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Corel To Test WordPerfect For Linux

Posted by simoniker on from the we-have-a-corel-icon dept.

prostoalex writes "CNET News says Corel will introduce a native Linux version of its WordPerfect Office product on April 15th . This will be a pilot project, as Corel executives want to find out whether it's worth competing with the other products (namely StarOffice and OpenOffice)." The piece mentions: "Corel previously produced a Linux-native version of WordPerfect 8, released in 1998, and offered a Linux-translated version of WordPerfect 9 in 2000, when Linux was still a cornerstone of the company's broader strategy."

4 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Re:To little to late? XML means nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Saying that WP files can be read elsewhere because they use XML is like saying one IM program can connect to all others because it uses TCP/IP, or configuration files for one program will work for all other apps because they're plain ASCII.

    XML, by itself, is not a format, people!

  2. Re:Lets hope Corel doesn't screw this up. by Repugnant_Shit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is just a guess (I'm not a game developer) but most Linux game ports do NOT work on Linux, they work on x86 Linux. I guess it's much easier to port a game to a different OS on the same architecture than to a different OS on a completely different arch.

    --
    Vote for global prefs bug
  3. Re:Lets hope Corel doesn't screw this up. by Gildor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, except 1)The people on the show chose to be there, and 2)They do get fired for reasons - they screw up.

  4. Still a need... by Chris+Tyler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I used and loved WP on Unix from 5.1 through 8. I still have WP6 and WP8 on one of my Linux boxes to manage the occassional old document.

    WP's user interface had clunky spots, but it was *predictable*. StarOffice drives me crazy in a few places-- Getting rid of extra lines at the top of the page sometimes seems impossible, and Good Luck if you have a table at the top of a page and want to insert lines above it.

    But WP's most impressive feat was the file compatability. From 5.2 onward, files were forward- AND backward-compatible. The tagged-block structure file format had been thought out well, and as new features were introduced, they were added to the format in such a way that older versions of the app could open and use as much of the newer files as possible. Compared to Word, it stood out as just plain Good Engineering.