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Corel Businesses

New WordPerfect Releases Reviewed 317

Posted by michael from the corel-isn't-dead-yet? dept.
MikeCapone writes "The Jem Report has an extensive review (all in one page, no flash ads -- what a concept!) of Corel WordPerfect 12 for Windows and the proof of concept comeback of WordPerfect for Linux."
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New WordPerfect Releases Reviewed More

New WordPerfect Releases Reviewed

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  • Upgrade Policy? (Score:5, Funny)

    by JCMay ( 158033 ) <JeffMayNO@SPAMearthlink.net> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:22AM (#9006815) Homepage
    I've got an old copy of WordPerfect for Amiga. It's the last version they made. (4.1.12?). Got it in an envelope directly from WordPerfect corporation. Wonder if it has any upgrade value :)

  • LaTeX (Score:5, Funny)

    by tindur ( 658483 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:22AM (#9006818)
    Can you save the documents in LaTeX-format?

    • Re:LaTeX (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:25AM (#9006846) Homepage
      LaTeX is for hippies who like proper typesetting.

      The rest of the world is ready to contend with bloaty 2GB "text editors" that will easily put things in the wrong spot and not be compatible between versions and not have professional macros for document logistics and preamble.

      Ha!

      • Re:LaTeX (Score:5, Funny)

        by JosKarith ( 757063 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:29AM (#9006897)
        Thank you soooo much. I just got a mental image of a bunch of ageing hippies in latex...
        It's gonna take a lot of alcohol to get _that_ one out.
        • The aging hippy boys at Mythbusters (Discovery Channel) [discovery.com] did some experiment involving running through rain. They film out of San Francisco, so of course they had to suit up in skin tight black latex. One of the hosts is a typical out of shape geek, but the other guy is pretty (I'm so pretty, oh so pretty...) buff , so the contrast was interesting. You also could refer back to that guy [ibiblio.org] who built the Tron suit. That may be what you are visualizing...

      • Re:LaTeX (Score:2, Insightful)

        by b-baggins ( 610215 )
        Proper typesetting is done by professional typesetting software like Adobe InDesign or Quark Xpress, or even PageMaker or FrameMaker.

        Saying LaTeX is proper typesetting is like saying GIMP is equivalent to photoshop. People who say it come across as fools or irrational zealots to actual, knowledgeable professionals in the field.
        • Well, I'm a knowledgeable professional. In fact, I could almost boast you'd be hard pressed to find someone with more knowledge and experience with Photoshop. I say this with pride and arrogance because frankly I can. (though I know, there's always someone better than you out there...).

          Now, having said this...The Gimp is "getting there". No, it doesn't have CMYK yet...yet. And it doesn't have color profiles, but those are in the works.

          But you're correct...no one in pre-press would use LaTeX. But as for Th
          • You have to admit that the interface is at least 50% of the appeal of Photoshop. The interface makes it very quick and easy to do things, and in that area GIMP has a long, long, long way to go.

            Photoshop was designed by graphic artists and coded by programmers and it shows.

            GIMP was designed by programmers, and it shows, too.

            • Look at Gimp 2.0...you'll notice they've come a long way to make it a better interface. And it looks quite PS like.

              The artists are starting to come over to Gimp now, since it's free and it shows in 2.0.

              Now, if I could get my keyboard shortcuts to work exactly like they did with PS I'd be happier. hehe

          • Re:LaTeX (Score:3, Informative)

            by ScottGant ( 642590 )
            Also, using 5th and 6th color touch plates wouldn't be hard to do once CMYK comes out.

            We always did 6 color PS files and broke out the 5th and 6th colors as seperate PS files (for instance putting like PMS 300 on the Cyan sep and PMS XXX on the Magenta plate). Then send them to the page assembly dept to trap them in ArtPro...

            But this is all dependent on Gimp getting CMYK...once it does, all the tricks and work arounds we used to use with older versions of PS can come into play.

            Could be helpfull to small

          • Bloat? (Score:3, Insightful)

            by antic ( 29198 )
            I work in an office with a few graphic designers who love the new Photoshop features that are added with each release. Seriously, they come back from seminars raving -- and these aren't droids, they're intelligent and talented professionals.

            I know you call a lot of those high-end features "bloat", but Adobe is catering to the professionals who use this software endlessly in their jobs, know that Adobe delivers, and will pay for it (because it's effectively earning them thousands).

            It's not worth it to thes

    • A better way... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Saeed al-Sahaf ( 665390 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:30AM (#9006909) Homepage
      For document storage, I convert each character into an octal number, than arrange grains of sand into little piles on my basement floor. It works fine; I have no idea why anyone needs anything else.

    • Re:LaTeX (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by chegosaurus ( 98703 )
      TeX and Vim. Best document writing system ever, for reasons I already explained [slashdot.org]. And I'm quite happy to be modded down for advocating TeX again.

  • Yay (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 ) <slashdot@@@remco...palli...nl> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:23AM (#9006830)
    I really hope they can get some marketshare back, MS Office deserves the competition.
    It might even spur MS to really innovate again.

    • Re:Yay (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:28AM (#9006883) Homepage
      Yeah, innovate by adding another 200MB to their "office suite in a box...full of CDs".

      How to make MS Office better.

      1. Smaller
      2. Better support for OTHER FILE FORMATS
      3. Stop being the ass of the world.
      4. Add some real typesetting standards.

      Tom

      • Re:Yay (Score:4, Insightful)

        by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:36AM (#9006968) Homepage Journal

        Nice in theory but it will never happen.

        1 - They may be able to shave a few megs off, sure, but with MS' fatal infection of creeping featuritis that would be offset in no time.
        2 - They're the 800 lb gorilla, "it's up to the other companies/projects to figure out and support the .DOC format."
        3 - Protecting their bottom line and investors' cash is their job, they can't help it.
        4 - Invented outside of MS? C'mon Tom, you should know better! :)

        • Re:Yay (Score:4, Insightful)

          by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:40AM (#9007018) Homepage
          Hehehe true dat.

          Well making money goodism aside they amalgamate crap together until the user is so inundated with "features" they just assume it's great. Then when they learn that the auto-toc isn't standard and easy to trip up [as I found out last semester when I was forced to use it] or that you have to manually layout figures, tables, etc.... it looks less like "neat" and more like "life sucks".

          Sure a WYSIWYG is good for short memos and shit. That's why "write" exists. But for manuals, books, papers and reports LaTeX is always the best choice.

          Sadly only 10 people in the world seem to know this ;-)

          Of course MS could just make their own port of TeX and call it MSReX or something... claim they invented it. At least then it would be something I'd use.

          Tom

          • Re:Yay (Score:3, Insightful)

            by b-baggins ( 610215 )
            Your argument assumes the 80% of users use 20% of the features rationale. What you fail to realize is that those 80% don't use the SAME 20%.
          • >
            for manuals, books, papers and reports LaTeX is always the best choice.

            I can believe it -- I just never found out how to reproduce, say, my complex OpenOffice.org CV in LaTeX. Tutorials anyone?

      • 2. Better support for OTHER FILE FORMATS

        Whilst I agree, when the rest of the world blindly uses your own format, what real incentive is there to spend money supporting someone elses?

        Secondly, what format? Its not like there is any other format out there that comes close to doc that needs serious improvement (plain text support and rtf is pretty decent given their limits).

  • No mail client. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:24AM (#9006834)
    That about says it all. They dropped their mail client -- all that's left of it is an address book. They even list "Outlook integration" as a feature.

    So if you're looking for a suite that you can use in a Microsoft-centric office, you'd better have another solution for talking to that Exchange server.

    Is it just me, or is this remarkably silly? Exchange/Outlook is the hub of most offices' operations these days. Not speaking Exchange's calendar and contact protocols is tantamount to not speaking the Word file format five or six years back.

    • Re:No mail client. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CrazyTalk ( 662055 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:39AM (#9007006)
      At work we used groupwise, and at the University where I'm taking a night class they use Lotus Notes, so Exchange Server isn't as ubiquitous as you think. Plus, everyone running Windows has outlook express for "free" as well as web mail, so lack of an email client in the office suite isn't that big of a deal.

  • The hole it left has been filled (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rico_za ( 702279 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:26AM (#9006848)
    From the article:
    At the time WordPerfect was easily the most popular proprietary application for GNU/Linux, and the hole that it left opened the door for many people to switch to OpenOffice, StarOffice, AbiWord, KWord, TextMaker and others

    Why would I change back from a decent, FREE, application like OpenOffice to WordPerfect? If they're planning on selling it on the name, or because people remember WP, it's too late for that now. OpenOffice has taken over, and could soon be challenging MS Office in a big way.
    • Mod parent up.

      Corel had their chance back when they built Corel Linux. But instead of putting the *work* into making native code, improving Linux, and making the experience overall better, they simply used the WINE libs to "port" their same old WordPerfect Suite then heaped it on top of an existing Linux distro. In other words, they did the least work possible and saw the least return. Sun OTOH has put a lot of money and effort into OpenOffice/StarOffice, GNOME, and their new Java Desktop System. This has been allowing Sun to maintain the Desktop/Workstation market while their competitors (HP, IBM, and SGI - poor saps) flounder in the Unix market.
      • But all the Linux people are telling me the holy grail for Linux will be when Windows developers can use the Wine libraries to quickly port their apps to Linux.

        No wonder nobody wants to write for Linux when you have to deal with zealots you can never please.
        • But all the Linux people are telling me the holy grail for Linux will be when Windows developers can use the Wine libraries to quickly port their apps to Linux.

          I hardly consider myself a zealot. Actually, I tend to dislike Linux machines. My post was a matter of practicality. By using the WINE libs, Corel delivered a product that was substandard compared to the Windows version. Things that hadn't quite been worked out in WINE simply didn't work (or didn't work right).

          That actually wouldn't have been so b
    • Agreed. Their website site should read "The other, other Office has arrived!" What's worse, there's no mention of the Linux version on their site (other than the North America only store item linked in the article). It's like they're scared to say it in public or something...

    • Re:The hole it left has been filled (Score:5, Informative)

      by Christopher Thomas ( 11717 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:47AM (#9007086)
      Why would I change back from a decent, FREE, application like OpenOffice to WordPerfect? If they're planning on selling it on the name, or because people remember WP, it's too late for that now. OpenOffice has taken over, and could soon be challenging MS Office in a big way.

      OpenOffice will convince me to abandon Office when it stops mangling fonts and layout for the Word documents people keep sending me. I can read them, but they don't look pretty, and I'm sure as heck not going to _write_ anything in OO while this is a concern.

      Bad install? Maybe. But I've run into the problem in two unrelated *nix labs where it was installed. I suppose _both_ admins _could_ be sloppy, but they've been pretty sharp in other regards.

      If I'm writing documents in *nix, I use LaTeX and send people postscript or PDF. But when I need to give someone a Word document, or bring a PowerPoint slide show to a conference, I use MS Office.

      Your mileage may vary.

      • Re:The hole it left has been filled (Score:5, Informative)

        by the unbeliever ( 201915 ) <chris+slashdot&atlgeek,com> on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:52AM (#9007128) Homepage
        Mangled fonts are most likely the result of the writer of the document using a borked TTF font that has no equivalent under *nix, and doesn't tell the application a good alternative.
        • I see. It's the Windows user's fault because TTF font support in Linux sucks.
          • Actually the TTF support in Linux is, now, quite good. It's no ones fault that the fonts on windows are not the same as the fonts on Linux. (unless the linux user imports their windows fonts, which is fairly easy to do w/ KDE.)

            I can tell you are a windows bigot, but don't be ridiculous.

          • Re:The hole it left has been filled (Score:4, Informative)

            by 13Echo ( 209846 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @01:55PM (#9009391) Homepage Journal
            What in the hell? This is like the third or fourth troll I've read from you in this thread. Linux has FANTASTIC Truetype font support. There are just very few Truetype fonts that have a GPL license, so there aren't many that are included in Linux distributions.

            http://borgerding.org/fonts.png
            http://borgerdi ng.org/katana.png

            Please, enlighten me with a good reason as to why the Truetype support sucks on Linux/X11.
            • Linux TTF support grows by leaps and bounds with each revision of freetype and accompanying packages.

              With that being said, most Windows users are under the illusion that Windows Font Management is phenomenal when it is not. But drag n' drop or import to /Fonts under Windows makes it seem so as opposed to most Linux approaches to Font Management.

              Neither one compares to OS X's Font Management, but I'll take Linux after OS X for Desktop Publishing needs. It just requires a bit more "out-of-the-box" thi

      • Try Abiword. Have them send you *.rtf docs instead. Different verions of word mangle layouts. I would not let that stop one from using OOo or some other Office Suite. Besides save your stuff as RTF and if necessary rename the extension as .doc, MSWord will open it fine. (BTW Abiword does this automatically if choose save as word *.doc option).

      • It pains me to admit this. There will never be smooth 100% file sharing between OpenOffice and MS Office. Microsoft will see to that as they continuously change and obfuscate their file formats to protect their market share.
      • I have seen people using PDF for presentation slides.

    • Re:The hole it left has been filled (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DragonMagic ( 170846 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:55AM (#9007149) Homepage
      Hah! I knew someone would bring up the "Why should I pay for something when there's a perfectly good version for free!" argument on this.

      I've used WordPerfect since version 4.x. I also use Linux (and Windows). I've tested many different word processing programs (and still do), including StarOffice and OpenOffice.org

      WordPerfect will continue to be the word processing program for me because of many features that OO.o seems not to want to include.

      Among them? A good Grammatik checker. Advanced typesetting features. Legal templates. Perfect listing of paper and label types purchasable from the store. Great print-as-booklet/double-sided printing. Advanced print-spooling functions (how do you want them to print? Set batches and WP does the rest).

      The main problem with ALL other word processing programs is that typesetting. I haven't found one single program, free or proprietary, that has the ability for me to assign an advance-from that works, besides WordPerfect. And I believe they've been doing it since at least 6.

      OpenOffice has NOT taken over. It's installed on nearly every distribution of desktop Linux, but it still pales in comparison to WordPerfect for both writers and legal professionals. Until it can come near WordPerfect in the above-mentioned abilities, it'll still be just a glorified vim to me.

      And please, before you make statements that OO.o is taking over and giving MS Office a challenge, make sure it's fact and not your opinion. Where's the data that OO.o is in use enough to make a challenge soon for MS Office share?
    • At the time WordPerfect was easily the most popular proprietary application for GNU/Linux...Why would I change back from a decent, FREE, application like OpenOffice to WordPerfect?

      Even back then, it seemed like Star Office was far and away the most popular Linux word processor. I don't have a shred of real data to support that claim, but from word of mouth it seemed like people tried out the free Linux WP port, found it unusably slow or buggy and went back to either Star Office or vi/Emacs.

    • For the majority of users, I'm sure there is no reason for a switch to WP. However, for those (like me) who have used WP for years the MS Word interface (and all its clones) is simply inferior. I am ecstatic that there is a version of WP that works on modern Linux distros, even if they never get further than the proof of concept.

      Less subjectively, business users of WP are probably also the best candidates for a transition from MS to Linux. Law firms and the like don't need much other than WP, a browse
    • I agree. OOo beats WP4Linux hands down for looks and features. This "new" WP4Linux is dog ugly. It looks like they are using the dog ugly Motif. I cannot stand Motif, did I mention that it is dog ugly? Oh, and what is up with all the outdated features of Motif? How hard is it to support a freakin mouse wheel? I could never use this "new" WP4Linux with out something as basic as a scroll whell.

      I'd like to know what Corel was thinking releasing this new WP4Linux. I could see doing it if it was monder

    • Why would I change back from a decent, FREE, application like OpenOffice to WordPerfect?

      Because WordPerfect 12 is probably waaaayyyy better than "decent". My wife uses OpenOffice, but only because she enjoys the other features of Linux, and the ease with which I can keep both our boxes updated. The first thing that she said when I told her that Corel was planning a Linux version was, "When can we get it?" I know others whose sole reason for staying with Windows is that they absolutely need WordPerfect.
    • Get real.

      First you need to have Linux challenging Windows on the desktop in a big way. Its not happening.

      What one thing many OS supporters forget is a lot of these applications don't have the features of commercial products nor do the teams seem to be inclined in many cases to do so.

      Comments like yours are one thing many companies use as an excuse for NOT writing software for Linux. It is almost becoming a stereotype that OS=FREE or Linux Software must be free as Linux is. That makes it difficult to m
  • A history on wordperfect [wikipedia.org] by the great Wikipedia.

  • *thrums fingers on the desk* (Score:5, Funny)

    by Faust7 ( 314817 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:28AM (#9006892) Homepage
    an extensive review (all in one page, no flash ads -- what a concept!)

    And for all the bandwidth that would save, the webserver is still DOA...

    • Sorry -- good hosting plans are expensive. I'm looking into moving to Pair if I can afford it. In the meantime, in case this happens I code all of my articles as HTML and then use a JavaScript redirect to the "real" article in the database. So just turn JavaScript off and go to this address:

      http://www.thejemreport.com/software/wplinux.php

      Or just turn of JavaScipt and click here [thejemreport.com]

      -Jem

  • Full text (Score:3, Informative)

    by MarcDuflot ( 701877 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:29AM (#9006898) Homepage
    In the late 90's Corel experimented with the GNU/Linux operating system, developing their own distribution known as Corel Linux and porting their WordPerfect word processor to it. It survived from version 7 to version 9, but in August of 2001 the entire GNU/Linux project was cancelled at Corel and assets sold, thereby ending Corel Linux and WordPerfect Office for Linux. At the time WordPerfect was easily the most popular proprietary application for GNU/Linux, and the hole that it left opened the door for many people to switch to OpenOffice, StarOffice, AbiWord, KWord, TextMaker and others. Now with new leadership, Corel has come back with a proof-of-concept GNU/Linux rework of WordPerfect 8; this review will examine this proof-of-concept software as well as the new WP Office 12 for Windows to see just where Corel is headed with their office software.

    Purpose
    Office suite

    Manufacturer
    Corel

    Platforms
    Windows 98SE/NT/2K/XP/2003 (note that Windows ME is not supported)
    WordPerfect for Linux requires GNU/Linux with the 2.0 kernel or later and a functional X11 graphical environment

    License
    Proprietary, heavily restrictive

    Market
    Home users, small and medium-sized businesses, legal professionals and government agencies

    Price (retail)
    Available from the Corel e-store for US$300, or $150 for the upgrade. Academic editions are available for $100.

    Demo
    Click here to register and download the trial version of WP Office 12

    Screen Shot
    See article for more than a dozen screen shots, or click here for a directory listing of all screenshots related to WP Office 12

    Recommended System
    128 MB RAM, Pentium III or equivalent processor, 400 MB hard disk space, CD-ROM drive, keyboard and mouse or tablet

    It was the promise of WordPerfect for Linux that got me to switch away from Windows in the first place, about a year and a half ago. Being an avid writer I was a die-hard fan of WordPerfect 10 (2002) and I didn't really want to switch if I couldn't use it anymore. Unfortunately after I completed the switch to GNU/Linux I was unable to locate any Linux-related resources on Corel's site -- they'd taken it all down. News came of Corel's money problems and rumor had it that a $135 million stock purchase (about 20% of the company) by Microsoft Corporation had kept Corel afloat with the understanding that they would terminate their GNU/Linux business. I don't know if the latter was true, but given the situation and the reputation of one of the parties involved I would say that it's at least likely.

    Not long after, Microsoft sold their shares to Vector Capital at a 90% loss. More recently Vector moved to buy the rest of the outstanding shares of Corel, thereby turning it into a privately held company again. Overall this is a very positive move because it prevents underhanded manipulation by outside companies like Microsoft (again), but oddly there were some who resisted the buyout. It's hard to tell what went on behind the scenes, but the results are obvious and quite encouraging: there is a renewed interest in GNU/Linux porting and now there's a new version of the superior WP Office for Windows.

    It's All About Microsoft

    One thing that has definitely changed is the market focus of the WP product line. Corel has already realized their niche markets (legal and government), and WP 10 and 11 seemed to pander specifically to them without regard for the competition. Good for lawyers and governments, but not necessarily so good for people who want to do other things.

    It's been a little over two years since WordPerfect 11 was announced and released, but I never had the chance to review it because there was some mysterious reluctance to sending out review copies of the software at the time of my request. No surprise that there was virtually no press on WordPerfect 11 except for legal and government-related print publications. That tunnel-vision focus is gone and has now broadened to include small and medium-sized busines

    • Re:Full text (Score:5, Funny)

      by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:33AM (#9006940)
      WordPerfect for Linux requires GNU/Linux with the 2.0 kernel or later and a functional X11 graphical environment

      Aw! Guys, if only for nostalgia's sake: how about a curses version? I can't be the only one with fond memories of 5.1 for DOS...

      • Re:Full text (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Mr. Neutron ( 3115 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:57AM (#9007180) Homepage Journal
        I can't be the only one with fond memories of 5.1 for DOS...

        No, you're not. That was a pretty darn good application, and possibly the high-point in Word Processor history. Ever since then, for Word and WordPerfect, it's been "what new junk can we shove in this thing to justify another release."

        When I was in high school, I used to do my reports in WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS. Since my mom did desktop publishing out of our home, we had a laser printer. It would freak teachers out at school when I'd hand in my perfectly typeset, smooth-font report... when all the other students had crappy pixilated faded dot-matrix printouts.

      • Re:Full text (Score:3, Interesting)

        by DragonMagic ( 170846 )
        Yeah... I got so good with 5.1 that I didn't even need that fuction-key placard to tell me what keys managed what functions.

        Those were the good ol' days. I was hoping that the emulation of 5.1 would truly be a DOS text screen with the function menus on the bottom, but it just seems to be (from the screenshot) a color shift of a graphical window.

  • Whatever (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dnoyeb ( 547705 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:29AM (#9006901) Homepage Journal
    After coming back to WP at about v8-9, and moving through v11, I can safely say this program is stagnant. It seems like every other product bought by a company and shipped out to Russia or elsewhere for development. (Except Turbocad which I love)

    See what simple bell you can add so that we can up the version and ship out a new one in 6 months. Fix old bugs? Sure a few, but the focus is more on adding junk in order to name a new edition.

    I quit and gave in to MS Office. Why MS office? becuase it works best with windows (MS secret APIs undoubtidly), and my mom uses windows because of the visual aid software available on it. and I can not teach my mother to use Linux, so don't even say it! She is legally blind already..
    • Dunno about the Windows version, but I can honestly say I would pay a hundred bucks for an OS X version of the last version of WordPerfect for Mac (3.5e) without any new features -- just OS X integration, with all the great features (and interface, please, not the pseudo-MS Office thing they seem to be pushing on the Windows and Linux version) from the OS 9 version. It's that good.
    • " After coming back to WP at about v8-9, and moving through v11, I can safely say this program is stagnant."

      You could say that about MS Word as well.

      Maybe there just aren't all that many more features which can be added to a word processor.

    • Stagnant? Useless bells and whistles added to up the version number, but little bug fixing? Sounds a lot like MS Office to me.

      Frankly, if they'd just ship WP 6 with updated import filters, that would be a hell of a lot better than MS Office anyway.

      Of course, I've never been a great fan of the whole wordprocessor idea - I'd rather have a good text processor and a good desktop publisher, and for most things that latter is un-needed. Wordprocessors always seem to be a half-assed text processor plus a quart

    • Wordperfect is painfully annoying. One of the things that bothers me most is how it puts more icons in the system tray than everything else in there put together on any of the systems at work, and that includes those with an intel graphics card, a 3com nic (each has its own icon with certain drivers), a screenprint util, the network icon turned on, and the hotsync manager sitting in there. The fact that the icons cannot be collapsed (at least trivially, I haven't looked for info on this because we have abou

  • Right on... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:31AM (#9006916)
    This is the best comment ever to explain the role of presentation software:

    "Presentation software has quietly become an essential tool for validating otherwise totally useless company meetings; it makes a lot of nothing look like something important (...)"

    I would add:

    If you don't have anything good to say, put it in a presentation.
    • It also makes people
      • talk
      • think
      • and act
      in bullet points, which is not particularly healthy.

      A university lecturer once explained to us that a housefly's brain can process hundreds of simultaneous inputs and outputs. After going through 16 years of formal education, the human brain can cope with a single input and a single output. I'm sure bulleted presentations reinforce this.

    • If you don't have anything good to say, put it in a presentation.

      In other words, give all bad news via power point.

      Instead of sending out a server failure message to you CIO via e-mail, pager, or cell phone, you should send him a power point presentation explaning that your most important mission cricial server just died. The said power point presentation should last longer than the downtime and recovery time of said server.

  • Yawn (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cozziewozzie ( 344246 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:34AM (#9006952)
    This is a glorified WP 8.0. Based on Motif and all. After that bombastic press release, I was expecting a bit too much, I guess; this is roughly the same thing we had in 1999.

    When they come back with a decent interface, all of WP12 features and full support for OASIS format, they may have a chance. This is just half-arsed.

  • Dictionary feature looks to be a disappointment (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Woogiemonger ( 628172 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:36AM (#9006973)
    Well, I won't comment on WordPerfect for Linux not supporting dictionary definitions... okay, I guess I did. That stinks. But the Windows version, which supports dictionary definitions, requires you to pay for a complete dictionary.. it's the Oxford "concise" dictionary. If I'm paying for a dictionary service, I'd at least want the unabridged definitions, with an option to only see concise definitions. Also, it'd be nice if they offer a free alternative, allowing the user to specify a dictionary server and interfacing it using the DICT protocol. See RFC 2229 [faqs.org] and dict.org [dict.org] for an example at what's available for free.

  • Let's hope (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Prince Vegeta SSJ4 ( 718736 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:37AM (#9006981)
    that they stick with what they did best, making a solid word processor with a ample set of features, that LET YOU set tabs, margins, hanging indents, etc. with ease. It was very intuitive app to use.

    I know that in MS Word, I curse every day with the damn Autoformat features that try to do everything for you, even when I try to turn the features off, it is still a pain in the ass.

    It seems you are trying to write a letter, would you like to:

    • Have me format it for you?
    • Lockup & Crash, right before a save
    • Shoot Clippy in the Head!
    • People tell me Word is fine once you get used to the way it forces your cursor around. They say you just have to let Word be in control and let IT decide on how the formatting should be. That or you need to learn the mystic ways in which to counteract Word when it decides to move your cursor THERE instead of where you wanted it. Mostly it involves a lot of hitting the backspace key and then tapping the spacebar in a futile attempt to line things up.

      For simple text documents in which you might only have to

  • *yawn* (Score:5, Funny)

    by JediTrainer ( 314273 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:37AM (#9006987)
    I'm still waiting for their next release of the Java port of WordPerfect.

  • Great news! (Score:3, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:40AM (#9007021)
    Maybe this means that a new version of Visicalc is just around the corner!

  • where I work (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:42AM (#9007028)
    Where I work, only Corel WordPerfect Office licences are officially approved as budget expenses, and supported by the Help Desk.

    Yet, I see more and more MS Office documents pass through my department.

    But a lot of the people who use either app still don't know how to write a document properly with tabs and other text formatting functions (e.g. 20 spaces instead of two tabs, pressing Enter at the end of each line, etc.)

    Maybe it's time I saw a hypnotherapist...
  • Proof of concept? [corel.com]. For $30 not a bad deal. But without good support why would someone buy it. As for me, I am quite happy with openoffice.org.
  • The Jem Report has an extensive review

    And it's outrageous. Truly truly truly outrageous.

    [/80s cartoon]

    --saint
  • Seeing the GNA on /. is one thing, you learn to tune them out. Seeing them out "in the wild," like at the end of this article, is disturbing.

  • Dare I hope for an OS X version? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by goljerp ( 211255 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:52AM (#9007123)
    If they're working on WordPerfect for Linux, might they consider doing an OS X version as well? How tough can that be if they've done the hard work of making it run on Linux? Now there's a market...

  • Oh no! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Peter H.S. ( 38077 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @10:53AM (#9007136) Homepage
    When I saw that WordPerfect for Linux was available I grabbed my wallet for my credit card. I clicked the "buy now", only to see that Corel only sell to US or Canadian billing addresses. That sucks since I live in the EU.

    I guess that there will be a lot of people here on /., that will write comments on "how it is to late for Corel", or "Why bother, OO.org is free", or "reveal codes is overrated / not necessary in a modern Word processor" or "I write everything in ed - the standard editor, so you should do too"

    Well I disagree with all that. I want my WP for Linux.
    -0-

    • You can buy it in the EU...

      http://shop.mensys.nl/cgi-bin/db2www/MNS_art2.d2 w/report?artname=&catname=LINUXWP8

      -Jem
  • Corel changed their logo years ago.

  • Too Little Too Late (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rueger ( 210566 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @11:07AM (#9007306) Homepage
    I had been an avid fan of Wordperfect back to the days of the much beloved 5.1 for DOS.

    If you wanted or needed to have complete control of your document it beat Word hands down. Over the years Reveal Codes alone has saved me many hours of work trying figure out why formatting didn't work.

    The real masters of Wordperfect though were always the secretarial folks in any large company. They could make it sing and dance. They didn't need Wizards and Clippy because they knew that program inside out, and knew how to make it do exactly what they needed.

    Word simply cannot be controlled in the same manner as WordPerfect. The automagic features in Word are still a phenomenal pain in the ass. It is still possible to find your formatting totally screwed up with no way to find out what's wrong.

    So am I still using Wordperfect?

    Only for two things: envelope printing, for which it has the best widget I've seen, and outlining, which it does much, much better than Word because it doesn't try to out-think you or take over the whole process.

    Other than those, I have moved almost entirely over to Open Office which avoids most of the really irritating things about MS Word, and does so at a price that WP can't beat.

  • MOTIF??? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by hetz ( 516550 )
    Looking at the screenshot of the upcoming word perfect for Linux, and what-do-you-know... MOTIF again all over?!?

    Anyone at Corel ever heard of QT? GTK? how about some common interface with KDE or GNOME? (or both? I could always hope...)

    It looks like someone took the old version (6? 7? and just doing some touch ups...)..



  • So brags the author of the link. Then the webserve get's slashdoted as every nerd in the world tries to read that HUGE article on one page.

    • Re:Irony (Score:3, Informative)

      by ValourX ( 677178 )

      Just turn of JavaScript and go to www.thejemreport.com/software/wplinux.php for the full article in HTML (it bypasses the database, which is now overloaded).

      -Jem
  • there are still people I know using the older versions of Wordperfect.

    Some people with DOS/Windows 3.X and use WP 3.0 to 5.X for DOS. I know a few lawyers who still use WP 5.0 to 6.0 for Windows on versions of Windows as new as Windows XP. They got documents written using WP macros that do not convert well into modern technologies. There are still bugs with it, like when I created an invoice using WP 6.0 for Windows using the built in template and tried to print it out over a Novel network printer, it made

  • No hope for large scale deployment (Score:4, Interesting)

    by starseeker ( 141897 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @11:24AM (#9007484) Homepage
    I'm glad to see Wordperfect return to the software stage, but I think it is far too late.

    Microsoft Word OWNS the document market by virtue of mass action - no one can fight the torrent of Word documents coming at them from all sides. The stubborn of us, like me, use OpenOffice/Abiword and fight the good fight. But we also get a major benefit - those tools are zero $$$ in cost. That makes a difference, and quite realistically is the only reason they are used on a large scale - if people had to pay $$ similar to what they pay Microsoft, they'd pay it and move on. But free is good for low budget situations. There is the long term benefit of the code always being available and thus in theory the app can survive as long as it is needed, but experimental evidence seems to indicate that benefit isn't enough to counter the Momentum of Microsoft. No one is seriously worried about Word vanishing.

    So, I conclude WordPerfect has no chance to be a large scale commercial product. It might survive in small corners somewhere, but the cost of it will turn off the people seriously looking for a Word alternative. It's not open source, so even the small subset who might pay $$$ for an open source app because it is open are out. Their only real potential market is businesses that are going to Linux, but want a commercial word processor and are willing to retrain their folk to WordPerfect. In that scenario OpenOffice is hard to beat, but maybe some companies don't want it. But will that be enough to fund development?

    I hate to see this, but it seems to always work like this - market share is EVERYTHING. Even Linux and OpenOffice, with zero up front cost, are only slowly making headway against the inertia out there. Wordperfect doesn't have a ghost of a chance - most of its potential market (i.e. willing to consider something other than Word) has moved/will move to the free OpenOffice suite. If your retraining anyway, why not go for the free, open product?

    I don't imagine Wordperfect will ever be open sourced, which is a shame. I used WP8 a little and liked it. Much lighter weight than OO, for one thing. But except as an open source app it won't survive. Too little, too late.

  • Am I the only one? (Score:2, Informative)

    by ahappli ( 175582 )
    I keep hoping for a full office suite under linux, not just a wordprocessing program, spreadsheet, and presentation program, but also a good PIM, and desktop Database application.

    I know people are going to say OpenOffice.Org, Evolution, and use MySQL. I already do, but MySQL is a little daunting and big for what I really need. Access is more what I need, something small, easy to use, and quick to set stuff up in, when you are not a DBA.

    Don't get me wrong, I love OpenOffice, I use it all the time, Evolu

  • Another "excellent starting point" (sigh) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dpbsmith ( 263124 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @11:32AM (#9007596) Homepage
    A finished, full-featured word processing program seems to be a pretty tall order.

    If I had a nickel for all the projects that have been mentioned in the last few years that manage to come up, with say, a Word-alike toolbar, and a ruler with pretty tabs on it and a feature set comparable to AppleWorks, and partial RTF-format compatibility except for details like font display... that have all the capability you need for a business letter... ...that have gotten reviewed as "an excellent starting point," ... ...and that never evolved into a serious, finished product... ...I'd have, I dunno, $0.35 or $0.40. Easily.

    Please spare me the products that are at an "excellent starting point." Wake me up when something crosses the finish line.

  • I'd buy WordPerfect (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sarastro_us ( 745933 ) on Thursday April 29, 2004 @11:47AM (#9007831)
    I'd fork out the cash to buy Word Perfect in a second if they had a CLI interface on it. There are times when I'd just *kill* to be able to open a .doc file without having to pull up X Windows. Does anybody know if there is an option out there to do just this?

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