[luau] WordPerfect for Linux

[Warren Togami]

I take offense to your message and I could have rejected it because you 
aren't subscribed to the mailing list, but you are entitled to your own 
opinion and I respect that.

I will not retract my statement that WP for Linux is a "dead-end" 
product for several reasons.

1. Corel no longer has downloads of WP8 available, making it virtually 
impossible for marketshare to increase.
2. They no longer sell the WordPerfect 9 for Linux suite.
3. It is a bad idea for me to buy any leftover WordPerfect 9 Office for 
Linux boxed sets left in retail because:
   a. That money would never reach Corel.
   b. I will likely NEVER get support for problems associated with it.
   c. While it may work with many existing printers, no new printers 
will work with it due to this lack of support.

I am NOT saying that WP for Linux has/is not the most mature Office 
suite for Linux.  It probably is.  I am discouraged about when I was 
looking to download/buy it last month in order to support YOUR law 
office deployment of Linux/WP, I was dismayed to see that it is no 
longer supported.

I want you to prove me wrong, but I personally don't see a realistic 
market opportunity for WP to make a profitable comeback on Linux within 
the near future.

I'm sorry.

But I will tell you what I WILL do:
1. I will offer my support in technical problems that you may run in 
deployment of WP in Linux law offices.
2. Lack of a native WP print driver can probably be easily worked around 
if needed.  It could probably be passed through the local print system 
and use the much newer Linux LPR or CUPS print drivers instead.
3. If you can get me a copy of the free WP8 download edition, I am 
willing to use it myself.  Is it legal to redistribute?
4. Help you convince a Wine company to make WP for Windows work, or 
perhaps license an official Linux version via WineLIB.  This is the only 
chance for WP to have an ensured on Linux, but it would take money.

While I don't see Corel making an any investment in Linux software in 
the near future, I DO see a possible future for WordPerfect running in 
Wine.  Perhaps Wine (WineX, ReWind, CrossOver, or CodeWeavers Wine) can 
be made good enough to make the latest Corel Office for Windows a viable 
product on Linux.  This may take a one time investment on our part in a 
coding contract with CodeWeavers or Transgaming (either will take 
general contracts) to make it possible.

CodeWeavers has the experience of making Wine work (for the most part) 
for Microsoft Office, while Transgaming's team is essentially many of 
the same people that did the Corel Office port to Linux, so they may be 
very familiar with WP.  CEO of Transgaming Gabriel State is the same guy 
that led the Corel WineLIB porting, and when I spoke with him a few 
month ago he said that his company would also take general Wine contracts.

Perhaps one of those Wine companies can get a porting license in order 
to make the latest version of Corel Office for Linux, in a similar 
fashion that Transgaming licensed The Sims and made a native Linux port 
via WineLIB.  Why don't we ask about that possibility too?  I'd 
definitely buy that product if it were reasonably fast and stable.

W. Wayne Liauh wrote:
> Warren-
> 
> Since you really have not used WordPerfect 8 for Linux long enough to 
> make educated comment, I would appreciate that you not publicly discuss 
> it, at least until you have a chance to let me show you why it is still 
> superior to anything else, including many Windows-based wordprocessors.
> 
> A "dead-end" product doesn't necessarily mean that it is less 
> functional.  Many WordPerfect/Windows users still use version 8.  A 
> newer version does not mean that it is better.
> 
> But, anyway, there is an effort going to garnish enough WP8/Linux users 
> so that we can force Corel to at least re-compile it against the new 
> kernel and new XFree.  Your uneducated comments are undermining our 
> efforts.
> 
> Best,
> 
> 
> W. Wayne Liauh, Ph.D., J.D. Attorney and Counselor at Law
> 
>