in 1999 or thereabouts.
- martin-adams 8y agoI 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.
- njarboe 8y agoThe 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 :) ).
- FigBug 8y agoVector Capital took them private in 2008 at $4.00 a share. Odd that nobody has historical charts, I can't find it either.
- gesman 8y agoUsed to be COSFF ticker. I worked for Corel in Ottawa long while ago. Not sure how to dig charts now.
- aasasd 8y ago> stock at $6 and popping to $32 on the Linux hype These words don't sound right.
- njarboe 8y agoHard 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corel_Linux [2]https://investors.redhat.com/ir-resources/investor-faqs/when-was-red-hats-initial-public-offering-ipo https://investors.redhat.com/ir-resources/investor-faqs/when...
- joejerryronnie 8y agoI just used my CompuServe internet account to look up this story.
- reaperducer 8y agoCompuServe had internet? (72167,3530 here!)
- Krasnol 8y agoI loved CS. I had a tool that generated personal data for their trial accounts for most of my pre-flatrate dial-up internet time.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoAmazing isn't it? I still prefer Corel Draw to the Inkscape or any of the Adobe products. I have their PowerDVD software on a laptop which is used as a portable DVD player for visiting nieces and nephews.
- footpath 8y agoPowerDVD is CyberLink, you're probably thinking WinDVD (which apparently is still getting new updates).
- barbecue_sauce 8y agoThe first question that crossed my mind.
- zantana 8y agoI was always surprised their model of selling their older versions at a reduced rate (e.g. latest version $199, next older $100, one before that $49) never took off. They always seemed so scrappy back in the 90s with their giant boxes and included libraries of clip art. One of the more novelty twitter accounts I found recently posts images from one of their 10,000 item collections: https://twitter.com/clipart1994bot https://twitter.com/clipart1994bot
- dmix 8y agoHa they even included a clip art of L Ron Hubbard [1]? I'm really curious who drew all of these pieces. 10k images is a ton of work... [1] https://twitter.com/Clipart1994bot/status/1075483685745557505 https://twitter.com/Clipart1994bot/status/107548368574555750...
- ungzd 8y agoI think these images were made by few artists, because the style is very distinct and recognizable. I still encounter these clipart pics on signs of crappy cafes and shops. Made of plotter-cut adhesive film, these pics look gorgeous.
- FigBug 8y agoThe company I currently work for does something similar. Latest version costs money, previous version gets given away with hardware, and version before that is free. However, we are going to transition to latest version costs money and two feature set reduced versions gets given with hardware and free. Having 3 versions to support is too much overhead for a small company. And giving away old versions of our products with issues that we know we've solved gives a bad image of our software to new users we are trying to up-sell to the latest version.
- user5994461 8y agoWhat's the rationale behind the current model? From a business perspective, the older versions are used by older or larger companies that couldn't or didn't want to upgrade, they have money to shell out and should be charged more.
- rpeden 8y agoThey sure do, and if you drove into Ottawa on the 417 in the past decade, you went right past their office: https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.3788963,-75.7454491,3a,77.5y,358.65h,92.85t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQ2vSImv3LQXXCnwbQrwD9w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.3788963,-75.7454491,3a,77.5y,... They seem to have pulled the Corel logo down some time this year. That makes me a little sad, as it was always one of those little landmarks that reminded me I was almost home when I lived in downtown Ottawa.
- jason_slack 8y agoWhen Corel was looking for a new CEO I applied :-)
- nickthegreek 8y agocoreldraw is still the best vector program to interface with laser engravers.
- mike_ivanov 8y agoNot only with them, but pretty much with everything related to CNC. And the reason is that it exports clean, optimized paths -- and in the DXF format. What comes out of Affinity Designer is unusable garbage.
- Crontab 8y agoThey are the Yahoo of software companies.
- subdane 8y agoParallels still exists? Good for them!
- logjammin 8y agoCame here to say this
- ziont 8y agome too. i still have corel draw from late 90s
- porpoisely 8y agoIt's been so long since I heard the name Corel that I recognized the name but not what they did? The other day there was a post about Lotus Notes. Now this. I'm not sure I can handle all the nostalgia.
- gigatexal 8y agoYeah I was just going to ask this too! Crazy. And yeah good for them. All everyone talks about is photoshop these days. So for them to still be around means they have to be doing something right.
- japhyr 8y agoI just started using a Mac this year, and I need to run Linux and Windows for testing reasons. I'm starting to do more freelance work now, so I'll have some Windows-focused work as well. Right now I have separate machines for each OS, but I'd like to just use a Mac and get rid of my other machines. I've played with Virtualbox, but I haven't used Parallels or VMWare. Does this acquisition make Parallels any more or less appealing as a virtualization solution for macOS? Does anyone have any clear recommendations for doing professional work in various OSes on a Mac at this point?
- bigcostooge2 8y agoParallels is by far the most performant. And the license is fairly cheap all things considered. At least for now.
- sitharus 8y agoParallels is the best solution in my experience, but they do use a bunch of dark patterns. They used to sell ‘download insurance’ for example, and really push antivirus if you install windows. I doubt this acquisition will change that, though they do push their subscription package now. I’ve been meaning to try alternatives, VMWare seem to be maintaining Fusion again.
- ulzeraj 8y agoI’ve been using the free Parallels Desktop Lite from the application store. Well its free for Linux and Windows. It also doesn’t do bridging networks - only NAT and host networking. Considering it is an App Store product which should follow the sandboxing rules I suspect its just a fronted for the native hypervisor framework. I just need to fire an ocasional Linux vem to test something it is more than enough to me. YMMV.
- qubex 8y agoI use VMWare.
- _underflow_ 8y agoI (used to?) own a student license for Parallels Desktop circa 2012, though it may have expired by now. In my experience, I could see no major differences between their solution and, say, Virtualbox. There were some Mac-specific features like working well with Exposé when in Seamless mode and a few other UI niceties, but Parallels seems primarily geared towards supporting Windows. Linux Guest OS support of features like Seamless mode refused to work unless you had specific kernel versions and was always several versions behind in my experience. I'm sure the feature parity gap between Virtualbox and Parallels Desktop is even smaller today than it used to be. The pricetag is usually less for Parallels products compared to the leading commercial competitor, FWIW.
- tambourine_man 8y agoCorel seems to be one of those places where software goes to die. Almost like Yahoo, but withering, instead of going with a bang. With Oracle at the realm of VirtualBox and now this, it’s not a pretty landscape. I hope I’m wrong though.
- paulie_a 8y agoI'm surprised Oracle has kept virtual box going this long, but with the licensing and aggressive behavior they seem to be doing their best to kill it.
- comment20181220 8y agoLike Kaspersky, parallels is Russian software and on the list of "domestic" software by the Russian government. Parallels has been erasing references to its Russian roots since the hackergate began. Trying to avoid Kaspersky fate and escape sanctions and bans especially when US federal funding is involved? It is not clear who is buying what in this case.
- cced 8y agoKind of hard to distance yourself from Russia when Parallels phones servers located in Moscow every time it launches.
- blattimwind 8y agoJust wait until the Americans figure out that JetBrains is basically soviet technology!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- leadingthenet 8y agoWhat?
- roymurdock 8y agoLooks like Corel’s PE owner Vector Capital doing another tangentially related acquisition (jasc, winzip, intervideo, and Roxio are Corel’s other acquisitions under Vector) to bolster revenues, would be surprised if there was another more nefarious angle https://www.vectorcapital.com/investments/case-study/corel https://www.vectorcapital.com/investments/case-study/corel
- antonius 8y agoInterviewed at Corel a few years back. Surprised the company still exists given how dated the product line is.
- bratao 8y agoCorel bought my favorite photo editor ever. Never found a replacement (PhotoImpact). Just to discontinue it. I hate them!!
- pier25 8y agoAdobe and Autodesk have done that countless of times. Eg: Fireworks, Freehand, etc.
- orliesaurus 8y agoCan someone with inside-knowledge (or just knows) explain how is Corel still in business?
- giobox 8y agoIsn't Parallel's business more or less entirely x86 virtualization products for MacOS? Do their other non-MacOS product lines bring in much revenue? Interesting time to buy such a company when there are so many strong rumors pointing to the Mac's impending ARM chip future...
- angry_octet 8y agoCorel... Now that's a name I've not heard in a long, long time.
- lathiat 8y agoThis takes me back to Corel Linux. My first Linux, it was based on Debian and very quickly lead me to Debian.
- bhouston 8y agoWill Parallels still work well if Apple switches to ARM-based cores in many of their machines?
- SyneRyder 8y agoI was wondering this too, and if it might be a factor in the timing of the acquisition. Parallels used to make Windows & Linux versions of their product [1], so there might still be ways that Corel can continue selling a product even if Apple's new hardware lineup prevents virtualization. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_Workstation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_Workstation
- pier25 8y agoI imagine Corel survives from its hardcore fans... but why would it buy Parallels?
- orbitingpluto 8y agoSo you can run Corel software in it?
- pier25 8y agoBut you could already do that?
- Stratoscope 8y ago“From our highly complementary product portfolios to our shared business models and strategies, Corel and Parallels are a great fit. Thanks to the combined power of our technologies and teams, we see tremendous opportunities to drive continued growth and success for our businesses and most importantly, our customers.” Where do people learn to write like this?
- rs86 8y agoBusiness bullshit by Andre Spicer will be a good read for you
- jerrac 8y agoIf their photo development product had decent library management, I'd have bought it recently. They have Linux version.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y agoCorel are really killing the Software Museum business model.