Using WordPerfect on Linux

WordPerfect on Linux in 2024

Revision 6.1

October 2024

Purposes

This site provides information designed to assist an owner of a legitimate copy of a version of WordPerfect, who desires to use it on a current Linux distro, in doing so.

It is hoped that, when installed in the manner recommended, WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux will work in almost all respects in the way that it was designed to, and will provide an effective tool for writing, editing and printing.

The site was reconstructed in July 2019, when a method of installing WordPerfect on 64-bit debian-based distros was discovered, and a wrapper, enabling the restoration of the broken WP Print Manager was created.

It was again reconstructed in June 2020, when the wrapper for the WP Print Manager was further refined, and a script, designed to simplify the installation of WordPerfect 8.1, was provided.

The site was further enhanced in March 2021, with a view to reviving the utility of WordPerfect 8.0. A fully featured version of WordPerfect 8 PE was included with the "WordPerfect for Linux Bible" volume, by Harris and Zijleman. The CD which came with the book contained the full version of WordPerfect 8.0, known as WordPerfect 8.0 PE (Personal Edition), as well as supplemental Type1 fonts and a registration key. With the installation of the WordPerfect 8 DE (Download Edition), as released with Caldera OpenLinux 2, along with the additional fonts from the Harris CD, owners of the WordPerfect for Linux Bible are now enabled to use their paid-for software on current Linux distributions.

The installation script, as revised in March 2021, also enables WordPerfect 8.0 and 8.1 to co-exist better in the same system, and in such a situation enables WordPerfect 8.0 to use the additional Type1 fonts installed with WordPerfect 8.1.

The installation scripts, and these webpages, have been updated in October 2024 to take account of developments since 2021. In particular, of changes made in recent releases of relevant distros, such as a trend towards the use of "/lib" as symbolic link to "/usr/lib".

Words such as "current" should be understood as referring to October 2024 and subsequently.

Content

This site consists of eleven pages, arranged as follows.

- This home or index page.

- Pages on installing or tweaking WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux on current distros: a page on general considerations; a page on installation by script; a page on manual installation; and a page on tweaks.

These pages deal respectively

- with general issues relating to installing WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux;

- with installing it by one of the scripts provided on this site on a current debian-based distro, or on a current version of Fedora, Mageia, OpenSuse or Slackware;

- with installing it by a manual method on distros for which the new scripts are not available; and

- with some possible tweaks after installation.

- A page on WordPerfect 8.0 for Linux.

- Pages on other versions of WordPerfect for Linux, and on emulations.

These pages deal respectively

- with versions 6, 7, 8.2 and 9 of WordPerfect for Linux; and

- with using on Linux other versions of WordPerfect, such as WordPerfect for Windows via Crossover.

- A page providing a tutorial on the WordPerfect for Linux Print Manager.

- Older pages, on manual installation on rpm distros and on Libranet, which serve to illustrate the historical development.

Development

As compared with the pre-July 2019 version of this site, there are five important advances:

(1) A way has been found of reviving the WP Print Manager, so as to enable one to add and configure WP printer drivers. This element has been further refined in June 2020.

(2) A way has been found to install WordPerfect directly on 64-bit debian-based distros.

(3) A streamlined procedure has been found to install WordPerfect on both debian-based or rpm-based distros. This involves extraction of the WordPerfect code by conversion of the WordPerfect debs into tgz tarballs, and then installation of the tgz tarballs with a utility derived from Slackware.

(4) In addition, since August 2020, scripts simplifying the installation of WordPerfect 8.1 on debian-based distros and some other distros have been made available.

(5) Further, since March 2021, the scripts have been improved as follows.

The scripts now enable WordPerfect 8.0 and 8.1 to coexist better in the same system, and in such a case make available to WordPerfect 8.0 the extra fonts installed with WordPerfect 8.1.

Where WordPerfect 8.1 is not installed, the scripts for WordPerfect 8.0 now enable installation of the extra fonts from the CD accompanying the Harris "WordPerfect for Linux Bible" volume.

The scripts now utilise a single package, wp-utils, created by the author of this site, to satisfy all necessary dependencies, including the requirement of a libc5 library. The package is made available in deb format (for debian-based systems), and in tgz (tarball) format (for other distros).

(6) In October 2024, the installation scripts have been updated in the light of recent changes in the relevant distros. There are now scripts for debian-based distros, for rpm-based distros, and for Slackware. There are no scripts for arch-based distros, as the methods used in my scripts are incompatible with current versions of arch-based distros.

Last updated in October 2024