Two ways to run the classic word processor on a modern open-source box
Just months after getting Lotus 1-2-3 for UNIX running on modern Linux, Tavis Ormandy – a white-hat hacker and member of Google’s Project Zero team – has conjured the same trick with classic text-mode WordPerfect 7.
Immaculately complementing his port of Lotus 1-2-3 to Linux, Ormandy has now released a Linux version of the classic 1990s word processor WordPerfect – specifically, WordPerfect version 7 for Unix.
He has even wrapped it up in a .DEB package for easy installation on Ubuntu and Debian-family distros – and since it has few external dependencies, and since it’s a safe bet that we won’t see any updates to this 1997 program, you can probably install it on other distros using the alien command.
This is the original text-mode version, and it runs in a terminal window, or even on the Linux console. If you are one of the many admirers that WordPerfect had in its early days, you should enjoy this. If you’re not, prepare for a surprise – but we have what may be good news, too.
