![[Subscribe]](http://www.wpblog.com/images/xml.gif "Subscribe"){kind=small}
« Testing upgrade | Main | Found: Excellent word processor review »
Monday, May 26, 2008
Should WordPerfect go open source?
Fernando Cassia issues the following plea through The Inquirer: Earth to Corel: open your Office, or give it up. In cutting to the chase, he takes little jabs at WordPerfect with comparisons to Google Docs, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, Star Office. Until:
In a nutshell, StarOffice and OpenOffice.org give users freedom. Both run on almost every modern popular OS the user might choose to run. Corel's Wordperfect Office? "Windows!", "as expensive as Microsoft's Office", "no freedom, same kind of vendor lock-in, only with a different owner at the end of the dog collar".In short: Wordperfect Office has a niche, and will continue to have one. It won't get very far into the 21st century if Corel doesn't open its code. They could sell support and an enhanced version, just like Sun does with StarOffice - and it embraces mutiple operating systems - as the OS is increasingly irrelevant, as Linux-based tablets and Ubuntu pre-loaded Dell machines show.
I don't see Corel's Office Suite ever getting away from the small niche market corner it painted itself into, unless it gives users outside its fan base a compelling advantage in comparison with open source based solutions.
What an interesting idea. Seriously. On one hand, if Corel did this, it could have the potential of blowing Microsoft out of the water. On the other hand, well, it couldn't make WordPerfect's popularity any worse than it is.
Personally, it doesn't make a difference to me. Although, there have been a couple times when I was working in WP and wondered what some software writer might do to make a certain feature do something better. However, whatever brought that thought on at the time escapes me now. In any event, it'll be interesting to see if this idea gets any traction in other parts.
• Posted by: Marie Carnes at 11:53 PM
• Filed in:
WordPerfect
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.wpblog.com/mtd/mt-tb.cgi/161
Comments
I completely agree that WordPerfect should be opened; there may not be much that can be improved upon, but opening the software would make it possible to extend availability. Personally, I'd love to see an open release of WordPerfect based on version 9 (WordPerfect 2000). And you're right in your assessment that WordPerfect couldn't possibly lose anything in the transition. I know this comes over a year after your original comments, but I do support the idea of opening WordPerfect.
Posted by: David Turnblom at June 26, 2009 1:06 PM
David, Thanks for your comment. Maybe Corel will see this.
Posted by: Marie Carnes at June 26, 2009 1:11 PM
