It looks a lot like Office 2003 (if it were run on Linux). I bought it but rarely use it since I just haven’t hit the “track changes” wall very often.

30 day free trial, and the price is very reasonable (less than $100, though I downloaded the trial version and two weeks later got a lowball email offer in the $39 range).

As for modern word processors, I’ve come to the conclusion they’re more layout software than text editor – and that a lot of writers aren’t particularly well served by their paper metaphor and bloated feature set.

And while I don’t know if Wordstar was truly the last writer’s word processor, I do know that WordPerfect’s “Reveal Codes” brilliance has been stricken from modern word processors, and it’s a damned shame.

I delve into my thinking around the modern online copywriter’s text editor – and how we’re simply not getting what we need from the tools available to us.

Give that post a read; I’d love to hear your comments about my (perhaps surprising) conclusions.

One more thing; I believe there are Wordstar modes or keybindings available for some of the bigger editors (VIM or emacs). Obviously not a fit for MS Word compatibility, but for online stuff (where all the damned formatting codes are a pain anyway), one of those might be worth a look.

In any case, I agree with you; Linux just gets the heck out of the way, essentially saying just that in my latest post.

Thanks for commenting.

I have not found an acceptable Linux alternative to MS Word for my client work. Thus, I’m forced to use Word to edit all complex Word docs, and not only those that require tracking changes. (OpenOffice makes a complete mess of Word docs with complex formatting – and, yes, I’m using the latest version of OO.)

That said, I do love Linux. It feels so light and fast. I’m much more focused when I work in Linux – no need to respond to an ongoing series of nags from antivirus software, system updates that require logging in as admin and rebooting, etc., etc. I do use OO for everyday stuff, just not for anything where my living is at stake.

I’ve used PCs since 1982. I’m an old curmudgeon, and I KNOW that the last true word processor for end-users was WordStar. Every word-processing app since WordStar has taken us a step farther away from real word-crunching power. WordPerfect was fine, very powerful, but it just didn’t let a writer crunch words as effectively as WS did.

Lately, I’ve discovered that I can easily install, under Linux, both VDE (a WordStar clone) and WordPerfect 6.1 (downloadable for free on the Web, though I had the 3.5″ disks). It’s quite easy – you can find directions for installing WordPerfect in Linux on the WordPerfect for DOS website (http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/). Follow the directions, and you’ll have a copy of DOSEMU on your system that you can use to also install and run VDE.

Haven’t done much with them, and may never do so, as I’m busy with work that I can do in OpenOffice and Word. But it’s nice to have the option.

I will use this any time I need further proof to convince someone to give it a try.

Still, I’m running Ubuntu Linux exclusively these days – almost two years after the original post – so something’s working.

Just upgraded to 10.04, which is working nicely. My Ubuntu experience is clearly worth another post.

At some point, I do want to experiment with a couple other distros, but at this point, getting stuff done is paramount, and I feel that’s happening more quickly on Linux than it would in Windows.

I started using Linux after having “Blue screen of death” Issues with “Windows 95″. ALSO in the early days of the InterNet text based Unix was a requirement.

So I new Windows was NOT my only option, so I quit drinking their “Koolaid”.

I started with RedHat 5 ??? Then Mandrake (now Mandriva) and for the last few years OpenSuSE.
Currently using OpenSuSE 11.2, KDE desktop.

Both my Intel 64 laptops have removable/swappable hard drives. At work I’m required to use XP, for EVERYTHING else (OpenOffice, Gimp, Kaffeine, VLC, Digikam, Skype, Evolution, Amarok, K3b, etc, etc, etc.) I love Linux

Yes, I also have a drive just for Kubuntu, another for Debian and who knows what OS I’ll try out next.

Yes, live is full of and your computer you do have a choice.

Thanks,

Rr