Corel Ousted From Public Life?

gagy writes "Ottawa's Corel Corp. has been showing signs of weakness in the past few years, and looks very likely to be bought out by Vector Corp, at which point it will become a privately held company. A Toronto Star story spells out the details of the deal, and takes a brief look at the history of Corel." We mentioned Corel's deal with Vector last month.

What a fall.

From WordPerect's market dominance to getting bought out by a graphics package maker to this.

Maybe the law firms will think about converting now?

Re:What a fall.

Kenneth Cowpland was the ultimate death of that company. They were following the embrace, extend and extinguish philosopy, unfortunately they never realized that it was the competition that they were supposed to extinguish, and not themselves.
They killed WordPerfect. They let the entire graphics line die. They nearly killed the company when they put a big stake in developing a home computer which ran Java natively. They seemed to always have their heads too far into the future while their products stayed too far in the past.
In short, it is absolutely amazing they stayed alive this long, depite complete and utter mismanagement. Good riddance to bad garbage.

Re:What a fall.

Kenneth Cowpland? Don't you mean Michael Cowpland and his plastic wife and pink dog?

Re:What a fall.

It is sad to see such a turn of events. The only thing that can make it worse is if some SCO like low lifes buy the company for a few pennies and start suing people at OpenOffice.org or KOffice.org.

Ofcourse, M$FT and even SUN will pay money to those companies to make sure "they respect IP rights."

Sorry about the rant. There is so much reason for outrage.

S

Re:What a fall.

WordPerfect corporation was bought first by Novell, and then by Corel, by which time WordPerfect was already losing out to Microsoft's products.

Corel, you will be missed

Even back in the days before Linux went mainstream, from Corel Draw onward, Corel was ever a thorn in Microsoft's side. It looks like they went down in the good fight. The name "Corel" may emerge from this yet, but it sure won't be the same rebellious little software firm with a chip on it's shoulder.

Here's to Corel... may it live on in out hearts and minds in "the happy coding ground."

Re:Corel, you will be missed

Corel sold out to Microsoft. The only reason they ever even got a cash offer from MS was because they had a Linux product line that was a drop in replacement for MS OS/Office, notice how quickly afterwards it was withdrawn. I appreciate their work on WINE but other than that, good riddance, you danced with the devil and now you have to pay the price. Let this be a lesson to anybody would thinks MS is their white knight. Does anybody here remember Sybase?

Additional complaining about Corel...

Not to mention that they burned a lot of goodwill in the Linux community (one of the few viable non-Microsoft markets) when they abandoned their Linux line.

When Corel released WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux and Corel Draw/PhotoPaint 9 for Linux, there was an incredible marketing push. I got samples. I also got Tux plush toys, balloons, beach balls, "Corel Linux" stress cubes, posters and other branding-oriented products sent to me.

I was one of the individuals to decide to pony up $$$ for some trial installations of WordPerfect Office 2000 Deluxe for Linux and Corel Draw 9 for Linux, thinking that these were bigtime apps. The initial release was somewhat (incredibly, you found as time wore on,) buggy, but with service packs already available for the Windows version and assurances that the Linux product line represented a major long-term investment by Corel, I was reasonably confident that the product was viable.

Well... As the weeks turned into months and still no service packs at all, the Corel Office for Linux newsgroup filled up with more and more dissatisfied people wondering about the crashing, the incompatibilities with LPR, and a million other little bugs that had yet to be addressed.

Fast-forward to 2003... The products are orphaned. They have been removed from the Corel Web site without a trace. There has never been so much as a peep out of corel about them since the initial product launch and marketing push. To get anyone at Corel on the phone who even admits that such products ever existed is damn near impossible. The open-source linux.corel.com site that contained Corel's WINE tree is gone.

And no service packs for the Linux versions of these programs ever got released!

In Red Hat 8, they're still unstable, they still sometimes simply error out when you try to save a file you've been working on (can you say "lost work"?), more obscure parts of the programs still tend to crash them or display broken dialogs, and you still have to run a second font server and hand-massage your /etc/printcap file to get them to print to it. These problems that I was sure would be fixed within weeks of release in a service pack are still here years later.

In Red Hat 9, the programs don't install at all. There's a fundamental incompatibility with NTPL. If you grab the Red Hat 8 libraries and use them with an LD_LIBRARY_PATH, you can get the apps to install and run, but they don't save or spool print jobs at all no matter what you do, and they have a tendency to simply turn into runaway processes at the slightest irritation.

And to add final insult to injury, we've recently discovered that about 75% of the files created by the Linux versions of WordPerfect Office 2000 can't be opened by the Windows versions of Corel's products. Old files created with these apps are very orphaned.

I'll never buy Corel again for any reason! And I've heard from other people using Linux in varied environments that who also spent $$$ on the Corel licenses that feel much the same way. They could have ruled the Linux world if they'd stuck with it. Instead, they screwed many thousands of decision-makers who won't ever want to smell them again.

Re:Corel, you will be missed

As I see it Corel lost a huge chance when they sold their whole Linux division to work with Microsoft on .NET.

They had a set of great graphics/design tools, a wordprocessor with a decent user base and a decent Linux distribution. With the right management (visionary, willing to further the boundaries) they could have been a great company. But they decided to go conservative, keep selling their boxed products and use a few OEMs, kill their linux development and surrender to the .NET platform.

Long live Corel, I would have wanted to have heard a lot more from them, but they had their shot and panicked.

Re:Corel, you will be missed

Corel was constantly chasing the latest "hot" technologies without ever letting their products mature and becoming marketable. Your reference to the change from Linux to .NET is a great example. But ever since Corel Draw became obsolete, Corel spent large amounts of time and money developing hype-driven products.

The first blunder I remember happened when Java was super hyped-up by Sun. With great fanfare, Corel ported Word Perfect to Java. Corel later cancelled the project, right when it was gaining market traction, seemlingly because the Java hype calming down. Around the same time, Palm sneaked on the scene with their much-hyped PDAs, and Corel announced it would create a PDA running Java (which never made it to market).

The bubble moved on, and in around 1999, Linux became the hot technology. Corel created a Linux distribution and ported Word Perfect to Linux. Only a few years later, Corel cancelled both projects and announced it's amazing new idea to create products for .NET. I can only imagine their .NET products will share the same fate.

I have no sympathy for Corel's demise. Ever since Corel Draw became a cash-cow, Corel never attempted to create products people actually wanted (to pay for, anyway). They chased hot technologies instead of customer's needs. I can't believe so many people, especially people on Slashdot, took the hype to heart and actually believed Corel would follow through on their announcements.

Re:Corel, you will be missed

Corel was ever a thorn in Microsoft's side. It looks like they went down in the good fight. The name "Corel" may emerge from this yet, but it sure won't be the same rebellious little software firm with a chip on it's shoulder.

If anything, that was the problem with Corel. They were so fixated on avenging themselves on Microsoft, they jumped on every bandwagon that came along -- Java, Linux -- with no regard for whether it would work or if anyone would buy it. Apple, in contrast, survives because Steve Jobs and the corporate culture have an attitude of "What can I make that will be good and that people will pay money for?" not "How can I screw Microsoft?"

Sun, are you listening?

Corel

Well one would hope they will stay alive, even though they've been around for their fair share of trauma a lot of people actually use their products. The last company I worked for used corel office on over 1000 clients while the rest ran MS office...

Corel's office actually had less support incidents of problems with the actual software, on the other hand, it was a pain because everyone was used to MS office and didden't understand the different GUI hehe.

http://funstuff.digital-bless.com/ [digital-bless.com] - Funny stuff.

Re:Corel

Their GUI is definitely different than MS's, and though I haven't used it much, I really liked what I saw, especially of the latest version of WordPerfect. If I took the trouble to use it more, I'm sure I would come to like it more than MS Word... but then, I've already decided on OpenOffice. Still, I hope Corel stays alive and gives Microsoft some competition. BTW, Didn't some major OEM recently ship Corel Office pre-installed in place of MS Works?

Re:Corel

With Dell machines, you can choose WordPerfect Office instead of Microsoft Office or Works. I saved some money on my laptop when I did that.

I prefer WordPerfect anyhow (I was a die-hard WordPerfect for DOS user).

Is any other word processor ever going to get a Reveal Codes feature? I'm sure I'm not the only person that considers this one of the most powerful features of WordPerfect.

The amount of control over your document with WordPerfect was absolutely amazing, and something I really miss every time I have to use MS Word.

Sad to see it finally go

Word Perfect was an awesome product. I still use it sometimes too. Any hope of open source type port of Word Perfect? I'm guessing probably not. But you can always hope.

Re:Sad to see it finally go

Openoffice.org has a small branch (wp.openoffice.org I think) of developers working on it. WP offers a few features (reveal codes of course) that are slowly being added into Openoffice.org.

One nice thing about WP is that the file format, AFAIK, hasn't changed since version 6.1. Create a document in WP11, open it in 7, and viola, it opens. Word can't even do backward compatibility, try opening a Word 95 doc in Word XP. It'll open, but you'll most likely have to reformat. Because o the file compatibility, the Wordperfect import filter for Openoffice.org is coming along very nicely.

Does it really matter?

I am about to put my Word Perfect CD-Roms next to my WordStar floppies and Ami-Pro disks. Actually who really cares? Corel has not just hurt Word Perfect, but their other graphics tools just aren't good anymore. If they had spent more time working on Word Perfect and less on porting everything to Java, this might not have happened. How can Intuit survive Microsoft and not these other companies?

Re:Does it really matter?

How can Intuit survive Microsoft and not these other companies?

Is it because Microsoft isn't trying? Just wait until they start putting Microsoft Money into Office - or maybe including it with Windows. Intuit will be gone in no time flat. If people already have MS Money do you think they'll go out and buy Quicken? Even if Quicken is better? I don't think they will. It's sad but it's true. This is how MS competes.

The only way to beat MS is to give your software away for free or establish a niche market that MS doesn't care about.

Vector Capital

is a vulture capital firm. This should be good for them. They already have a history with Corel, having bought Microsoft's shares at 56 cents a piece, taking a 20% stake in the company.

CorelDRAW is still the best illustration package available for PCs today, bar none. Illustrator doesn't hold a candle, IMHO. (This from a guy with many years of experience with both packages in a professional setting).

I blame daytraders

I can't blame Corel. If I were being punched in the stomach every 7 seconds I'd want a way out too.

Sad end...

I've always liked wordperfect as well as Corel Support for Linux. First company to bring a commerical wordprocessor to Linux IIRC. Was good but now times are moving on..

Good luck corel whatever the future might hold

Rus

Poor Headline

"Corel Ousted From Public Life" is a poor choice of words. "Ousted" means "To eject from a position or place; force out." Nobody is forcing anything. Vector is simply making a tender offer.

And when a company goes private it doesn't disappear from "public life." Its ownership merely changes hands.

I KNEW this would happen

Corel was doomed from the moment they went into competition with Microsoft with WordPerfect.

First Bundle, First Old-Version Discount

Two interesting firsts, from the article:

"... [Corel] became the first software company to bundle more than one program into a package. It also became the first to discount older versions, making them accessible for the more thrift-conscious consumer market."

MS lost money

Good to see that they lost their shirts on their Corel stock. Maybe that's why they never handed out dividends. Pricks.

RIP Corel

For those that don't know, Corel used WineLib to recompile thwir Windows Wares under linux. They also contributed a fair amount of code and bug fixes to Wine.

However, if htey become private (closed), it's likely to put a stop to their linux activities.

Closed companies have generally been less receptive to Open Source (VA Linux, IBM, and Red Hat are all public companies). The threat of shareholder lawsuits is usually enough to make sure public companies use Linux to save money, and adopt Open Source ideals. Private companies, sadly, often end up being microsoft-only shops.

Aw, crap. (v1.1)

I don't seem to understand why a company which makes such an excellent product as Painter would let themselves be bought out, by anyone.

If things continue on this exponential curve of stupidity, then Adobe should be bought out by Phillip Morris sometime in October.

Hey, why NOT have a Photoshopped image of Liza Minelli smoking her life away on the box?

Why not MS

I always wonder why they were not bought by MS because CorelDraw is a nice vector drawing program that is used by a lot of people to make pictures with that are then incorporated in a Word document. MS could have had WP and Draw in one nice package.!

There's still opportunity here...

The Corel name, and product line, still have reputation enough to make the company a huge asset IF the right buyer comes along and makes good management decisions. Despite the popularity of OpenOffice among private users, most companies aren't going to adopt it, and Sun is having little success in marketing the professional sibling, StarOffice. WordPerfect, Corel Draw, Quattro Pro, and other apps still have good commercial name recognition and respect, and were a company like HP to come along and buy and distribute it, the Corel line could have a fighting chance. HP is already distributing Corel software with it's home-market PCs. If they were to do a true port to Linux of all the Corel line, it could really kick-start the Linux business desktop. And I mean a REAL port, not the Wine-dependant crap Corel was distributing years ago. And if someone like HP were to buy them, the Corel Linux distro wouldn't be a bad idea for a return either. Corel Linux had some nice features, and was Debian based. Much better package management that way. IBM wouldn't be in the market. They've already got one office suite, and are developing another Java-based suite. Sun has StarOffice. But with Corel going REALLY cheap, maybe they could be presuaded to buy anyway. Dare I hope that Apple might even have an interest? Probably not. Outside of the venture capital crowd gunning for it, a company like HP would be Corel's best hope of making a big return. The competition would certainly nice.

Corel

I think there's always been a better option to Corel's programs. They were always some kind of second choice. Perhaps it's just me?

The Corel Touch of Death

Well good riddens as far as I'm concerned. I started using Corel Draw! at version 3, it was revolutionary program for its time especially since for awhile it was the only decent package that ran on a PC. If you think MS has a lousy upgrade path, Corel use to extort its Draw! customers with unnecessary upgrades and buggy released. Coreldraw 6 was probably the last good draw release, while release 7 was the best for photo paint. Photo paint 7 was given a higher rating that photoshop 4/5 at the time by most magazines, but most photo shop regulars were wise not to switch or ran macs anyway.

Corel has a strategy of buying successful products and turning them in to obscure POS's. Here is just a short list off the top of my head of products they still offer:

• Fractal Design Painter (Amazing Program)
• Kai's Power Tools
• Wordperfect
• Bryce

I believe there are also a bunch of excellent products that were acquired and abandoned. If I remember correctly Kai's Goo (easy to use image editor) was extremely popular before digital cameras were common and another product called photo soap was pretty decent too. The "Kai" line of basic image editors and easy effects for the masses could have been insanely successful if Corel didn't touch it.

Hey, Ottawa is cool

...few in notoriously conservative Ottawa will likely fret witnessing the company's slow retreat...

Hmm, I hope Ottawa isn't that notorious... I mean, sure, we're a government town. But if you look at the sheer number of festivals and celebrations that go on over a year in the Ottawa region, you'd think those politicians never get any work done (well, maybe you think that anyway).

We have the Jazz Festival, the Blues Festival, the Fringe Festival, the Chamber Music Festival, Winterlude, the Tulip Festival, the Hot Air Balloon Festival, Canada Day... and that's just off the top of my head.

I like living in Ottawa.

Parting out?

I'd like to see Painter set free.

I'd *really* like to see another company like Fractal Design or Metacreations pick it up and run, run, run with it.

Don't write them off just yet...

Corel, via WordPerfect office, has been pretty instrumental in the emergence of low-cost PCs. The OEM price of this package is insanely low (around $10 +/-) which lets the PC manufacturers sell at a lower price point than they could if they equipped the system with Microsoft products.

Dell, HP/Compaq and Sony all ship Corel/WP Office with their low-end consumer systems due to the cost advantage.

I suspect that this might be a motivation for someone in the VC community to consider buying them. Low-cost PCs are a growth market.

Remember CorelDraw for Linux?

I got CorelDraw for Linux ... old glib compiled etc.

Hopefully now things will improve :)

WordPerfect Corporation

I'd just like to mention something that most people seem to have forgotten: Corel really didn't do all that much when it comes to WordPerfect. Yes, the Linux port is theirs, but the core program, up to WP6 for Windows was written by Satellite Software International (at the very start) who changed their name to WordPerfect Corp. after a version or two. Around WP6.1-6.2 for Windows it was bought by Novell (1994) and then before or right after the release of WP7 was bought by Corel (1996).

I'd say that pretty much all the real functionality was in it by version 6 (I'm hard pressed to find anything important missing from WP6 that is in the latest verison, save automatic underlining on misspelled words) and that Corel merely added a few features to give them an excuse to release new versions.

Anyway, the writing has been on the wall for years now..

and to think, I still have Corel Stock

HAHAHAHAH too late to sell now. Fun to watch it go down the drain. Only have a coupla shares anyway.

hang on they haven't signaled yet

Their desire to be bought that is, you do it by sueing IBM for something totally ludicrous like violating your copyright, on things you don't own. :-D, :-P

Death By Stupidity...

Copeland and Microsoft should have been more then enough to sink Corel.

Loyal users kept them afloat by paying their outrageous upgrade prices hoping that Corel would eventually give up on their ADD business strategies and focus on their true strength... graphics products

Corel should return to Linux development but only with their flagship products, no Corel Linux or any other distracting product, just their core products on Linux.

Linux is the next NEW thing and the big players including like IBM and MS know it and MS will do everything in their power to stop it and kill it in it's tracks.

Corel and its users and its shareholders have an opportunity to truly lead the charge for change and should.

For now it remains to be seen if they have any innovative gas left in the tank

Impact on shareholders when company goes private?

Corel has been a publicly held company and many people own their shares. Now a venture capital firm is buying them out at $1.05 US per share.

Does anyone know how shareholders are typically compensated when a public company goes private?

Does the brokerage charge fees as if the shareholder traded?

On the day of the sale, does the shareholder just get cash put into their brokerage account equivalent to the last listed value of the shares?

lp?

last post?

Re:ghey!

your all gay

i think you mean - "you're all gay"
not "all your corel are..."

Re:Corel

However, it's too late. Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project, Open Office, that there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle and profit from our hard earned IP.


Do we have another SCO in the making? For the record, OpenOffice code is based on StarOffice (bought from some company by SUN, and later donated).

S

Re:Corel

However, it's too late. Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project, Open Office, that there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle and profit from our hard earned IP.

Care to elaborate? AFAIK Corel for Linux has been Closed Source and OpenOffice comes from StarOffice (bought by Sun to StarDivision) which has no relation whatsoever to Corel or WordPerfect.

These are really serious claims, and the least anybody need right now (from OSS shops to closed source and proprietary ones) is another SCO spewing bull around.

If you have proof of your claims please elaborate.

Re:Corel

"As an upper mid-level management member..."

and

Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project...our hard earned IP"

1) As a mid-level manager you never coded anything.
2)*Your* IP amounted to bringing home a paycheck every week.
3) The IP you claim was stolen never belonged to you, it belonged to the shareholders.
4) The IP you claim was stolen never made it into the OSS project, unless you can prove your claim with documentation (not SCO-FUD).
5) You are a whiney little wanker who will soon join the millions of un(der)-employed IT workers.

umm proof?

However, it's too late. Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project,

I'm sure if there was any validity to this claim Sun would be getting their pants sued off by now. Is this the effect of SCO? Is every loser company going to start BS claims and legal maneuvering against competitive open source projects?

Re:Corel

My foot. "Upper mid-level managers" (oxymoron) sit around on Slashdot posting stuff like this [slashdot.org]?

Re:Corel

As an upper mid-level management member of corel

and ...we set about the massive undertaking of synnergizing

and ...escalating the sales curves

i think i see the problem with corel.

Re:Corel

However, it's too late. Enough WordPerfect code has been stolen for the OSS project, Open Office, that there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle and profit from our hard earned IP.

You could SCO them. Assuming of course you can prove the code was stolen.

BTW, nice job on the big words. That seems to be what middle management is all about. Translating reality to the CEO's in a language they understand. Your synnergizing product lines and escalating sales curves. So I guess you tried to SELL SOFTWARE and MAKE MONEY.

A bunch of guys in suits who havent had a product in a decade will sit around wondering why they arent making any money

This really shows you can talk to your underlings too. You must be very good to survive as a middle manager of any type for 10 years. They always seem to be the first to go around here.

Re:Caldera?

Caldera?

Well, needless to say the Caldera distribution has never been anything more than a proprietary blackhole, but it doesn't have jack to do with Corel as far as I know.

Perhaps you mean the distribution of Linux Corel came out with a few years ago that they dropped?
(Corel Linux)

Re:Corel

"As an upper mid-level management member of corel for the last 10 years..."
"...profit from our hard earned IP."

I don't believe you put much into the actual development of the software.

Also, your logic seems to flow along with SCO's.

Programemrs get paid for services they provide. Even software companies understand that they get paid for services provided, thus the reason for licensing. The business model of selling software as a product is not a very good one. Open source software should give you a good example. Companies selling the Linux OS are not selling a stand-alone product, but services provided based around the product. Believe what you want about ownership of ideas, but if you do as much reading as I do, you too will realize how wrong this is. I won't go into detail, but remember this, service is the fastest growing sector. Ownership of ideas is not capitalistic, it is monopolistic. Even the constitution states this. The only reason it was put in was because it was believed that a short term monopoly on a particular idea would help promote progress (which is very debatable). Since then it has grown into a "we created the idea, we deserve complete ownership and control over it". You can say what you want about "hard earned IP", but that woill not stop the change from rent seeking behavior type business models to an economic shift toward services.

Re:Corel

Come on people, this is obviously a joke with a bunch of management-speak throw in. Sheesh.

PHB alert!

Gee, no wonder the product didn't do better with such forward thinking plans:

"massive undertaking", "synnergizing our product lines", "escalating the sales curves."

I suddenly feel like I'm reading the Dilbert archive [dilbert.com] and not Slashdot. Are you sure this wasn't supposed to be moderated +5 Funny?

Re:Corel

A bunch of guys in suits who havent had a product in a decade will sit around wondering why they arent making any money.

Hate to break the news to you, but ALL suits sit around and wornder why they aren't making any money, regardless of their situation. At my company we have 53% marketshare out of a field of three, increased revenues by 14% from last year, and are making enough money that we are keeping our sibling divisions in the corporation afloat. Yet the CEO is still yelling at us for being nogoodniks, laying off people left and right, and outsourcing research and development. He's kvetching and moaning that we're losing money, while the independent industry press is praising us for strong growth during the recession.

Re:Corel

synnergizing our product lines...escalating the sales curves...intrinsic management pressures...

Thanks for the laugh, I needed one about right now.

Re:Caldera?

Xandros [xandros.com] is derived from Corel Linux.

Re:I won't miss them...

WP for Windows - a disaster from the first release; I went through 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, and 7.0

I have also used WP since the DOS days. I actually hated WP 5.1 for DOS because of the crappy interface... but tech support, printer support, and features were great. I have since gone through the many WP for Windows versions with varying degrees of likes/dislikes.

WP for Windows 9 (with the latest service packs applied) running on Win2K is quite stable and I am very pleased with it for what I use it for... WP 10 on WinXp pro is also quite good. I havent tried WP 11 though. However, if truth be told, it's lack of success has nothing to do with its feature comparison with MS Word. I much prefer the feature set in WP compared to Word.

Re:I won't miss them..Niether will MIcroshaft.

If I remember correctly MS did not exactly help things by creating Word .doc as a numericaly formatted script even now there is formatting that cannot be used with any other program except word even though they have been told to cut it out by the courts. I can remember when major corporations like Canfor used Dos Word Perfect and found it to be great because of speed, flexability and ease of use. For that matter it was pretty much the standard in business word processing. What happened is that the company that controls OS developement can screw any software company it chooses to put out of business so it can dominate the market. No Corel could not succeed because they couldn't sue MS for stealing ideas. Symantec was a different story. If you control the code that must be used to access internet functionality, system calls to printer, etc and control who gets to use browser interfaces then you can screw any company you see as a major competitive treat. No I will miss Corel even though they got things wrong.

The truth is if you are seen to be a competitor to MS then you are on the hit list, unfortunately Corel went right to the top, along with AOL, and Netscape, who's next Adobe? No if some one takes over Word Perfect and makes a really great all in one Unix/Apple/Linux/FreeBSD version I will gladly pay for it, and I am sure there are many others who will also. There is no reason why WordPerfect, Corel Draw etc. cannot remain proprietary, but they had better be good.

You forgot WP for real computers

There was also Word Perferct for Unix and VMS.
And it was the better solution for host-terminal
systems.

Unfortunately their open offerring of WP 8 for Linux
didn't included non-GUI version, but I was quite
impressed with performance of GUI version.

It works on 20Mb 486 for few users simultaneously,
i.e. it ate no more resources then wordprocessing
deserve.

Unfortuately, it didn't support Russian locale,
although WP 5.1 for DOS have very descent Russian
localisation.

Also, Quattro Pro 5.0 was best spreadsheet ever
released.