Here’s a review of Corel’s new WordPerfect products: WordPerfect Office 12 for Windows, and WordPerfect for Linux. The latter is an improvement on their previous WP for Linux products that were discontinued some time ago. Could this be the start of big-name proprietary software for GNU/Linux?
The Return of WordPerfect?
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Version 8 may be a little old to be a true test. The web site also claims native Linux. Does anyone know if it still uses a modified version of WINE to run. I don’t think that should count as native, otherwise I wonder which toolkit was used.
I also believe that Photopaint or even better Draw would have been a better choice as there is no real vector graphics app on Linux.
It is a native binary install, not through WINE.
Corel used to have one of their graphics suites ported to GNU/Linux but they stopped some months ago. That may change now that the company is again considering the GNU/Linux market.
-Jem
My understanding was that WP8 was a native Linux implementation, not WINE. I had both WP8 and WPOffice2000 under WINE running on a laptop at the time I was using Corel Linux. WP8 ran fine, but the office suite had many problems and I eventually gave up on it.
Anyway, I wish they would port Quattro Pro to Linux. I’ve been running my business accounting on Quattro Pro spreadsheets since 2000, when my former accounting software ceased to function. Now I face the prospect of having to convert my spreadsheets to Excel and then import into OOCalc. This should not be a problem for the fairly simple sheets, but I’ve got a very sophisticated workbook that I’ve developed over the past few years that enables me to produce a trial bal, and update my bal sheet and income statement for every new transaction I enter into the ledger sheet. I know this is not going to convert to Excel very well and the thought of having to redo all the formulae and links has prevented me from transitioning. Sigh.
I also believe that Photopaint or even better Draw would have been a better choice as there is no real vector graphics app on Linux.
http://www.sodipodi.com/
Abraxas, Andrew said “no real vector graphics app on Linux”, he didn’t say “no vector graphics app on Linux”. Sodipoidi, Inkskape and Kontour are VERY weak competitors to Illustrator or Freehand or other OSX/Win apps. Professionals can’t use the current available Linux apps. An old version of Corel Draw used to work on Linux natively, but it is very difficult to make it work on newer systems.
Softimage, Alias-Wavefront, Oracle, IBM, etc, etc, aren’t big names?
> Softimage, Alias-Wavefront, Oracle, IBM, etc, etc, aren’t big names?
Not for vector graphics and IBM and Oracle aren’t a big name in any desktop software at all.
so, if it’s a native binary… what toolkit does it use ?
WINE. It is semi-native.
These software companies are strange indeed.
Why bother with yet-another-office-suite, when there’s OpenOffice already, and there is StarOffice and myriad of other smaller office apps, when you have vector graphics suite! Albeit it won’t be that easy to make a port, but it should be worth the effort once it’s done and has gained momentum. And WordPerfect is dated too… oh damn. These days everyone writes his own OS and app market gets even more fragmented every day…
I bought the original WP 8 for Linux when it was first released, I didn’t think it was based on wine at all?
I know that WP Office 2000 for Linux was based on wine but that was a total rewrite from 8, not the same thing at all?
I like StarOffice/OpenOffice, but WordPerfect is just a better product. I’d buy it again.
I don’t want to start a flame war but personally I’ve always compared StarOffic/OpenOffice to Microsoft Works Suite than to Microsoft Office Suite; it get’s the job done, just not very polished or doing anything new. The WordPerfect suite I’d compare to Microsoft Office. I’d buy it again.
Not for vector graphics and IBM and Oracle aren’t a big name in any desktop software at all.
“Could this be the start of big-name proprietary software for GNU/Linux?”
I don’t see the qualifiers “desktop” or “vector graphics” anywhere in that sentence, do you? Or am I supposed to assume that anytime anybody says anything about software, they are talking about word processors and e-mail clients?
Oh, to add another couple to that list: Mathworks (Matlab), and Wolfram (Mathematica). I use those much more often than I use a word processor
I just want to end the disscussion if it’s a native Linux-port or not.
It is native and based upon the old WP8 Linux release which was native. WP10 which was released for Linux was as you could say semi-native aka based on WINE and buggy as hell. 🙂
. . . I would have been excited about this a long time ago, but these days I mostly use a text editor. I hardly ever touch a word processor, and when I do, it’s abiword or openoffice.org (haven’t tried kwrite yet). I could see the groklaw lady getting into this, as wordpefect is quite entrenched in the legal biz. I could see using Wordperfect to open wordperfect documents, but all of the word-processor-using people I deal with use Word.
At $299 it isn’t exactly cheap. And if you’re mainly interested in the word processing, it’s not cheaper than MS Word, which can be had for ~$200 through reputable channels.
» These software companies are strange indeed.
1- Why doesn’t Corel starts to provide a version 12 for the MAc OS X ? They would have a tone !! of purchases and it wouldn’t be that much hard to make a port.
2- Corel WordPerfect for Linux will be a very old !! version. I too bought the WordPerfect for Linux (can’t remeber the version) and it was worst than StarOffice at the time (in my rational and humble opinion).
3- Corel has many good softwares for Linux on the garphic (vector) and animation drawing (Flash animated movie) that, if they would port it, would be selling to so many Linux swithcer for a price between 150-200 Dollars.
Therefore, » These software companies are strange indeed !!
Wow, $299 is rediculously overpriced. I would think something along the lines of $9.99 since it’s outdated, and if they get WP 12 running maybe $29.99 would be more reasonable.
Seriously, I can’t believe the prices people pay for some software, especially word processing. Is word processing really *that* complicated? People did it for hundreds of years with a pencil and paper, does it become hundreds of times more productive on M$ Office? Because you seem to pay a hundred times the cost of pencil and paper(let’s say, 500 reams of paper against the cost of the computer and office app, no printer costs)….
I always loved WordPerfect, and I used to use WP8 on linux. On windows, I used WP9 until about a year ago. As a word processor, it is definately better than Word.
I’m considering buying it (definately for windows, it’s quite cheap for students). If the Linux version op WP 12 will ever be made, i’d prefer it over OOo. Openoffice really is indeed much like works: it get’s the job done in most cases, but it is no competition on quality with MS Office. Competing on price isn’t enough.
there is a gap in te linux software market for professional DTP. adobe tried a beta of framemaker… it was a beta of software noone uses much (so why would there be any interest?). we need adobe to put out pagmaker or indesign on linux. people will pay – especially professionals who could use the reliability of linux/bsd systems.
WP for Linux is $30 not $299. That’s WP 12 for Windows.
I agree with someone that said that OpenOffice doesn’t look anywhere near as goos at MS Office (I HATE MS btw). It isn’t up to that yet. I use WordPerfect when I’m using Windows (at work only). Last release was LAME and I didn’t buy it. I mostly use OS X though, not Windows, at work. OS X ONLY at home.
I mostly use OS X though, not Windows, at work. OS X ONLY at home.
Can you say what word processor do you prefer on OS X ?
(MS Office X doesn’t count…)
Would you like a version 12 of corel word perfect on MAC OS X ?
🙂
Check out Pagestream. It uses GTK2 even, so it at least will look nice in a Gnome environment (or a KDE one, if you have matching themes…) http://www.grasshopperllc.com/
Food for thought: If they put resources into GNUStep instead of Wine, they’d be able to release an OSX version from the same codebase. i.e. Linux is closer to OSX than Windows, in a unixy sense.
I believe if MS pulls the plug to Office on Mac as it was feared once, Corel’s WordPerfect could come to the rescue
In fact, I believe WordPerfect for OSX would be an excellent idea, I have a good feeling about it 
Then again, Corel couldn’t even rescue themselves let alone someone else, I guess if Apple invests into Corel would be nice.
A couple of years ago I received the 30 day evaluation version of Corel Wordperfect Office 2002 (I think that was the name) cd from my college for free. I managed to find a series of cracks that removed the trial period, and used WP 2002 as my primary office suite. It worked great! It had no incompatibility issues with office — I mean none…. not even small ones. Surprisingly it was alot more intuitive than MS Office ( I know that’s hard to beLIEve, but it was ). Macros were easier to make; embedded tabs were no problems, the ruler was surprisingly easier to use — These and many more small differences made it simply a better office suite ( I will admit that their spreadsheet program was not as nearly as good as Excel, but it was completely compatible — To this day I still do NOT trust calc for compatibility with Excel). Then I found out about SCO, and later found out that SCO owned Corel — The cd immediately got thrown in the garbage, and I haven’t used WP since. although I am saddened because it is a far more superior suite in my opinion — especially their database application, but WordPerfect the ‘word processor’ was a dream to use.
Although I hope SCO dies a miserable death a small part of me wishes that IBM buys them up for ONE reason — so that IBM will GPL the WordPerfect Suite of tools. I’m not nieve — I know this will never happen, but it would be a great benifit to OO.o or any other Linux office suites for compatibility.
There is a very good office solution for linux (and windows) for free. IMHO the OpenOffice is good enought the most of offices. But there is not any useable vector graphics program. SodiPodi is a very funny toy but it is far for useable. OO Draw IMHO better but it is far from CorelDraw or FreeHand…
Corel is not owned by SCO. it was purchased by Vector, which is a private venture capital firl.
Check out: http://www.vectorcapital.com
Are you trolling or just badly informed? Where did you hear that SCO had anything to do with Corel? SCO has never owned any part of Corel or WordPerfect.
-Jem
Oops, apparently I was WRONG thinking SCO owned Corel — never mind (feeling a little sheepish)
very good that we getting a new version on linux…
also very good that ms office has another commercial office suite competitor in the windows arena.
one development I would like to see happen from this is a new version of lotus smartsuite for linux, mmmmm I was always impressed by smartsuite for windows, and I think ibm should have a serious think about a linux release. They own the copyright for lotus products, and they are continually pushing linux, so they should combine the two…..
heres hoping
I received the new WP in the mail yesterday. Some clarifications:
* No, it isn’t WINE based. It is a native application based on the motif toolkit (some people may find that ugly, but it is fast).
* It is *not* Wordperfect 8, what the article claims. It is based on WordPerfect 8.1. This version was never available in retail, only as a part of Corel Linux.
* The author says it only has a few fonts. This is plain wrong. The CD-ROM contains 180 Type1 fonts, which can be installed using the font installer.
* This is different from the WP8 Personal downloadable edition, which was really crippled.
I didn’t look into it deeply yet. But my first impression is that it is fast and very usable. Especially for the extremely low price…
Give me kword anyday.
It just does it all right, gets tables embedded, formules embedded, drawings embedded, karbon, charts, kivio, …
I understand most people that they need something to import .doc files, but for making texts myself, kword feels the best.
But it can’t be ordered from Europe
> But it can’t be ordered from Europe
Yes it can:
http://shop.mensys.nl/cgi-bin/db2www/MNS_art2.d2w/report?artname=&c…
BTW. The description on that page is not accurate. Mensys accepts credit card orders… (or bank transactions in NL:))
The article does not claim that this is WP 8, only that it is based on it; the reason that the article says this is because that’s what Corel told me.
The font installation is not listed in the initial readme or the help file and the extra fonts are not installed by default. After your comment I looked into it and changed the article accordingly.
-Jem
That’s good! It is seldom to see such good response to comments about articles.
Then I found out about SCO, and later found out that SCO owned Corel — The cd immediately got thrown in the garbage, and I haven’t used WP since.
Let me get this straight: you thought that SCO owned Corel so you immediately stopped pirating their software?
Way to demonstrate the courage of your convictions!
WordPerfect has had an export to PDF function since at least WordPerfect 9 (WP 2000). That’s the version I have at home, and I use the PDF export quite a bit for invoicing people. Works like a charm, and the PDFs can be opened in Acrobat Reader 4.x and up.
Very nice review, btw.
Have been using the trial version of WP 12 at home and it actually feels faster than WP 9 on my lowly Pentium-II 333. Haven’t had much of a chance to look at the other bits of the suite, but WP 12 is very nice indeed.