This FAQ addresses common questions about Linux i386-binary releases of the discontinued but enduringly popular, proprietary WordPerfect word processor.
Some FAQs aim to present only impartial fact. Others summarise diverse answers typically given by members of the sponsoring community. This FAQ does neither: It's one author's attempt to paint a coherent picture of WordPerfect for Linux's place in the 21st Century open-source world, from a Linux-centric perspective. Some others' views will undoubtedly differ.
I'd like to gratefully acknowledge the HOWTO documents at http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp_index.html, which should be consulted for detailed installation instructions for WP on current Linux distributions. Also, the former linux.astcomm.net and current news://cnews.corel.com/corel.WordPerfect_Linux (older postings at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.wpoffice.wordperfect8-linux/) newsgroups' comments have been invaluable.
I would also like to thank Leon A. Goldstein and Valentijn Sessink specifically for their valuable feedback, Bob Tennent and Jim C. Brown for information on the libsafe problem, and Wade Hampton for maintaining the original but now-obsolete WordPerfect Mini-HOWTO.
Several things. In an era when leading word processors gobble dozens of megs of RAM just launching, WP (v. 8.x) is thrifty -- about 6 MB. By comparison, OpenOffice.org 1.1.3 or Star Office 7.0 takes 113 MB to launch. AbiWord 2.2.1 uses only 16 MB, and KWord 1.3.4 uses 35 MB. It's a stable, fast, polished, full-featured product. It has "reveal codes". It has a nearly unique "shrink to fit" printing feature that quickly becomes indispensable once you've experienced it. WP's high-performance print module uses the MS-DOS version's time-tested, robust printer drivers by default, expanding greatly the range of compatible printers. (WP can alternatively hand off to standard Unix printing subsystems -- lpr / lprng / gnulpr / cups / pdq / etc. -- in "Passthru Postscript" mode, to use the system's own standard print drivers.) It has excellent built-in mathematical, financial, logical, and string-handling functions. It has excellent table support and a useful speed-table-formatting feature. It has a time-tested, easy to use and debug macro language. It has a robust built-in database engine for table sorting and searching.
It's still the best tool available on Linux for reading WordPerfect .wpd files created elsewhere. (AbiWord, Anyware Office, wp2latex, and the OpenOffice.org Writer 2.0 beta also qualify.)
It's a discontinued product (on Linux). The most-long-term-available version, WP 8.0 Download Personal Edition (WP 8.0 DPE), has deliberately crippled font handling and limited (but fixable) multi-language support, and won't function without fairly antique support libraries. The best version, WP 8.1, comes only bundled with the Corel Linux OS (CLOS) Deluxe and Standard Edition boxed sets, v. 1.0 or 1.2 -- likewise discontinued.
WP used to be the best tool on Linux for reading MS-Word (through Word97) files, but always faltered on some, especially those Fast Saved in MS-Word. But now, Star Office, OpenOffice.org Writer, and AbiWord reportedly do better (and, unlike WP for Linux, can read post-Word97 .doc formats).
All 8.x versions (except the 2003-4 "pilot project" re-release) ship with a broken MS-Word import / export module: This third-party code ("Filtrix") fails with the message "Filtrix unable to convert this file" if the local system clock is set to later than September 9, 2001, because an internal time counter overflowed when Linux system time in seconds since January 1, 1970 passed 10^9 seconds. The problem can be fixed using a wrapper by Valentijn Sessink of the Netherlands firm Open Office, http://www.openoffice.nl/ (not to be confused with Sun Microsystems's OpenOffice.org project), available at http://olivier.pk.wau.nl/~valentyn/wp8fix/.
The integration into standard Linux print subsystems was always poor; ditto the typeface support. Screen rendering is a bit below par -- though printed output when using the built-in print engine is uniformly excellent, and very fast. Also, TrueType fonts were never supported, only PostScript Type 1. Menu shortcuts break when Caps Lock or Num Lock are on. And WP's use of the Motif graphics toolkit makes its aesthetics a bit klunky.
Last, though the point may be obvious, WP is proprietary (not open source). Open-source projects die only when nobody cares to maintain them, can be fixed / improved by any motivated party, and can be easily implemented on newer CPU architectures (IA64, PPC). By contrast, supplies of all but one WP version are vanishing, the sole exception occupies a legal grey area, and the difficulty of keeping it running on evolving Linux systems (which can be i386 only) can only increase over time.
It's a measure of just how good WP for Linux is / was that many people consider it still the best word processor for Linux, on balance, despite the above.
Old-timers may recall that WordPerfect originally emerged from Satellite Software, Inc. of Orem, Utah, which later renamed itself to WordPerfect Corporation, which ported it widely from the original x86 assembler version for MS-DOS. (Their initial Unix port occasioned a rewrite to C, which lead to WP for NeXT, which lead to WP 6.0 for MS-Windows, which was the basis for all subsequent versions.) That firm eventually sold WordPerfect's codebase to Novell, Inc., which then sold it to Corel Corporation Limited of Ottawa, Canada. Corel then hired a spinoff firm (Software Development Corporation aka SD Corp., formed by the Unix port's manager and developers) to port WP versions 6, 7, 8.0, and 8.1 to both Linux and several proprietary Unix platforms.
Around 1996-7, the initial SD Corp.-written Linux port of Corel WP, v. 6.0, was marketed solely through through Caldera, Inc. of Orem, Utah, as part of two bundles: the WordPerfect and Motif Bundle, and the Caldera Internet Office Suite bundle (companion CD to Caldera Network Desktop v. 1.0). In 1997, Corel replaced this with a v. 7.0 that it sold directly (after SD Corp.'s open beta), offering greater file compatibility with other platforms and other improvements.
The zenith of WP for Linux's popularity, however, came with the 1998-2000 v. 8.x series, the most wildly popular Linux proprietary software of that era. (During that time period, Corel, acting without help from SD Corp., attempted to port the entire WordPerfect Office (aka Corel Office) suite to Java: Program startup was slow for its time, and some functions had problems. The project was killed after some public betas.)
The intended successor to 8.x shipped some time around 1999: WP 9, better known as WordPerfect Office 2000 (which was technically a brand new, entirely Corel-written MFC/C++ -coded, replacement WordPerfect codebase joined at the hip to several other Corel programs -- Quattro Pro (which Novell bought from Borland in June, 1994, and then passed to Corel), Paradox (which Corel bought around 1997 from Borland), Corel Presentations, Corel Central). WordPerfect Office 2000 was produced by Corel Corporation Limited, alone, Corel having closed down the WordPerfect Corporation unit in Orem, Utah during 1998-9. (Paradox was included only in the Deluxe Edition, and omitted from Standard Edition.)
As will be detailed later, the Linux release of WP9 / WordPerfect Office 2000 came about, not as a real Linux binary, but rather as Win32 code recompiled to run in a Corel-produced custom Winelib environment. (The porting services of SD Corp., experts in the C-based classic portable codebase, were therefore not required for that release.)
To understand Corel's WP versions for Linux, and what they're like, it helps to know the company's product history. As a proprietary software company, Corel wants customers to buy its boxed-set products. WordPerfect is one such product. CLOS was another. The Corel Netwinder Linux-based computer was a third.
Proprietary software companies are motivated to keep development costs down and product-development cycles short. So, Corel always attempts to use one main codebase, the Win32 version (the MacOS one having been axed in May 2001, per http://www.geocities.com/bulgybear/wp.html) as the flagship version, and minimises time and money spent on other OSes' versions.
For similar reasons, the WP product line is always fundamentally less diverse than it seems: To fill different niches and hit various price points, WP is / was offered in different "editions", with more features omitted or disabled from the base "Server" edition (about US $500, boxed set) as one descends the price scale.
WP versions 6 and 7 for Linux (native ports coded by SD Corp.) are long gone from the market, at this date. The (premium-priced) Server Edition boxed-set version included multiuser support and NFS locking, and included both an X11 version ("xwp") and a text-mode / console one ("wp"). The lower-priced Personal Edition boxed set omitted both multiuser / NFS support and the console version. (By "boxed set", I mean that the product was not available for download, only in a retail box, via stores or mail-order.)
WP 8.0 editions for Linux (likewise native ports coded by SD Corp.) were mostly similar: The Server Edition and Personal Edition boxed-set versions were as detailed for prior versions. However, Corel also introduced a WP 8.0 Download Personal Edition, which could be downloaded free of charge as a gzipped tar archive, and was also redistributed for the cost of media on CD-ROMs, in either tar.gz or RPM format. In late 2001, Corel disabled download of WP 8.0 DPE from its ftp site, but it remains available elsewhere.
WP 8.0 DPE for Linux differed from the boxed-set versions in lacking the other versions' drawing / charting module, their module to create custom dictionaries and hyphenation databases, their equation editor, their network support, their print-queue manager, their prepaid technical support, their sample documents / templates / textures / clip-art / photos, their font-installer module, most of their fonts, their multi-language support, and their documentation. (The program could call up an HTML manual from http://linux.corel.com/wpmanual, now removed, and that entire Internet server was finally decommissioned on Feb. 26, 2003.) Also, after 90 days, it refuses to run until you enter a registration key, available free of charge (for now) on http://venus.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html or http://nas.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html (or use one of the ones people have posted in public). Also, the licence permitted only personal, non-commercial use. Last, it was compiled dynamically linked against some now-obsolete libraries, which must thus be furnished for its benefit (prior to installation).
Balanced against these drawbacks is supplies of 8.0 DPE being effectively inexhaustible -- despite legal questions.
WP 8.0 Personal Edition for Linux was offered in boxed sets, and was offered bundled with the book "WordPerfect for Linux Bible" by Stephen E. Harris and Erwin Zijleman. It included 140 fonts, the font-installer module "xwpfi" (see: http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/wpfonts-fonts.html), 5,000 clip art images, support for grammar / spelling checkers and thesaurus lookups in additional (non-English) languages, and a now-outdated set of KDE 1.1 RPMs for Red Hat 5.1 / 5.2. The CD-ROM includes a text file with a registration key. Be aware that the electronic-format WP manual included is for character-mode WP, not the graphical X11 version.
Next came WP 8.1 Personal Edition for Linux (WP 8.1 PE), arguably the best version to date, showing "Release 8.1 11/1/1999" in its About screen. It came only in boxed sets of CLOS Deluxe Edition versions 1.0 and 1.2. (CLOS 1.2 was better known as "Second Edition", a name Corel evidently pitched at MS-Windows users.)
WP 8.1 PE differed from prior versions in several ways. It wasn't licensed for multiuser (only Server Editions included multiuser support and console-mode WP; I know of no 8.1 Server Editions), but was licensed for commercial use. As part of CLOS Deluxe Edition, it was in .deb package format. Redistribution was / is strictly prohibited. It came with a full set of 300 fonts, the font-installer module, network support, WP Draw, an equation editor, and a printed manual. It ships with and installs all required libraries.
WP 8.1 Light Edition for Linux was the bundled WP copy included in boxed sets of CLOS Standard Edition. According to one report, it differs from WP 8.1 PE only in having approximately 1/3 as many included fonts (only one of the Deluxe bundle's three .deb-format font archives).
Starting in late 2003, an update to WP 8.1 PE, confusingly called "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" (but showing "Release 8.1.0076 11/1/1999" in the About screen), was available through the Corel Store e-commerce Web site on eBay, then on Corel's own site intermittently from April 15, 2004 until around June 2004 as a "pilot project" aka "proof of concept" market-testing limited offering, "to determine the feasibility of developing future Linux versions of WordPerfect or WordPerfect Office". It uses its own graphical installer routine (eschewing the system package database) that prompts you for a licence number (included), installs under /usr by default, provides the necessary set of libc5 libraries and matching wrapper scripts, provides 130 PostScript Type 1 fonts, and incorporates the equivalent of Valentijn Sessink's Filtrix fix. Supported languages are English (UK, US, CA and OZ) and French (CA and National), only -- which can be fixed. Like prior releases of WP 8.1 PE, the 2003-4 "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" pilot-project offering was licensed for commercial use, but not multiuser.
The intended successor to 8.x was WP 9, a rewrite in Microsoft Foundation Classes / C++, written by Corel alone and promoted by them as a component of "WordPerfect Office 2000". This FAQ will have little to say about WP 9 for Linux, as it was not a true native port, but rather consisted of Win32 code running in a Winelib environment -- with predictable RAM bloat and instability, as a result. (Boxed sets only were offered.)
WP 8.0 for Linux was distributed as a dynamically linked ELF binary, linked against libc5 (C library), libm (the related math library), a set of five X11 libraries for libc5-based software, and ld-linux.so.1.9.* (aka ld.so 1.9.*), the dynamic-linker/loader software current on Linux at that time. Those old libraries are often omitted from current Linux distributions. In such cases, you need to retrofit those libraries. (You can see the exact library links by running "ldd" = list library dependencies against the WordPerfect "xwp" main executable file.) Specifically: Prior to running the WP 8.0 installer, you must install ld-linux.so.1.9.* (usually in an ld.so package), libc of some version from 5.3.12 through 5.4.46, and libm.so.5.* (both usually in the libc5 package), and a set of X11 backward-compatibility libraries compiled against libc5 (libXt.so.6, libX11.so.6, libXpm.so.4, libSM.so.6, and libICE.so.6). Don't forget to ensure the libraries' directories are listed in /etc/ld.so.conf, and then re-run /sbin/ldconfig.
What binary packages provide these libs and dynamic linker/loader differs between distributions. If in doubt, documents linked from http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp_index.html may give details for your distribution. (Also, FAQ section "After I locate WP 8.0 DPE for Linux, how do I install it, and what can I do to improve and fix it?" has more details and remedies for installation problems.)
You installed Accelerated-X, a proprietary X11 server, and included in your installation its version of the X11 libraries, which were compiled with glibc. You need the more-traditional XFree86 versions of those libraries (libXt.so.6, libX11.so.6, libXpm.so.4, libSM.so.6, and libICE.so.6), specifically ones that were compiled for libc5 X11 clients. Remove Accelerated-X completely, reinstall the XFree86 shared libraries for libc5 clients (which may have any of various package names, such as xlib-compat, oldlibs/xlib6, etc.), and then reinstall the Accelerated-X server only (minimal installation). WordPerfect should then run correctly.
You are running with "libsafe" enabled, a wrapper library that aims to protect system security by blocking library calls that are known to be vulnerable to buffer overflows. Unfortunately, that technique blocks execution of any binary that attempts a dynamic library call to libc5.x. Both the WP 8.x installer and WP 8.0's runtime binary were compiled as libc5 executables.
To confirm that libsafe is the culprit, type "echo $LD_PRELOAD | grep libsafe". You can turn off that setting by typing "unset LD_PRELOAD". Then, remove the libsafe reference in /etc/ld.so.preload, if this exists. You should now be able to successfully run the installer, and can call the main "xwp" binary using a shell script that runs "unset LD_PRELOAD" just prior to executing xwp.
Alternatively (for the adventuresome): If you want to leave libsafe enabled for normal executiables, but still use WordPerfect, you can binary-patch libc5's dynamic linker/loader to use a different global preload file (/etc/ld.so.preloa1 instead of /etc/ld.so.preload). Open ld-linux.so.1.9.* in a hex editor (such as "vi -b"), then find and replace all occurances of "/etc/ld.so.preload" with "/etc/ld.so.preloa1". Save and exit. The referenced file need not exist: The idea is that libc5's loader will look up a null preload library instead of libsafe, while the glibc/libc6 loader will find libsafe as intended.
You're probably using one of the personal editions of WP 8.x. Only the server editions include code required to enable support of NFS file locking (which in server editions you can enable via the WPadmin login facility). Otherwise, neither the installer nor the WP program binary will run if any components are on (or will be installed to) any NFS mounted drive, including user settings in users' home directories and temporary files in /tmp.
The third-party Filtrix module, because of a programming oversight concerning date-handling, doesn't work on systems whose current date is set later than September 9, 2001: On attempts to import / export MS-Word files, it fails with error message "Filtrix unable to convert this file". The problem can be fixed by installing a wrapper by Valentijn Sessink, available at http://olivier.pk.wau.nl/~valentyn/wp8fix/. (This fix isn't necessary for the 2003-4 "pilot project" re-release, which includes an equivalent fix.)
Note: Reportedly, the Filtrix module will not process MS-Word .doc files that were saved in MS-Word with password-protection applied. This is not a bug: Filtrix never handled such files. (Nor can Filtrix handle MS-Word documents with embedded non-MS-Word COM objects such as spreadsheet tables from MS-Excel.)
Import will also fail on any file saved in a post-Word97 version of Microsoft's .doc format. This is not a bug, just an inevitable result of the program's age and lack of maintenance.
Good question. By the time the problem cropped up, Corel had discontinued all involvement in Linux. Just before that, Microsoft Corporation made a major investment in Corel, preventing the latter firm's collapse. It's possible that lack of Linux-competent staffing was an issue (those having moved to Xandros or left), that Corel didn't wish to displease its investor, that the firm perceived inexpensive Linux versions to be impairing sales of its US $500 versions for other Unixes (especially given increasingly common support for Linux-native binaries on those Unixes), or that corporate inertia after liquidating the entire Linux division accounted for this lapse. (Corel was later passed to Vector Capital, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's venture-capital firm, which took Corel private.)
Corel's only comment (November 5, 2001) was "The corporation is not prepared to make any comment", and to post a comment on http://linux.corel.com/support/updates.htm#wp8, unchanged since late 2001, that "Corel is currently working with the filter manufacturer to resolve this issue." (That claim was still present when Corel took down the linux.corel.com machine on Feb. 26, 2003.)
You don't. WP is compatible with the "kab" version in KDE 1.1, only, that being the KDE version shipped with CLOS. For unexplained reasons, this feature also doesn't work on Linux 2.4.x or later kernels.
This is a frequent symptom of colour palette exhaustion. The only real cure is to run X11 at a lower colour depth. 32 bpp will sometimes work where 24 bpp doesn't, but 16 bpp always works (assuming hardware support).
No. WP can use PostScript Type 1 fonts, only. The issue is covered comprehensively by Rod Smith, here (including describing a utility for generating PostScript Type 1 fonts from TrueType ones -- with, no doubt, inevitable loss of detail resulting from "hinting"-routine omission and other conversion artifacts): http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/
By default, WP for Linux (uniquely) ignores Linux's system printing facilities, and uses its own print engine and drivers. (The latter are the same as for WP on MS-DOS, giving the program very broad printer support. More are available at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/, which should be reachable as http://www.wpdos.org/.) You need to configure the printing subsystem. As the root user, start xwp with the -admin (or -adm) command-line option, then select and install an appropriate printer driver, using the Add Printer Driver widget. (In such cases but not the Passthru Postscript option discussed next, specify "-oraw" in the WP8 Printer Setup dialogue's Lpr options box on the Select Destination sub-page, or define a "raw" printing destination in your system print daemon, e.g., CUPS.) Alternatively, select "Passthru Postscript" to hand off jobs to the system printing daemon, and use the latter's print drivers, instead.
The 2003-4 "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" pilot-project offering retains this print engine, except that it defaults to Passthru Postscript using print destination WPSpool, a reasonable default for compatiblity with modern Linux systems' existing system print regimes, which mostly use CUPS. (You can still alternatively use WP's own print drivers, and either specify "raw" printing in your system print spooler or "-oraw" in WP's print options as described above.)
Because of a bug in the install script, the 2003-4 "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" pilot-project release's installer must be run setting US English option initially as default, or it will fail. You can then choose one of the other installed language options after installation.
Yes. The "pilot project" re-release included language modules for English (UK, US, CA and OZ) and French (CA and National), but not Dutch, German, Italian, or Spanish. Those modules can be installed from separate downloads mentioned elsewhere in this FAQ. After installing them, you'll need to add "/usr/i386-compat-gnulibc1/lib" (or as appropriate, if you didn't install WP to the /usr/wplinux default) as a new line to /etc/ld.so.conf and re-run "ldconfig". (Otherwise, you'll see an error about inability to find libm.so.5, when you execute the language module's ./Runme script.)
You haven't yet run the xwpfi font-installer, to inform WP of their presence. (A Readme explains how to use it.) Note that xwpfi is intentionally omitted from WP 8.0 DPE. Please see FAQ section "How do I add fonts to WP 8.1?" for more details.
You haven't yet configured X11 to know about them, though perhaps you've run xwpfi to inform WP about their existence. The two are distinct, WP's font integration being incomplete relative to that of standard Linux apps. Please see FAQ section "How do I add fonts to WP 8.1?" for more details.
Tests by Valentijn Sessink have confirmed that this process must have something to do with printing: If you rename the wpexc binary, then start WP, printing will malfunction but no other program features will. The fact that it's left running even after you quit WP appears to be a bug. You can safely kill it, when not running WP.
It's the WordPerfect Print Manager. WordPerfect by default manages its own printing, and only optionally hands off jobs to the system printing facility, if so configured.
(This problem obviously applies only to the minority who keep multiple editions of WP for Linux on tap.) "xwp" in some editions, such as 2003-4's "pilot project" re-release and WP 8.1 PE, is a symbolic link pointing to a launcher script. (Thus, you should rename any existing /usr/bin/xwp, before installing, as the installer will overwrite it.) In others, it's a binary: Run "file" on it to tell. You may have to do some debugging and creation of your own symlinks to untangle multiple editions' startup mechanisms.
You need to run "imwheel -k" (which utility must, of course, be installed) just prior to launching WP. This can be added as a line near the top of WP's startup script (which you can create, if none such exists).
Check the version of libc, which should be in /lib. If it's 2.3.2 or above (as it is in essentially all current Linux distributions), and you're using either the original bundled version of Corelwine or Michael Torrie's corelwine-cvs-20010613-1.i386.rpm upgrade (or Andreas von Heydwolff's corelwine-cvs_0.1-2_i386.deb conversion to .deb format of Torrie's release), that's why: There's a libc-support problem, which will necessitate fixing and re-releasing Corelwine. (A bug in ld.so's dynamic linker/loader prevents solving this using a wrapper to use an older libc and the existing Corelwine libs.) However, in September 2004, Torrie graciously provided his Corelwine source code. It's hoped some volunteer will soon code the patch required.
Most locations that formerly offered the download (for example, CNET's download.com, ftp.calderasystems.com, and linux.tucows.com) ceased doing so about the time Corel itself did. It's possible (but pure speculation) that Corel asked or required that the files be pulled.
However, the download is still available at:
ftp://ftp.uni-halle.de/pub/Linux/software/wordperfect8/ Includes all localisation files.
http://ftp.urc.ac.ru/pub/OS/Linux/print/ Also has PhotoPaint9 for Linux.
http://www.invivo.net/pub/SOFTS/telechargement/Linux/WORDPERF/ Note FR localisation files.
http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/apps/ Site carries WP 8.0 DPE, all localisation files, the Filtrix fix, copies of WP 8.x licences, archived knowledgebase / FAQ / documentation files, and Corelwine / WP9 fixes.
(The ES=Spanish archive at http://www.invivo.net/pub/SOFTS/telechargement/Linux/WORDPERF/Espagnol/ is unfortunately corrupted.)
It's packaged either as a single gzipped 23 MB tarball (GUILG00.gz), a single 17 MB RPM archive (included in Caldera OpenLinux through v. 2.3) that installs ready to run, a 22 MB RPM archive (one in SuSE Linux boxed sets through 6.1 and a similar one in older boxed sets of Linux-Mandrake) that installs tar archives in /usr/lib/wp8/ that must then be separately installed by running /usr/lib/wp8/Runme, or as a collection of seven separate tarballs (GUILG00.gz through GUILG06.gz). The program also remains available on a US $3 CD-ROM at http://linuxcentral.com/. Ditto on a US $1 CD-ROM at http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/.
The filenames listed are for the default US English version: The filenames for other localisations are included on http://web.archive.org/web/20030821125611/http://content.443.ch/pub/linfiles/Gnusoft/wordperfect8/Readme.html, and download sources for all nine localisation archives are noted above.
Your first challenge may be to unpack it. You'll have no problem with the (rare) RPM archive, but the gzipped tarballs (either a single-piece archive named GUILG00.gz, 23 MB, or seven smaller archives named GUILG00.gz through GUILG06.gz) will appear a little puzzling: Despite having a .gz extension (only), they are in fact gzipped tarballs. Further, they un-tar right into the current directory, rather than creating a container directory: Corel -- or someone operating on its behalf (CNET's download.com staff?) -- grotesquely botched the packaging. However, note that some sites will have repacked the contents (variously), often out of a desire to correct Corel's error. Therefore, when in doubt, use the Linux "file" utility to determine what you're working with.
After unpacking (and reading the Readme file), you'll have to furnish the dynamic libraries WP 8.0 requires: ld-linux.so.1.9.*, libc5 (any version from 5.3.12 onwards) with matching libm.so.5.*, and a set of X11 backwards-compatibility libraries compiled for libc5 X11 clients (libXt.so.6, libX11.so.6, libXpm.so.4, libSM.so.6, and libICE.so.6). These will probably be optional packages for your distribution, not installed by default. Only then should you run "sh Runme", as directed by the Readme. Caveat: If some of the libs are not present, you may think installation has succeeded, but will then encounter any of a variety of strange symptoms. Therefore, make certain, as follows:
In an X11 terminal, do "su -" to become the root user temporarily. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libc.so.5", which must show some libc version from 5.3.12 through 5.4.46. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libm.so.5". This must show a libm version of 5*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libXt.so.6", which must show some libXt version of 6.0*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libX11.so.6", which must show some libX11 version of 6.1*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libXpm.so.4", which must show some libXpm version of 4.11*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libSM.so.6", which must show some libSM.so.6.0*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libICE.so.6", which must show some libICE.so.6.3*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep ld-linux.so.1". This must return a ld-linux version of 1.*. Type "ldconfig -v | grep libsafe", which ideally will show null results. (If not, see FAQ section "How do I stop the WP 8.x installer from getting diagnostic message '../install.wp: [: 18-10: integer expression expected' followed a short while later by termination with a Segmentation Fault error?") You've now confirmed that necessary libraries are installed and known to the dynamic linker/loader. (Unfortunately, the five X11 libraries found by the above process might be compiled for more-modern glibc2 aka libc6 clients, not libc5 ones -- and one set cannot substitute for the other. A good sign is if you get two lines of return values for each of the five ldconfig lines: That shows that you have both glibc and libc5 versions of the X11 libs installed.)
If you've tried to satisfy WP 8.0's libs requirements but still aren't quite succeeding (which is becoming common as distributions eliminate legacy libc5 and ld.so libraries from their default installations and sometimes from the distributions entirely), as a last resort you can unpack wp8-libs.tgz from http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/vectorlinux/veclinux-1.8/packages/wordperfect8/, a complete gzipped tar archive of all required libraries plus lines to add to /etc/ld.so.conf. (It should be unpacked into an empty directory, as it provides no container directory.) As the root user, carefully put the libraries in the indicated directories, and then adjust /etc/ld.so.conf as indicated and re-run /sbin/ldconfig to rebuild the library cache. Be aware that these additions are outside your distribution's package regime (if any), and, like any manual change to key system internals, should be done with caution.
Now, as your last action with root-user authority, do "mkdir /opt/wp8" followed by "chown yourself /opt/wp8", where yourself is your regular non-root login. Last, type "exit" (or Ctrl-D) to exit the root-user shell and revert to your regular non-root login. (Root authority should never be used for software installer routines if there's another way, as there is here.) You can now proceed with invoking the WP 8.0 DPE installation script ("sh Runme"). You'll almost certainly be warned that your Linux kernel is "not certified". (This is OK.) When prompted for an installation directory, specify /opt/wp8. On the "Existing Application" screen, you don't need to provide "the pathname of an existing application". On the Select WordPerfect Printer Drivers screen, you should select all printer types you expect to want to print to, but will be able to revisit this selection later. (See FAQ section "How do I get printing to work?".)
Afterward, you'll want to apply Valentijn Sessink's wrapper to fix the "Filtrix" MS-Word import / export module, available at http://olivier.pk.wau.nl/~valentyn/wp8fix/. You might also want to put a three-line shell script in /usr/local/bin to start xwp by cd'ing to /opt/wp8/wpbin and then running ./xwp. Otherwise, it'll be necessary to type "/opt/wp8/wpbin/xwp" to start the program.
Last, in lieu of the on-line manual Corel has removed from http://linux.corel.com/wp8manual (and, in fact, Corel decommissioned that entire site on Feb. 26, 2003), you'll want to bookmark some sites as a partial substitute:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://linux.corel.com/ Archived copies of the old, actually useful, Corel knowledgebase, FAQ, and support pages for WP for Linux.
http://apps.corel.com/support/ Current iteration of Corel's support presence: Includes links to Corel's product-related newsgroups, but almost all other Linux-relevant content seems to have been removed.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.linux.corellinux/ Archive of all posts in the Corel private newsgroup for WP8.x for Linux prior to the October 29, 2004 news server reorganisation.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.wpoffice.office2000-linux/ Archive of all posts in the Corel private newsgroup for WP9 for Linux prior to the October 29, 2004 new server reorganisation.
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.WordPerfect_Linux/ Archive of all posts in the newer incarnation of Corel's private newsgroup for WP for Linux (all versions) starting October 29, 2004.
news://cnews.corel.com/corel.WordPerfect_Linux NNTP (live read/write) access to the newer incarnation of Corel's private newsgroup for WP for Linux (all versions) starting October 29, 2004.
http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/ WP expert Rod Smith explains all about WP for Linux's support of fonts and printers.
http://olivier.pk.wau.nl/~valentyn/wp8fix/ Valentijn Sessink's pages about the Filtrix bug and his fix.
http://control-escape.com/wp8.html Review of WP 8.0 DPE, including setup run-through.
http://users.erols.com/mdinolfo/wp8linux.htm Another WP 8.0 DPE setup run-through, but with valuable debugging and security tips.
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1998-12-21-012-10-NW-SW Detailed recipe for downloading and installing WP 8.0 DPE.
http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp_index.html Linux-SXS's link farm for distribution-specific WP install guides, plus a Filtrix article.
http://libranet.com/support/2.8/wp8libranet2.8 Installing WP 8.x on Libranet, by Leon A. Goldstein.
http://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgabe/1999/12/WordPerfect1/wordperfect1.html Magazine review (in German language) of WP 8.0 DPE.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030821125611/http://content.443.ch/pub/linfiles/Gnusoft/wordperfect8/Readme.html Information on additional language modules.
http://web.archive.org/web/20011031155326/http://www.qwkscreen.com/WPLinuxLinks.html Link farm for WP 8.x. (Old.)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030825091241/http://users.lightbearer.com/set/wp/ Tips for WP 6.0 versions offered for Caldera Linux. (Old.)
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/WordPerfect.html Largely obsolete LDP HOWTO about WP 6.0 / 7.0 for Linux, and also about running WP 5.1 / 6.0 for SCO Unix on Linux using the iBCS emulation libraries.
http://unix.wizard.ca/wplinux/ WP 8.0 Server Edition (for various Unixes) product overview.
http://zinc.ichf.edu.pl/wordperfect/ WP 7.0 / 8.0 tips and tricks (in Polish language).
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-PaloAlto/8336/work-wp8.html WP 8.0 DPE download and setup run-through (in Japanese language).
That question really divides into two cases, distributors who secured a specific grant of redistribution rights from Corel and those who didn't. If you examine WP 8.0 DPE copies downloaded from http://linux.corel.com/products/linuxproducts_wp8_downloadlinks.htm (that site having been decommissioned as of Feb. 26, 2003) and elsewhere (including CD-ROM WP 8 copies, boxed-set versions of SuSE Linux through 6.1, Caldera Open Linux 2.3, older boxed sets of Linux-Mandrake etc.), you'll notice its licence omits the right to redistribute, and says the recipient's licence is non-transferable. Copyright law reserves distribution rights to a work's copyright owner, by default. So, strictly speaking, redistributing WP 8.0 DPE without explicit permission violates Corel's copyright.
(I am not a lawyer. This FAQ is not legal advice.)
Fortunately, Corel seems either tolerant or apathetic. (Pick one.) Also, companies like Edmund Enterprises and Linux Central may have permission memos from Corel Legal on file. Or not.
The point is that redistribution isn't something we can count on: Corel seems to have the right to enjoin anyone from redistributing it (absent long-term contract entitlements or other licence grants that we don't know about).
You may install it only on two computers and use it only on one machine at a time. Personal, non-commercial use only. You may not reverse-engineer or modify it. You must be in compliance with export laws and not associated with countries the USA considers naughty, like Cuba. You mustn't be on the USA Treasury or Commerce Department's lists of naughty people (drug smugglers, terrorists, export-regs violators, etc.). You mustn't allow use of the program to violate USA law.
The full licence text may be studied here: http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/apps/corel-wordperfect-8-licence
No. Corel made no provision for that, and discontinued all Linux operations in May 2001. At this late date, your best bet is probably to seek out a boxed set of CLOS Deluxe or Standard Edition for its copy of WP 8.1.
You can't. The font-installer utility ("xwpfi") was deliberately omitted from WP 8.0 DPE to differentiate it from the boxed sets and motivate you to upgrade to the latter. It's possible you might be able to grab that utility from another edition of WP 6, 7, or 8.x, but that would almost certainly be copyright violation (though maybe not if that older version is a lawful copy and used nowhere else).
At one time, Corel offered free-of-charge localisation add-ons for nine other languages and countries, at http://linux.corel.com/products/wp8/download_instr.htm, but removed them not long after it closed down its Linux division in May 2001, and decommissioned that entire site on Feb. 26, 2003.
However, in FAQ section "Where can I find a copy of WP 8.0 DPE for Linux?", you'll find links for all nine additional-language tarballs. Corel used a rather cryptic file-naming scheme. The standard large-format (single-piece) archives were named GUILGXX0.gz, where "GUI" seems to have indicated that this was for an X11 / graphical WP version, "LG" signified large format, and XX was one of the nine language / country codes: FR=French, UK=United Kingdom English, DE=German, ES=Spanish, CE=Canadian English, CF=Canadian French, OZ=Australian English, NL=Dutch, and IT=Italian. Alternatively, you could get a set of from four to six archive files for your language / country in split format, named GUIXXNN.gz, e.g., GUINL00.gz through GUINL03.gz for Dutch. The split-format files have become very rare, but are sometimes findable on the Internet.
The language tarballs (which, despite the "gz" extension, are actually .tar.gz files) have a "Runme" installation script, which takes care of all installation details, and localises all aspects of the program. If, on the other hand, you find a source for just the .lex dictionary files, copy them as the root user to WP8's "shlib10" directory. Start xwp with the -admin (or -adm) command-line option. Find the option to add additional languages. Exit xwp. In either case, after installing the language files, start xwp with the "-lang" option to override the US English default, e.g.. "xwp -lang de".
One source for .lex files is the CD bundled with the book "WordPerfect for Linux Bible", discussed in section 7.1. But, of course, if you have the WP 8.0 PE software from that book, you don't really need WP 8.0 DPE. (I don't know if it's lawful to redistribute the book's .lex files. That might depend on licensing.)
If you get errors about libm.so.5 being missing when you run the language module's Runme script, see FAQ section "Can my language's absence from the "WordPerfect 8 for Linux" re-release be fixed?" for the fix (adding the relevant library path to your dynamic linker/loader's search list).
Fortunately, Corel didn't prohibit recipients from publishing their registration keys, and at least four users have done so. As long as Corel continues to offer keys (at http://venus.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html or http://nas.corel.com/nasapps/wp8linuxreg/register.html), it seems fair to give them the marketing information they gain thereby. If that facility is ever discontinued, use "LW8XW-bA8L9bjZf9", "LW8XW-NfDyZN1HfZ", "LW8XW-9K87F9tldF", or "LW8XW-nEqIHnZrcH".
That version is available only inside boxed sets of CLOS Deluxe Edition and CLOS Standard Edition (the latter having fewer bundled fonts), versions 1.0 and 1.2. Nowhere else (except the 2003-4 "pilot project" re-release). There was never a "download edition", and Corel's licence terms strictly forbid redistribution.
CLOS Deluxe Edition v. 1.2 aka "Second Edition" can frequently be found on eBay.
Please note that downloading an ISO9660 (CD-ROM) image of CLOS absolutely does not do the trick: That will be CLOS Download Edition, which has no version of WP for Linux at all. You need CLOS Deluxe or Standard Edition, the two boxed sets -- not CLOS Download Edition.
Electronic (PDF) and paper-bound reference manuals and an electronic (PDF) user's manual, the font-installer module, WP Draw (the drawing / charting module), the module to create custom dictionaries and hyphenation databases, an equation editor, network support, a print-queue manager, prepaid technical support, sample documents / templates / textures /clip-art / photos, and 300 fonts (with WP 8.1 PE; about 100 with WP 8.1 Light). Also, much better handling of watermarks, multiple language support in the spelling checker / grammar checker / thesaurus, more-current printer drivers and better printer setup, and no need to get a registration key. The necessary support libraries are also included and installed automatically. Corel Draw is also included (in a separate package).
You may install it only on two machines at a time, for use by only a single user. You may not reverse-engineer or modify it. You must be in compliance with export laws and not associated with countries the USA considers naughty, like Cuba. You mustn't be on the USA Treasury or Commerce Department's lists of naughty people (drug smugglers, terrorists, export-regs violators, etc.). You mustn't allow use of the program to violate USA law.
Please note that, unlike WP 8.0 DPE, WP 8.1 is licensed for commercial usage.
The full licence text may be studied here: http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/apps/corel-wordperfect-8.1-licence
CLOS Deluxe and Standard Editions v. 1.1 were available only as upgrades to apply to corresponding v. 1.0 boxed sets, not as standalone products. So, you didn't get a copy of WP because you already had one.
The main file you'll need from the CLOS boxed-set CD-ROM is a 40 MB one called wp-full_8.1-nn_i386.deb, where "nn" is the package version number, which will depend on the vintage of CLOS you have (and doesn't matter much). On any .deb-based distribution (such as Debian, Xandros Desktop OS, Libranet, LinspireOS, Ubuntu Linux, Knoppix, Gnoppix, Morphix, Progeny Debian, Impi Linux, Skolelinux, MEPIS, Kanotix, CLOS, Santa Fe Linux, Flonix, Feather Linux, Stormix, etc.), just do "dpkg -i packagename", as usual. WP probably won't be auto-added to your distribution's menus: The startup binary is "xwp".
On other distributions, you can use Joey Hess's "alien" utility to create an approximately equivalent RPM package, a Slackware .tgz package, a Solaris .pkg package, or a Stampede Linux .slp package. Alternatively, you can use the standard "ar" archive utility to pull apart the .deb file and install the pieces manually. The HOWTO documents linked from http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp_index.html will probably help, there.
CLOS Deluxe Edition also includes three .deb packages of PostScript Type 1 fonts (fonts-16_1.0-5.deb, fonts-69_1.0-4.deb, and fonts-115_1.0-4.deb), which are likewise useful on other Linux distributions. CLOS Standard Edition differs only in omitting the second two fonts packages mentioned. (You may also want the type1inst_0.6.1-6_i386.deb package, if you don't already have the Type 1 Font Installer utility.) On CLOS, they install to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/ , making them available to the system generally. You can either convert the .debs as detailed above for WP itself, or grab the font files from /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/.
Font-addition procedures within WP 8.1 itself are covered in the next FAQ item.
Leon A. Goldstein's HOWTO for installing WP 8.x on Libranet gives more detail: http://libranet.com/support/2.8/wp8libranet2.8
First, as the root user, physically place them in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/ , or wherever system-wide Type 1 fonts go on your distribution. While in that directory, run "type1inst" (usually in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1), then "mkfontdir". The fonts will now be available to all applications using PostScript Type 1 fonts.
Last, run the WP font installer "/usr/lib/wp8/shbin10/wpfi" (creating /usr/lib/wp8/shlib10/wp.drs, the WP font map).
Alternatively instead of the last step, start xwp with the -admin (or -adm) command-line option. On the Format menu, pick Fonts. You'll find a button to select and then install (into WP's internal list of known fonts) fonts from a list of those available. Exit xwp. Or, instead of "xwp -admin", run /usr/lib/wp8/shbin10/xwpfi . (This works for PostScript Type 1 fonts only, not TrueType.)
Leon A. Goldstein's HOWTO for installing WP 8.x on Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 / eDesk 2.4 covers this matter in much greater detail: http://linux-sxs.org/utilities/wp8.html
Please note also that ideally you'll be adding any fonts to any WP 8.x version twice, once as a screen font and once as a printer font. This matter is covered comprehensively by Rod Smith at http://www.rodsbooks.com/wpfonts/.
CLOS 1.0 boxed sets' CD-ROM also includes a second .deb package (package name "wp-manual") containing an electronic WP manual. However, that manual is for the non-Linux Unix version, so its omission from CLOS 1.2 is no big loss. (The same manual in PDF format can be retrieved from http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/compfac/WP/wp8gui.pdf.) The boxed sets' paper-bound WP manual is a lot more useful, anyway.
Also among the additions in CLOS 1.2 was a Corelwine / Winelib (non-Linux-native) port of Corel PhotoPaint 9 (which is also available for download from http://ftp.urc.ac.ru/pub/OS/Linux/print/). Note that PhotoPaint9 suffers the same Corelwine / glibc issues as does WP9: See FAQ section "WP9 stopped working / won't install..." for details.
My last known source of this product has vanished, but you could try eBay.
Sites where it was formerly available for order seem to have run dry (perhaps thanks to this FAQ). However, it's worth checking on eBay. Expect to pay about US $450, for the real thing.
Few would agree. Its admirers seem to be, well, MS-Windows users, since WP 9 is pretty much the Win32 version recompiled to run in a Winelib environment, with RAM bloat, stability problems, and other glitches (including DOS drive letters in file dialogues!) that are routine on MS-Windows but not Linux.
Very likely, WP 9 introduced some feature-set attractions, but needing to run emulation code with performance and stability problems seems a poor trade-off. I consider 8.1 vastly preferable.
My best guess: Doing a Winelib version allowed Corel to leverage its existing Win32 codebase, write a minimum amount of new code, shorten development time, reduce costs, and keep the effort in-house rather than having to hire SD Corp. again.
You can substitute an improved version of Corel's fork of the WINE emulation code ("Corelwine"), which was for a while maintained by Michael Torrie, at http://web.archive.org/web/20040213000457/students.cs.byu.edu/~torriem/corelwine/, with other possibly useful pages at http://panopticon.csustan.edu/thood/corel-wp9.txt and http://web.archive.org/web/20040225112645/http://members.chello.at/hrdisk/corelwine.html.
I can't guarantee the truth of this account, but I've heard claims that Corel deferred submission of its patches to the WINE Project development team so long that they could no longer be merged when they arrived, leading to inadvertent creation of a separate development fork, dubbed "Corelwine". This is the codebase that Torrie maintained and updated, separately from the WINE Project's flagship codebase.
Moreover, Corelwine was built to be dependent on Bitstream, Inc.'s proprietary Fontastic font server, a feature unlikely to be included in the WINE Project code of the day, and now precluded by WINE licensing. (Reportedly -- see post by "gavriels" = Gavriel States -- Corel decided to use Fontastic to skirt likely font-patent problems, which indeed have subsequently plagued authors of open-source font software.)
There are also some remaining updates to WP9 / WP Office 2000 inside ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/Office2000/updates/ and ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/linux/Graphics9/updates/. Among those updates, the revised WP Office 2000 installer available there is essential for most modern Linux distributions to make the Fontastic font server install correctly. Note that you need at least one printer configured before installation. However, versions of Corelwine available through September 2004 (and thus also WP9) break completely on any system with glibc 2.3.2 or above, i.e., on essentially all current Linux distributions. Efforts to fix Corelwine are underway. See FAQ section "WP9 stopped working / won't install..." for details.
Because online resources for WP9 for Linux (also PhotoPaint9 and the other WP Office 2000 components) have been disappearing, I've been gathering and archiving them inside http://linuxmafia.com/pub/linux/apps/. You may find what you need there.
It's sometimes available for US $49 from Surplus Computers of Santa Clara, California at http://www.surpluscomputers.com/. EMS Professional Software and Consulting, http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/wp.htm, sometimes has the Deluxe Edition. (Inquire for pricing.) Both editions (Standard and Deluxe) of WP Office 2000 for Linux are frequently offered on eBay.
"Special Edition Using Corel WordPerfect 8 for Linux" by Roderick W. Smith (Que, ASIN 0789720329, US $4 on Amazon.com) and "WordPerfect for Linux Bible" by Stephen E. Harris and Erwin Zijleman (IDG Books, ISBN 0764533746, US $40 on Amazon.com). The latter includes a copy of WP 8.0 (non-download) Personal Edition. This differs from WP 8.0 DPE in inclusion of 140 fonts, a font-installer utility, and support for grammar / spelling checkers and thesaurus lookups in multiple languages. The CD-ROM includes a text file containing a registration key, and the licence doesn't bar commercial usage. Be aware that the electronic-format WP manual included is for character-mode WP, not the graphical X11 version.
The Smith book is valuable for its highly-comprehensive coverage of Linux topics; the Harris and Zijleman one for its bundled software. Both are recommended.
Author Rod Smith has a Web page describing both of them, plus reviewing all other known books on WP for Linux (and ones for Star Office and The GIMP): http://www.rodsbooks.com/books/books-wp.html
At the same time Corel removed WP 8.0 DPE from http://linux.corel.com/products/linuxproducts_wp8_downloadlinks.htm, it also removed the on-line HTML-format manual (http://linux.corel.com/wp8manual), knowledgebase (http://linux.corel.com/wpkb), and support page (http://linux.corel.com/wpsupport) that all WP 8.x for Linux programs referenced via hyperlink. Finally, on Feb. 26, 2003, Corel decommissioned that entire site, ending access to the remaining knowledgebase, FAQ, and support pages. (However, those can be still browsed, courtesy of the Internet Archive, at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://linux.corel.com/.)
On Oct. 29, 2004, Corel staff reorganised the newsgroups on the cnews.corel.com NNTP news server. The five corel.linux.* newsgroups (for users of Corel Linux OS) and contents were deleted completely. Postings from the corel.wpoffice.wordperfect8-linux and corel.wpoffice.office2000-linux groups were merged into a new, omnibus "corel.WordPerfect_older_versions" group along with, unfortunately, some 1800+ threads by users of pre-WP11 versions for MS-Windows. Thus, although the Linux-relevant threads are preserved in the new group, they're in practice unfindable.
After hearing of the problem, Corel staff graciously created a new "corel.WordPerfect_Linux" group for the convenience of Linux users, but, unfortunately, were not able to restore the previous two WP for Linux groups' contents to it.
Fortunately, Google Groups (formerly DejaNews) had been Web-archiving both of the WP for Linux groups and three of the five CLOS ones:
WP for Linux groups:
corel.wpoffice.wordperfect8-linux is archived at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.wpoffice.wordperfect8-linux/
corel.wpoffice.office2000-linux is archived at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.wpoffice.office2000-linux/
Corel Linux OS groups:
corel.linux.corellinux is archived at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.linux.corellinux/
corel.linux.install_configure is archived at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.linux.install_configure/
corel.linux.networking is archived at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/corel.linux.networking/
corel.linux.hardware_compatibility was not mirrored, and so its contents are lost
corel.linux.linux-faq was not mirrored, and so its contents are lost
Corel discontinued all Linux-related operations shortly after Microsoft Corporation's major investment that prevented the firm's collapse: Some speculate a causal relationship. Corel may have also seen WP for Linux sales (and downloads) as being at the expense of its versions for non-Linux Unixes, through both the influx of Intel Linux boxes and other Unix platforms' increasing ability to run Intel Linux binaries. Also, outgoing CEO Michael Cowpland had been the main force behind Corel's Linux program, and new management doesn't share his views.
Good question. Corel has never addressed the matter.
It appears not. When Corel divested itself of CLOS, and transferred all rights to Xandros Corporation, WordPerfect was not part of the deal. Corel is sitting on all WP rights.
First, that would impair sales of Corel's versions for Win32 and other proprietary platforms. Second, Corel doesn't own all the necessary rights. WP includes code from at least five other companies, judging by the copyright notices (Blueberry Software, Globetrotter Software, Inc., Bristol Technology, Inc., INSO Corporation, and Novell, Inc.).
In the latter sense, Corel's situation is similar to that of Sun Microsystems in regard to Star Office. Sun bought the publisher of that program, Star Division GmbH, and then spent approximately a year and untold employee time studying copyright, patent, contract, and other encumbrances. Eventually, it was able to open-source the majority of the source code, the part not encumbered by third-party rights, as what became the OpenOffice.org project.
The difference is that Sun was strongly motivated to create an open-source variant for all possible OS platforms -- in order to feed sales of Solaris and its hardware, and to undermine Microsoft Corporation. It had (and has) deep resources and patience. Corel had none of those things -- and might have had greater third-party interests to contend with.
Proprietary (see also Chris Browne's http://cbbrowne.com/info/wplcomm.html):
Sun Microsystems's Star Office very comprehensive office suite's StarWriter word processor. Very full featured, high degree of Microsoft compatibility. Large; slow-loading, but then performs OK. GTK+-based. No .wpd support (as of v. 7.0) in the Linux version.
VistaSource Software Anyware Office / Anyware Desktop suite's (was Applix's ApplixWare Office) Anyware Words word processor. Moderately good all-round office suite with a long history in the Unix world. OK performance, stable, good MS doc compatibility. Motif-based. Includes .wpd support. Some earlier versions were sold by Red Hat Software, Inc. as ApplixWare for Red Hat Linux. For a while, SuSE Linux AG (which is now Novell's SUSE division) sold ApplixWare v. 4.4.1, bundled with Software AG's ADABAS D relational database (now renamed MaxDB and published by MySQL AB), the Arkeia backup program, and SuSE-packaged versions of The GIMP, GNOME, and KDE as Linux Office Suite 99.
SOT Finnish Software Engineering Ltd. SOT Office suite's SOT Office Writer. Was based on the open-source OpenOffice.org suite, adding some software enhancements (added spelling checker and hyphenation dictionaries, templates, commercial support, enhanced on-line help, and PDF manual). Was available in a boxed set with printed docs. The proprietary bundle included updates not yet available for the separate, all-open-source SOT Office bundle. All other remarks about OpenOffice.org also applied here. As of June 4, 2003, however, SOT converted the entire product to open source and renamed it to "LBA Office" (which see). Discontinued (as a proprietary offering).
Redmond Linux Corporation Lycoris ProductivityPak office suite. A superset of the open-source OpenOffice.org suite, plus an improved setup program, aesthetics tweaks, typeface installer, templates, some graphics including Lycoris logos / icon sets, and paid technical support. Licence permits use on a single computer in commercial settings, and for multiple computers in non-commercial settings. There's no limitation on multiuser use (rare among proprietary office-productivity packages on Linux). No .wpd support.
HancomLinux, Inc. Hancom Office suite's Hancom Word word processor. Qt-based. Good MS doc compatibility. No .wpd support.
Quadraton Systems, Inc. CliqWord. Character-based (console) office automation software. Listed here only because Chris Browne includes it, as I'm not at all sure it belongs in this category. No import / export facilities whatsoever that I can confirm.
SmartWare Corporation (formerly Angoss Software Corporation) SmartWare. Existing codebase is a character-based (console) office suite. Currently (January 2003), the character-based v. 2.65B of SmartWare Plus is back on the market, while a Linux port of the new, graphical SmartWare4 codebase with improved installer is being prepared. Strengths include vertical-application support, robustness in multiuser situations, and bundled rapid application development tools.
Ability Plus Software, Ltd.'s Ability Linux, a Linux port of the Win32 Ability suite (Photopaint, Spreadsheet, Write and Database), running as what is claimed to be native-Linux code with WINE library support. Currently available free of charge as alpha-release code. Unique internal design: interpreted code using a runtime engine / library called MFC. MFC is what has been recoded to run as a Linux application with WINE library calls. Supports .wpd, RTF, HTML, MS doc, AmiPro.
FreeRadicalSoftware, Inc. (formerly Gobe Software) GobeProductive suite (announced but not shipped for Linux, except as a pre-alpha-test "Preview1" version, formerly downloadable from http://www.gobe.com/downloads/gobe_linux_x86_install.tgz and http://www.gobe.com/downloads/gobe_linux_ppc_install.tgz. Produced by the team that did ClarisWorks / AppleWorks. Frame-oriented. Light, fast. Full-featured. Supports MS-Word, RTF. No .wpd support. (FreeRadicalSoftware announced on August 12, 2002 plans to open-source the entire suite under the GNU GPL, but then in December 2002 had to announce that sufficient funds -- about US $100k -- couldn't be raised to license the source code.) Discontinued.
Sophist Solutions, Inc. LedIt word processor. Small, fast. GTK+-based. Supports RTF. No .wpd support.
SoftMaker Software GmbH TextMaker for Linux is the initial component of the planned SoftMaker Office Anywhere suite. Fast, light. Full-featured. Supports MS-Word, Pocket Word, RTF, HTML, Unicode. No .wpd support.
ThinkFree Corp.'s ThinkFree Office is an integrated word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics application available in Java bytecode. Accordingly, it requires the Sun Java Runtime Environment 1.1.8 or later. Supports MS-Word, HTML, RTF formats. No .wpd support.
Note: If this FAQ has a point beyond answering questions, it is to illustrate the pitfall of buying into proprietary software that exists at the whim of a corporate publisher and may be hostage to its fortunes. On the other hand, it also shows that proprietary offerings can be excellent of their types. Choose with your eyes open.
Open Source (see also Chris Browne's http://cbbrowne.com/info/wp.html):
OpenOffice.org very comprehensive office suite's Writer word processor (derived from Star Office). GTK+-based. Frame-oriented. Large; slow-loading, but then performs OK. Supports MS-Word, StarWriter, RTF, and a few other formats. (The v. 1.1.x series adds PDF, DocBook, Macromedia Flash, flat XML, XHTML, and some PDA Office formats.) Excellent MS doc compatibility. No integrated .wpd support, yet, but there's a project to develop a filter at http://wp.openoffice.org/, and, more immediately useful, a third-party filter and .wpd-handling library at http://libwpd.sourceforge.net/. Full .wpd support is promised for the upcoming 2.0 release.
SOT Finnish Software Engineering Ltd. LBA Office (formerly SOT Office) suite's LBA Office Writer. Based on OpenOffice.org, adding some software enhancements (added spelling checker and hyphenation dictionaries, templates, optional commercial support, enhanced on-line help and PDF manual). All other remarks about OpenOffice.org also apply here.
SourceGear Corporation AbiWord. GTK+-based. Newer versions (finally) include good table support. Fast, light, stable. Supports MS-Word, Anyware Words / Applix Words, AbiWord, RTF, WordPerfect .wpd, Microsoft Write, DocBook, XHTML, and many other formats. Excellent MS doc compatibility. With v. 2.x and up, AbiWord uses the promising libwpd .wpd import / export filter, though you may have to install an abiword-plugins package.
KDE KOffice suite's KWord word processor. Frame-oriented. Qt-based. Supports MS-Word, Anyware Words / Applix Words, AbiWord formats. Medium-good MS doc compatibility. Beta-level text-only .wpd support in recent (1.2.x) versions.
SIAG Office suite's Pathetic Writer word processor. Supports RTF. Supports MS-Word via WVware. Athena-based. No .wpd support.
Maxwell word processor. Motif-based (not yet LessTif). Supports RTF. No .wpd support. Inactive project since 1998, though one of the three past maintainers speaks of an intention to make one final release merging various fixes and transitioning from Maxwell's native binary data format to RTF.
FLWriter (Fast Light Writer). XHTML file format with UTF-8 encoding, excellent multi-language support, spelling checker. Exports RTF 1.5. No .wpd support.
Ted. Simple word processor similar in spirit to MS-Windows's WordPad. RTF is native format. Motif / LessTif-based, or GTK+ and glib-based. Supports PDF, PostScript. No .wpd support.
GWP (GNOME Word Processor). GTK+ / GNOME-based editor formerly known as XWord, when it was Hungry Programmers' Motif / LessTif-based project. Intended for XML-based structured documents, and uses an XML-based file format. Project appears to be neglected in favour of AbiWord, and effectively unmaintained. Light, somewhat feature-shy. No .wpd support.
CMU Andrew User Interface System (auis) package's EZ editor mode. Uses a well-thought-out system of ASCII + style / template markup. Supports RTF. No .wpd support. Development seems to have ceased as of 1997 (arguably because it meets its design goals).
Axene, Inc. Xclamation (DTP) and XAllWrite (word processor) programs. Motif / Lesstif-based. GPLed C++ source code available at http://xibios2.free.fr/. Supports its own format, HTML, and ASCII; no .wpd support.
Scribus. Qt-based destkop publishing program reminiscent of Adobe PageMaker (not a word processor, per se). File format is XML-based. Appears to import unformatted text, only.
LyX (slick graphical front-end to LaTeX). Implements ASCII + TeX markup in a quasi-WYSIWYG graphical environment. You write structured documents (discussed below), but the process is made graphical and fairly easy. Produces reliable, high-quality output. Excellent built-in help. Supports LinuxDoc, DocBook, LaTeX, PostScript, DVI, ASCII. XForms or Qt-based, with GTK+ integration pending. No .wpd support.
The last item listed, LyX, is an intriguing hybrid of GUI word processor features and classic Unix-type document processing. The latter is often dismissed in the business world as powerful and professional but too arcane -- but LyX makes it accessible.
The rationale and work-flow approach behind LyX are best described on that project's Web site at http://www.lyx.org/about/intro.php3, but here's an attempt to summarise:
LyX has you work on a document in a graphical, close approximation of how it will print, but, unlike in traditional word processors, you don't directly manipulate document appearance, but rather apply (and edit / create) style rulesets (templates), which consistently apply formatting on your behalf -- and change consistently wherever used in the document, when you alter a style's contents. (Rulesets are applied by the LaTeX front-end macro package driving the professional-grade teTeX typesetting engine, for all of which LyX is a graphical shell. teTeX is an open-source implementation of Donald Knuth's TeX typesetting system.)
As a result, eventual output is always consistent and of true professional appearance (famously so), regardless of the document's complexity. LyX becomes progressively easier to use than ostensibly simpler word processors as you get into more-complex documents (technical documentation, doctoral theses, conference proceedings, movie scripts, articles on mathematics or physics with formulas to edit and present). Many templates for both simple and complex document types are provided, all traditional word-processing features are also present, and so is extremely thorough on-line help.
As a bonus, all documents are stored in plain ASCII text with embedded TeX style tags, resulting in accessible data that will never auto-corrupt the way many word-processor formats do, that lends itself nicely to version control, and that outputs to practically any data format desired.
Consider transitioning to LyX or some other form of structured-document editing instead of traditional word processing, over the long term. Your benefits over the long haul will justify the trouble.
Such alternatives are outside the scope of this document, but include (1) the numerous ways of running Win32 applications on Linux in some sort of emulation environment, such as VMware, Inc.'s VMware (simulation in a virtual environment of a particular theoretical x86 box's hardware, which then can boot various OSes including Win9x / ME / NT / 2k / XP within the emulated environment, necessitating a copy of that OS, as well), NeTraverse's Win4Lin (an MS-Windows 9x / ME emulation environment for x86 Linux, requiring a copy of MS-Windows 9x / ME to work), WINE (an LGPLed library and program loader implementing on x86 Unixes the Win32 and Win16 application interfaces), ReWind (an MIT / X11-licensed fork of an earlier WINE release), CodeWeavers's CrossOver Office (WINE with some extra support for MS Office applications, incorporating the formerly separate CrossOver Plugin product, a WINE variant for x86 Linux to support Web browser plugins such as QuickTime), TransGaming Technologies, Inc.'s WineX, later renamed AclereX, later renamed Cedega (another WINE extension for x86 Linux, with enhanced DirectX and COM / DCOM / OLE support, primarily for 3D games), the Bochs Project's Bochs (software environment for any CPU family emulating an entire x86 CPU, common I/O devices, and BIOS), and Drew Northup's Plex86 (software environment emulating on x86 a virtual x86 session).
There are also (2) the numerous ways of remotely running Win32 applications from a graphical Linux desktop, such as Karl Runge's x11vnc, RealVNC Limited's VNC Server, Constantin Kaplinsky's TightVNC, Tridia Corporation's TridiaVNC, and Matt Chapman's rdesktop. I maintain a listing of options in the latter category.
This FAQ is maintained by Rick Moen (rick@linuxmafia.com), to whom all corrections and suggestions should be addressed. The latest revision can always be found at http://linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/ (multi-page HTML) or http://linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/wpfaq-singlepage.html (single-page HTML) and the master DocBook SGML source at http://linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/wordperfect-linux-faq.sgml. I use the tool-set described in the LDP Author Guide, http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/.
Contents are Copyright (C) 2002-2005, Rick Moen.
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