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Corel

1 Million Word Perfect/Linux Downloads 110

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we're-huge-now dept.
Armin writes "Corel says that as of Wednesday, a free version of its WordPerfect 8 for Linux software has surpassed the 1 million download mark, another harbinger of Linux's growing popularity. " Ya know, ever since I graduated, I haven't needed a word processor.. vim seems to be just fine. But apparently a million of ya disagree. Pretty excellent.
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1 Million Word Perfect/Linux Downloads More

1 Million Word Perfect/Linux Downloads

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  • Uhm, this isn't pretty good evidence of anything, except that up to 1 million people have expressed interest in WP for Linux.

    Evidence makes something obvious. That up to 1 million copies of WP for Linux were downloaded doesn't make anything obvious, nor does it prove anything.

    What this is: an interesting tidbit of information useful for speculating about a fairly large number of things.

  • I don't have a keyboard so type directly by manipulating the keyboard controller with a couple of pins and some number 8 fencing wire.
  • Posted by NJViking:

    Skip, I have an Epson Stylus Color 600 printer at home and ran into the same problem as you. You have to go to the Corel site and download the WP printer drivers for the Epson Stylus Color, unzip it and rename it and put it in /usr/local/wp8 (or whereever you installed WP)

    The only problem with WP8 is, the fonts frankly suck! I wish there could be proper TrueType and Type 1 fonts for it. Courier and times new roman are ugly.

    -= NJV =-
  • It would be interesting to know if they are counting attempted downloads, completed downloads, or registrations for keys. If they are doing either of the latter two as I'd suspect, then most of your assertations are false.

  • Admittedly I haven't felt the need to do this myself, but there are thousands of Postscript fonts out there.

    --McFly
  • I agree with Rob. I haven't used a word processor in a long time under Linux.

    Translation: I've never been on a project important enough to need a formal proposal, requirements analysis or a design document.

    Keep up the good work. I've made some good money cleaning up spaghetti code written by code-cowboys who couldn't be bothered with sissified fancy-pants hoohah like documentation.

  • I'm not sure what you mean. You can do visual mode and select a bunch of stuff and then do

    :s/^/\t/g

    And if you want you could add something like

    vmap :s/^/\t/g to your .vimrc
  • Posted by NJViking:

    Hmm.. not sure if you can do it with vi, maybe with emacs.. though I have not ventured to use emacs as of yet.

    -= NJV =-
    "Cattle die and kinsmen die,
    thyself too soon must die,
    but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
    fair fame of one who has earned." - Havamal
  • Don't forget that OS' like FreeBSD can run (most) Linux binaries. In fact, my mom uses WordPerfect for Linux (full version) at home on a FreeBSD machine. It's unfortunate that there's no way to track things like that.
  • As a technical writer, with a serious background in programming, it is my opinion that the best tools, are those that best facilitate you doing your job. For most writers, the best tool, is Xywrite. It's fast, it does more of the things that writers want from a wordprocessor, it's files are ascii for easy transport, and, most important, it's interface stays out of your way and is customizable in any way you want.

    Also, this works on a 8086 machine! You don't need 20MB of ram just to write a letter, ala M$ products.

    To each his own!

    FWIW


    Russ
  • There are loads of ways to achieve this. Try going to the top of the block of lines you wish to indent and typing:
    :s/^/\t/10
    or hit v, move the cursor to select the lines to indent and hit either:
    >
    or type:
    :s/^/\t/
    Also try:
    10>>
    when the cursor is at the top of the block.
  • Okay, so it's not as polished as I'd like, but I use WP8 for Linux every day and find it pleasant to use.

    It's not who you are it's what you do with IT.
  • I had this problem (also with Netscape Communicator). There may be some other libraries it can't find as well. Install xpm from the oldlibs directory from the CD. That should take care of that file. Any other files missing should be dealt with in the same manner.
  • Strange coincidence this came out today, as I just downloaded and registered WP8 for Linux today...

    This is pretty good evidence that the 7 million plus figures for Linux users may even be conservative. I bet a lot less than 1 out of every 7 Linux users has downloaded WP8.

  • Re:But how many run it under Linux? (Score:3)

    by Locutus ( 9039 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @10:50AM (#1885448)
    I think it is a accounting thing since the whole issue is being used to show Linux's usage numbers. Since 1991, Microsoft counted copies of OS/2 shipments in its number of copies of Windows 3.x units shipped. How could one show OS/2 gaining ground when Microsoft could show there was ALWAYS more Windows versions being sold and the gap never changed. The desire to get these numbers right makes for a more informed descission. Because of who the competition is I think using the numbers as they were used is a good thing. Today. I don't want Linux being another Windows. Choice and interoperability is what we should be after. The right tool for the right job and not one tool for every job (or change the job). IMHO
  • because it's linux software

  • A few tips (re: an opposing v[iew, I guess]) (Score:4)

    by Neph ( 5010 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @08:43AM (#1885450) Homepage
    The fonts are unreadable. Totally.
    Well... I agree the ones they give away for free are next to useless, but that's just a hook to get you to buy the CD. Sucks, but hey, they are a for-profit company.

    No driver for my Canon BJC 4000 [...] if it would print using the print system I ALREADY HAVE!
    You can get it to print vanilla postscript by using the Apple LaserWriter driver. That's what we did at my office because the HP LaserJet 5M driver was icky...

    Word import sucks. It mangles anything more complex than simple paragraphs, and the fonts all go to hell.
    Well, yeah, that's because you only have a dozen fonts or so. See the first point.

    The interface was clearly designed by aliens. It's even more counterintuitive than Word for christ's sake.
    Really? I didn't think it was that bad. Matter of opinion I suppose.

    Given that I have a 32M machine at home, this thing blows StarOffice right out of the water. I won't be buying the CD, as I really have almost no need for a WP anyways (LaTeX will do fine in a pinch), but WP seems very nice to me. Mind you, I haven't tried Applix.

    And all of this may become academic when KOffice matures. I've used some of the prereleases. They're crashy (as of 2 months ago, anyways) but they look mighty fine... KOffice, along with Mozilla, is the app I'm most looking forward to maturing. I think it'll do a lot for Open Source software.

    Steve 'Nephtes' Freeland | Okay, so maybe I'm a tiny itty

  • Re:Congratulations and All That, but... (Score:4)

    by ZorinLynxie ( 32798 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @07:35AM (#1885451) Homepage
    Use ghostscript to translate the postscript into what your printer uses.

    That's the nice thing about Ghostscript. You only configure it once, and that's it. Then you just have to tell UNIX apps to send postscript to that printer and things'll print out purrfectly every time. }:)

  • Yeah, I'm actually using WP mostly for its spreadsheet capabilties - less bloated and more stable than StarOffice's spreadsheet. (Your mileage may vary.)

    I also use it when folks send me M$ Word docs, and to neaten up the hard copy version of my resume (the definitive version is the HTML one on my web site, but a few minutes of importing and formatting with WP gives a nicer look than just printing from Netscape).

    For most everything else, I use lyx or straight LaTeX.

  • A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a guy in some backwater town nobody ever heard of in Utah, concieved of a word procesing system that would get the heck out of your way and let you edit your text without any fancy crap eating up screen realestate. And back then it was 80x25, folks.

    And lo, as the years passed, he did improve it, and it was possible to mark text and copy it to another document with a half a dozen keystrokes.

    And yay, it was possible to do anything you wanted without stopping what you were doing, as long as you were willing to memorize a few arcane combinations. And there were grandmasters who coded macros, and could do several things with the slightest wiggle of a finger.

    And tho the program was fruitful and the people were able to create a great many clean documents with it, the people did bitch, and say that queer key combinations confounded their minds, and that it was far too hard to get ahold of a replacement template, and that the help system was "silly".

    And the GUI and the Mouse did come to befriend the most Perfect of stream editors, and the people were happy.

    But behold, the mouse had fleas, and was suspected of having parasites. And indeed, the situation was quite buggy, and an editor both small and without strength did make strides ahead of it.

    And then there came Novell, who did confound the minds of it's users. And later came Corel, who had seen the competition, and decided to become like it. And they did do away with keystrokes, and it became impossible to do anything without holding a rodent in your hand.

    And the features did creep, and the menus did grow like a fungus in a well dampened area, and the Readers Digest police set up shop, and it became impossible to type "GLibC" without having it replaced with "Glib", and there were marks of many colors underlining the words of many, mocking them, and making several ill suggestions.

    And lo, it was beheld that it was a uniquely inept way of creating a document. And indeed did few buy it. And lo, Corel was frightened, and did finally start giving it away, so that someone, anyone would use it.

    And indeed, did it suck.

    - Eric
  • Well, I registered both WordPerfect and StarOffice (including SO 5.1 this morning). I have both on my computer. Registration is painless and, I think, fair (they spent real money on the product, after all).

    I do not see, however, a clear winner between SO and WP. Ugliness of WP is of lesser importance to me; speed does matter. I have some MIME types configured in Netscape to start WP - try this with StarOffice! However, when started, WP does quite a few things badly and slowly; it still can't print in color for me.

    For industrial use WP is OK (if you, for example, fill forms all the day). I'd be reluctant to use WP for more intricate work, such as preparing documents for the Big Boss. People like students (who do not need embedded VB stuff to run an SQL query on every keystroke) can and should use WP. It is definitely a word processor that everyone can use (LyX sometimes generates illegal LaTeX code and asks to fix it!)

  • LaTex is really the easiest word processing I've ever done. It's incredibly simple! You just grab a style file or someone else's sample document (there are some in the distributions or on CTAN), and fill the blanks with a text editor.
    Then type: latex file; dvips file; ghostview file.ps;

    You don't have to worry about formatting EVER. Content! Not Form!

  • Posted by NJViking:

    One problem with using PostScript printer. You only get like 7 fonts. I've tried this approach and I get more fonts with the WP8 printer driver for it. Unless there's a way to get a ton of fonts for WP8, I don't see a better way.

    -= NJV =-
  • As I said before, when I need to type something that looks nice, I have vim, netscape and a printer. HTML formats documents nicely (fonts, colors, etc.), which I can write in vim, view it in Netscape, and print it.

    Slashdot doesn't use plain ASCII text in its banner ads because those are called graphics, son. You don't make graphics in a word processor, you make them in Gimp and such, so this has no relevance to using a word processor vs. a text editor.
  • Ack.Ack.Plbbth. [Takes nasty taste from mouth.]

    Just do the visual select. Then press >. Works in vim and elvis at the least.

    dar

  • Unsolicited Word Perfect Opinion (Score:5)

    by DonkPunch ( 30957 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @08:09AM (#1885463) Homepage Journal
    If you've already formed an opinion about Word Perfect on Linux, ignore this. If you're curious about one Joe User's experience, here it is.

    I've used both ApplixWare and StarOffice. 99% of my need for an office productivity suite is the word processor. Accurate importing of MS Word docs is nice because it saves me having to use my spouse's PC.

    ApplixWare and StarOffice both have fine word processors which meet most of my needs. For me, though, ApplixWord seems to have a few bugs in the MS Word import. StarOffice works a little better, but it's just too much. IMHO, StarOffice comes close to being an operating system all by itself. This is totally subjective, but I'm not looking for an office suite on Linux that makes it feel like I'm using Windows (a "start" button?).

    I downloaded Corel's Word Perfect for Linux and found that it's a perfect fit. It's very intuitive. It has everything I want in a word processor with minimal feature bloat (no talking paperclip). So far, it has done a good job of reading/writing MS-format documents.

    For me, at least, Corel's free WP trial has worked perfectly. I'm ordering the CD.

    BTW -- I like vim too for code/HTML/text editing. It's just that WYSIWYG is easier when I'm creating invoices, proposals, and other "business" documents. Maybe someday I'll be able to pay someone to do that stuff for me. :)
  • Read the article it says WordPerfec/Linux downloads. As you download binaries and not source code it's safe to assume that (most) of these would be used on Linux systems.

    The windows versions downloaded will be counted separately.
    --

  • I do all my manipulation through PBM and a HEX
    editor on the .ppm files. I just edit, then view
    it, then edit, then review it, and keep doing it
    until I get it looking write.


    And did I mention that I'm a moron who thinks he's cool because he can do this and wastes his time doing it, and thumbs his nose at the "little people" who use GUI tools?

    I mean, if you're going to go the text editor route, atleast use TeX/LaTeX, not HTML/Netscape-print. (if you're doing it for print publishing)


  • Re:"fancy" writing (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The Red Pen said:

    Translation: I've never been on a project important enough to need a formal proposal, requirements analysis or a design document.

    I'm on two such projects now and I don't use a word processor. I use LaTeX and xfig. I can edit my docs on a character terminal if necessary and their source code is human-readable.

    I can concentrate on the content of my documents, and play with the look after they've been written. My documents all have a consistent look, and I'm very productive.

    IMO, word-processors and other "productivity tools" are the software tools which waste the most time. (Even more than games!)

  • Rumors... (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 20, 1999 @08:09AM (#1885467)
    Does anyone have the scoop on when Corel is planning to release a *modern* version of its Office Suite for Linux?

    Word is that Corel's new distribution will use Debian and Qt - strange mix, but a good one. I would be willing to pay money for a Qt version of Word Perfect or even a text mode version for Linux like the trusty old WP 5.1 for DOS. (I still have the DOS floppies and may reinstall it after 5 years and run it under DosEmu.) *Anything* but this horrible motif port of its Windows product which is butt-ugly, slow, buggy and awkward to use.

    The fact that over 1 million people have downloaded this dog of a product shows how desperate Linux users are for desktop apps. Desperate people will try anything ...

    Corel has a reputation for porting products to other platforms and then "going back to its roots" and leaving its users flapping in the wind. Remember the ports of Word Perfect to Amiga and OS2? Users begged and pleaded for Corel to keep supporting and upgrading Word Perfect on these platforms but were ignored - even at a time when relative to the total number of personal computers in the world Amiga and Os2 had a larger market share than Linux does today.

    Corel - put up or shut up. Where are the screenshots of your new desktop? Is there a home page with information about release dates or features? I understand that a development team in Ireland is working on this project. This is encouraging because the team is removed from the main office and may have some chance of doing it right for a change, without the intervention of pointy-haired managers who, in the name of short-term cost-cutting, almost cost Word Perfect the whole show a few years ago.

    I am willing to give Corel another chance after having been betrayed 3 times on 3 different platforms. But, Corel, your washed-out port of Word Perfect for Windows to unix is not the way to build a loyal user base on the Linux platform.

    former DOS, Amiga and OS2 Word Perfect user
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • How many REGISTERED? (Score:4)

    by Gary Franczyk ( 7387 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @08:37AM (#1885470)
    Well... who cares how many people attempted to download it? For all we know, it was just a couple of guys with a fast line and amazingly bad luck trying to download it and failing every time...

    The real question is how many people acutally registered the thing so that they could use it legally? I know they have the numbers to this, but Im sure it would be somewhat embarassing compared to the "1 million" that tried to download it.
  • I know this is not the best place to ask, but has anyone else had any problems installing WordPerfect with Debian 2.1?
    It complains that it can't find libXpm.so.4, but it's right there in /usr/X11R6/lib, and ld.so.conf has that line in it.
    Is this a libc5 issue, and how should I fix it?
  • Can anyone tell me how to configure WP for a simple Epson Stylus consumer-grade printer? The printer configuration tool that comes with WP only seems to deal with high-end PostScript printers.

    cheerz!
  • I think it would be interesting to see how many people use it on non-Linux systems.

  • It's the ever-lovable gnulix guy with another original gnulix guy original post -- soon to be down-graded by a moderator near you!

    The gnulix guy is no stranger to vi and mark-up languages but there are certainly times when a GUI word processor is nice to have. In just a few minutes you can produce something fairly attractive without a lot of effort. It may not be typeset-ready but 99% of the time you don't care about this sort of thing.

    I've tried Word Perfect 8.0 for Linux and I generally like it, but it is fairly weak compared to the Windows-version. However, feature-for-feature I think the Linux version is very close to the mark, but the free version is sadly lacking in font support. It also doesn't import as many document types as does the Windows version. I suppose Corel would like to earn some revenue for the product so apparently the pay-for version has improved fonts and feature set. That all being said, the gnulix guy feels that WP 8.0 is a fairly lightweight GUI WP (as lightweight as a GUI WP can come, that is) for a lower-powered less-memory system. In fact, the Linux version seems to manipulate text blocks faster than the Windows version! (Unfortunately, keystroke for keystroke the Linux version seems to lag).

    Star Office is nice, it provides just about any feature the gnulix guy could need. It does a pretty good job at document importation but of course its limitations at doing so have been pointed out many times on Slashdot comment forums. One of its problems, however, is that it is a memory pig and I can't stand using it unless I'm using the very latest modern pee cee with a fast CPU and lots of RAM.

    On a final note, if work on the KDE office suite continues to progress nicely, I may end up switching.

  • Re:Rumors... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think AC needs a history lesson:

    >I would be willing to pay money for a Qt version of Word Perfect or even a text mode version for Linux like the trusty old WP 5.1 for DOS.

    There is a text-mode version of WordPerfect for Linux. Look under the $install.direrctory/wpbin directory for the executable called wp. It the command-line version. It's quite good if you're a fan of WP 5.1.

    >Corel has a reputation for porting products to other platforms and then "going back to its roots" and leaving its users flapping in the wind. Remember the ports of Word Perfect to Amiga and OS2

    That was BEFORE Corel took over WordPerfect. Hell, that was before Novell took over WordPerfect. If anything, you should be mad at the dolts from OREM, Utah, since they ignored your pleas. Can you blame them? The Amiga had barely over 1M users at the time WP 4.1 for the Amiga was released. OS/2? You could just run WP for Windows in OS/2. Blame IBM, not Corel.

    >Corel, your washed-out port of Word Perfect for Windows to unix is not the way to build a loyal user base on the Linux platform.

    Originally, WP for Unix was sub-contracted out to another company (SDC?), not Corel. Blame them for the clunky interface, not Corel.

  • What do you mean? HTML is dead easy... and I don't think he was thumbing his nose... just agreeing with Rob.

    I agree that GUI WYSIWYG editors are a Good Thing but so is knowing how to write HTML, PostScript, TeX, etc. by hand... WYSIWYG editors can be too limiting for some people.

    Are you suggesting that no one learn C or assembly because we have so many higher level languages?

  • I do all my manipulation through PBM and a HEX editor on the .ppm files.

    No no no! Didn't you listen to the man?
    You should use the XPM graphics format and edit the files with vim!

  • Downloading a freebie does not constitute 'desperation'.
  • Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:

    Actually, I just recently used Emacs and Notepad to write my resume directly in PostScript. Really.

    It's actually pretty neat because you can specify EXACTLY what you want. How come no one has created a WYSIWYG PS editor?
  • now I'm going to write a letter to Electronic Arts asking why they discontinued Commodore 64 support. I mean come on
  • One thing that ALOT of linux users don't know, including myself at one time, was that you can use True Type Fonts in X, and in any X app.

    Get Xfstt(X Font Server for TTF's) from sunsite(yes, I still call it sunsite, die metalab ^_^ ). It installs flawlessly and I use all 172 of my true type fonts in X

    EVERYTHING looks better, not just WP. Netscape, GIMP, etc. use them fine too.

  • Re:How many REGISTERED? (Score:3)

    by Mudhiker ( 15850 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @09:26AM (#1885487)
    Well, I'm one who has screwed it up either way you count it. I've started downloads five or six times, and actually installed it and registered four. Part of this is because I was messing around with a zipslack install on windows, learning how to use Linux. After doing that several times and figuring out how to do quite a lot of stuff, I felt brave enough to do the dual partition thing, with a format. (My only safety besides a buncha floppies is a Compaq win95 quickrestore disk!) Well, I'm back to my 'ol Wordperfect 7 on windows, partly because I couldn't stand the motif widgets, and also because I have a wonderful cheap little okidata laser printer that is unfortunately a winprinter. So, I've technically downloaded and registered at least thrice, (I kept misplacing my reg. number,) but not using it at all. It gave me some unpleasant program crashes too. Not the best piece of Linux software out there. I'm looking at and appreciating Abiword.

  • Text editors (vi*) aren't word processors! (Score:4)

    by lightning ( 8428 ) on Thursday May 20, 1999 @10:14AM (#1885489)
    Arrgh! Will you guys (Rob ESPECIALLY ... you've said this same thing twice in two days) get a clue?

    Word processors do fonts, layers, colors, pasteup, image layout, flow text around graphics and along curving lines, and other sorts of things you might like to have if you're doing something like wedding or graduation invitations, newsletters, flyers, advertising, etc., etc.

    Would you really prefer a plain A9 typewritten notice over a beautiful invitation, or an eye-catching advertisement or resume? I notice Slashdot doesn't use plain ASCII text in its banner ads... I wonder why?

    Plain ASCII text is perfect for certain things (programming, email, etc), but when you need a hard copy of something, you very rarely mean "type this up and print it out so it looks like it came from a dot-matrix printer."

  • Sure, so it doesn't quite involve only a text editor, but every single report I ever had to hand in during my time at uni. was typed using vi, with LaTeX markup. Strangely, Word-using lusers often commented how much better my reports looked too =).

    And yes, I used graphs, diagrams and bitmaps in my documents as well (using Gnuplot, Xfig and XV respectively... =)

    If vi and the command-line oriented LaTeX are too much then I'd recommend a peek at Lyx, though...
  • Sorry but that had to be said. Todays word processors keep trying to be full blown publishers and 90% of the users don't need that stuff. I remember that days when word processors did things like spelling and grammer checking and basic layout stuff for sending letters. I would use Ventura Publisher to take that text for font, layout and the likes if I wanted brochures and polished documents. The word processors were fast and the publisher full capable. Today you have slow word processors that 90% of the users only use 10% of the features and publisher packages are harder to find and more expensive because people try to make word processors do thing they just weren't supposed to do.
  • I've always been a wordperfect fan, and it's nice to get back to it, although the fonts are really killing me. I think I'll wait for the suite to come out before I consider a purchase, though.
    More to the point, I highly reccommend that y'all check out the latest KOffice. Yeah, it can be a bitch to get Qt2 and compile everything, but DAMN! That baby (especially KWord) is really coming along.
    --JZ

  • It really is a pity that people are going to get an impression of Linux apps from this crash happy POS.

    Not to mention the "World's Worst Install Script" it comes with.

    Use LyX, use AbiWord, ignore this closed source bloat monster.

  • I bet you also make your graphics in a hex editor. Who needs the GIMP when you can just hex edit?

  • WordPerfect is More Than a Wordprocessor (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 20, 1999 @08:30AM (#1885497)
    Actually WordPerfect/Linux is more like a mini Office Suite, it comes with all the spreadsheet functions that I will ever need to use (for example, calculating mortgages, etc.) I am also using it as my little database program (for sorting tables, addresses). The search capability of the Linux version is actually much better than the Windows version. Its macro capability is not nearly as good as the Windows version, but, to me, is more than adequate. Also do forget its high-octane equation and graphic capabilities.

    The main problem is, very few Linux users know about these scrects, or know how to take advantage of them. A WordPerfect/Linux book (WP/Linux Bible) by one of the best writers in the Windows world will come out in July. I strongly recommend that you should at least just browse it and see the powerful functions that it provides. It's more than just a wordprocessor.

    I have been using WordPerfect/Linux for several months now. I am very glad to have it as a showcase for Linux. It sends a very strong message that a native Linux program, when ported properly, can be so much faster (on the same machine)and customizable/flexible than its Windows counterpart. But more importantly, it gives you a feeling that Linux is no doubt that its is a much more solid OS than that MicroJunk.
  • I spent 3 years working on a B3-targeted operating system base, a project that required a stack of documentation that I think ended up being taller than I am. We used LaTeX, xfig, and xidraw.

    For serious documents, markup languages are the way to go.

  • Well I edit the inodes on the hard disk by hand with magnets, so there :P
  • Evidence makes something obvious.

    I don't know where your definition of evidence comes in, but it doesn't fit with common usage. It also doesn't take into consideration such concepts as anecdotal evidence. It also doesn't seem to fit with what the courts allow as admissable evidence these days (which often looks a lot more like conjecture than hard evidence).

  • I think this shows how the linux industry is growing strong and will continue to own.
  • It seems to be impossible to less than signs to come out so read &lt as the less than sign:

    Not marking, but you can type 10&lt&lt to undent the next ten lines, or 10>> to outdent them one level.

    You can also position yourself on a brace (for C/C++ code) and type &lt% or >% to indent or outdent the block marked by the braces.

  • Re:Rumors... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Corel has never abandoned any of the platforms it supported. They took over WP in 1996. It was supported on Windows / DOS / MAC / UNIX then, and it is still available for all these platforms today.

  • vim (Score:2)

    by j c s ( 49663 )
    I agree with Rob. I haven't used a word processor in a long time under Linux. If I need to write something fancy, I've got vim (to write html), netscape, and a printer.
  • Every time I download it it's corrupted in the same place. The one time I did get it right the install script fsck'ing sucks. I ran it the first time and it said "You've already installed Word Perfect, thank you drive thru" or something to that effect. Geez
    Did they actually try to install it?
  • > So it wasn't a 'dark conspiracy' from evile
    > (hiss hiss... much thrashing around in fury)
    > Microsoft to count Windows 3.1 usage that way.

    No kidding but accounting is accounting and if OSS needs to show high numbers do it any way you can. Licensed code or compatibility should be counted too becase you have to know that the competition will do that and more.

    FYI, Go Inc had a pen-based OS in late 1980s and Microsoft targeted them. The build a mockup of Pen for Windows and invited all its Windows developers AND Go Inc's development partners. Microsoft handed out demo dev kits to everyone at the door. Shortly after at a major trade show Microsoft held up a huge display showing all the companies developing for Pen for Windows and that list showed ALL people who were given demo/dev kits. What would you think? Evil? No. Ruthless and deceptive? YES.

  • Re:It's not Free Software. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I kinda thought that Slashdot was news for nerds, not news for nerds about free, open-source software....
  • Posted by oNZeNeMo (guns'n ammo):

    vi is the ultimate configuration file editing program. There will be no better program for editing those nasty /etc files and dotfiles. I have never been an emacs fan, but I understand some may prefer it to vi for editing code. It's always important to remember that vi is a text editor and nothing more. I don't feel the need to restate what a text editor is, but it can be a powerful tool in the hands of a skilled operator. I use it to write rough drafts in plaintext. Then, I use a fancy word processor to do some formatting and print. I don't own a printer, but I never felt the need to.

  • Wrong! (Score:1)

    by wct ( 45593 )
    The Amiga port of WordPerfect was not done by Corel at all, but by the original WordPerfect Corp, that was subsequently bought out by Novell, *then* Corel. You can hardly blame Corel for abandoning the platform at that point.

  • You can use any latex in lyx. I have it draw the lines for my letterhead, and it does just fine at importing graphics.

    The only limitiation I've found with lyx is that it inherits latex' limitations on wrapping text around figures--it can be done, some of the time, but is awkward and hard to use (mostly guessing where things land, and making sure they're not near boundaries, defeating much of the point of latex).

  • LyX is an almost WYSIWYG (actually it's WYSIWYM: What You See Is What You Mean) Latex editor which can output PostScript...

  • Hmm. I find the fonts no worse than those used in Win95 software. (It helps to set your zoom to 150% or so.)

    Personally, if I'm creating large docs, I create the text with emacs (with an easy to read and edit monospaced font (I like -b&h-lucidatypewriter-bold-r-normal-sans-14-140-*) in pleasant colors (midnightblue on antiquewhite), then import it into whatever word proc I'm being forced to use for formatting. Much easier on the eyes, IMHO.

    'Course, I grew up reading monochrome amber, green, or blue screens, so my tastes my be skewed. (We have a green screen Wyse 50 hooked up to a telephone switch at work...makes me nostalgic.)

  • I do a lot of my tape labels in PostScript, as well as the occasional mailing label, and a neato script to generate X numbers of PS output.

    I generally use vi or echo though.

    George
  • As long as FreeBSD can run such binaries with no real burden on the part of the end user or developer, what would the point be?

    It's not quite like buying a copy of Quake2 for Win32 and then going and downloading the Linux game client or buying a box that has various binary versions inside.
  • Well, for what it's worth, here's what I do:

    Go to the first line that you want to indent and mark it (say, as A) with "M A".

    Then go to the last line that you want to indent and do a "> ' A". (That's an apostrophe.)

    There you are.
  • There are PLENTY of PostScript WYSIWYG editors for the Mac. (any text editor can do this) Hit command-p to printand choose file instead of printer and voilá! Instant PS doc.
  • Personally, I don't use word processors much either, but I had to find one for my g/f to do resumes/job applications on. So having tried all the word processors for Linux, we've settled on StarOffice.

    I have to say that of everything I tried, WP8 was the worst. Some flaws:

    • The fonts are unreadable. Totally.
    • No driver for my Canon BJC 4000. Not an exotic uncommon printer, I'd say. Not to mention the fact that I wouldn't even need a damn driver if it would print using the print system I ALREADY HAVE!
    • Word import sucks. It mangles anything more complex than simple paragraphs, and the fonts all go to hell.
    • The interface was clearly designed by aliens. It's even more counterintuitive than Word for christ's sake. I'm not looking for a word processor that challenges my perceptions about reality, thanks.
    For a while, she was actually using VMWare to boot Win95 and use Word, because there just wasn't a useful word processor out there for Linux. Now I set her up with StarOffice, which, while I agree wholeheartedly with those who want it not to be it's own damn OS, is a pretty good word processor. It's bloated, but I'm running a dual PPro with 128M RAM, so that's not too much of a problem. Otherwise, it imports well, and has what she needs. But why, oh why, is there no way to just run the word processing part of it?

    I wonder how many of the people who complain about StarOffice being too bloated prefer to run emacs? Heh.
    ----------------------

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