Corel Linux - The (Word)Perfect Operating System
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
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/ michaelmjd
WordPerfect isn't a name you hear too often these days. But there was a time when it was the king of word processing software. And sometime in the late '90s, Corel released a version of it for Linux. Oh... and an entire distro for it to run on. Let's check it out!
Chapters:
00:00 - Setting the scene...
00:27 - Some backstory
03:33 - Unboxing
06:48 - Installation
09:32- First boot
10:43 - Initial exploration
11:42 - WordPerfect
13:53 - What happened to Corel Linux?
14:26 - The Office Suite
15:48 - A brief look at the included software
17:25 - Desktop customization
20:40 - GIMP zone
23:21 - Outro
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#MichaelMJD #WordPerfect #Linux - Наука та технологія
It's amazing that a 25-year-old operating system had more desktop customization options than Windows 11 :D
the good old days...
i miss those cascading start menus too, i know you can just search for things now but didn't that just feel like you knew where everything was and it was ALREADY perfect and well organized? why do they have to fix what isn't broke?
Windows alternatives from this era are super interesting
BeOS was my fave.
unfortunately they show why windows won
@@user-we8nz3hm2g OS/2 was my favorite.
fr
@@user-we8nz3hm2g OS/2 was my favorite. Interestingly enough, OS/2 also had virtual desktops (four of them) similar to early Linux.
wait this is so sick. I love how old linux distros always aim to look like windows 9x! i love seeing really old versions of modern projects like gimp. gread vid again
real
common gayfemboyuwu w
What a name!
@@arubberroomwithrats? What does it mean? (in which context to his comment?)
common @@imadam L
I have a Corel Linux tux sitting on my desk right now. He has watched over me for decades. He is a plushy. Came out of a Corel Linux box. He's actually like a hacky sack type thing. If I could share photos I would.
That would be awesome! And it’s interesting that yours is a plushie. Wonder if they changed to them at some point.
@MichaelMJD I emailed you the photo. I couldn't tell you what version box it was. But I was tasked with clearing out a ton of old unused software. I found the Corel Linux box still had the cellophane on it so before I chucked it, I tore it open and rescued him. He has moved from job with me and sat on my desk for over 15 years.
My box doesn't contain any mascots either. Bummer. I should return it.
I have Corel Tux too, he guards my 3d print farm.
@user-we8nz3hm2g cool! I've never met anybody else that had one.
For an early to mid 2000s linux distro, this is *surprisingly* polished. Using something like Debian in 1999 would've been an exercise in frustration, and this (mostly) just works.
Funny enough, this is in fact, a Debian based operating system.
It just goes to show what happens when you make an OS for like minded people (Debian) vs making an OS the random office person can use (Corel).
Debian wasn't that bad. I mean Debian 2.1 was horrible, but after the turn of the century new versions came out and it got better. I ran Debian as my desktop OS, trying to get my windows games to work with wine ... actually got Half-Life to run pretty decently under it.
Trying to configure and use your ISDN dialup with Debian though (or any other distro). That was a pain. But I manage to do it. Even configured a dial up on demand ISDN router for a LAN on debian.
So many kernel compiles
@@heno02Compiling the kernel atleast a fucktillion times is a right of passage for Linux in the early days, I'd argue. lmao
Me getting ncommander flashbacks
I have a big soft spot for Corel for a lot of reasons: as a Canadian of course, because some of their kids' games were the first software I remember using, and because Paint Shop Pro was how I learned graphic design. Still respect them for making solid software alternatives like that without getting into the subscription crap. They were Adobe before Adobe got as big (and evil) as they did, really.
I'm a big fan of Corel because of the Corel draw graphics suite, but I hate what they did to J.A.S.C Paint Shop Pro. Before Corel took it over it was a very light weight program ideal for viewing and converting every kind of image file. After Corel "fixed it",. It became bloated to a gimp level and could no longer be used for quickly opening images. Very disappointing.
Oh wow! Corel Linux was the first Linux distro I ever used. Couldn’t figure it out, and found it wouldn’t install my games, so I gave up and went back to Windows. (Yes, I was young and stupid at the time.)
And nowadays, can game fine on Linux, once not supporting rootkit anticheats and modern trash that only sucks money out of you. Astonishing how things improved.
@@MichaelDustter Agreed. It’s absolutely mindblowing!
Good luck trying to find a decent copy.
I don't think you're being stupid about going back to windows at the time. It just meant that linux didn't do all the stuff you wanted it to do which is fine
@@JPB180 Absolutely true. I expected something from Linux that it definitely wasn’t at the time. These days I still have my Windows PC for gaming, but I have a Mac and a dedicated Linux system, too. All used for different purposes. I just didn’t get that back then- the whole “different purposes” thing.
As someone who started his Linux journey with KDE 3.3, this all looks very familiar safe for the file manager.
Back then there were wizards to rearrange the desktop's UI to closer resemble either macOS or Windows too, so your actions could be automated.
Still a cool distro to look at and honestly, probably good enough for the average office person.
Provided their hardware works properly with this old Linux distro, that is.
Safe is definitely the word for it, it is missing several tabs and such from Konqueror. It would eventually become a lot more like the Windows XP file manager with a Web style description panel on the left hand side and Drive letters, when Xandros took over the project. The Xandros File Manager was a separate file manager from Konqueror, and was distinct enough in appearance that I never suspected it of being a fork of Konqueror.
after watching the video:
starting up PCem, download the Corel Linux from the internet, create a emulated PC Slot 1 Pentium II 450 512 MB Ram 1GB Hard Drive. Starting Install.
Thanks Michael, I was not having any idea what to do this weekend.
good luck to run it at full speed unless you have some i9 12gen+
What .... no beer in the fridge ?
The version of WordPerfect you are showing is a native Linux application written in Motif. They released a later version of it which was a Wine port of the Windows version.
In other words, they got lazy later on
Corel Linux was awesome. I remember installing it on a PC at work. The installation was flawless. Just a couple days before,, I installed Windows 98 on the same PC. Win98 failed to install the drivers for the graphics card (a matrox) and the NIC (a 3com).
Back when "button" looks like a "button", instead of "flat ui" thing- that doesn't know if it's a label or a button.
What exactly are you referring? The buttons doesn't seem that different
I miss Motif/9x styling...
Yeah, the chiseled steel look was nice and left you in no doubt what you could interact with on the screen.
yea what is it called again? skew-something-ism?
@@Bn_uy look at the design of the ui you're interacting with right now(as in, youtube's ui) and compare it to 9x.
The really cool part about WordPerfect for Linux and Unix was that it was a native app that also ran in the terminal through version 8. Version 9 (also called 2000) was the Wine port. Taviso ported the old Linux console version in 8 to modern linux.
Always a good day when MJD uploads
real
Fr
So true 😉
Word
fr fr
I remember using GIMP as a kid on my mom’s windows 7 laptop for drawing effects on Lego Star Wars stop motion videos I was making. It was good for making force lightning effects
Yeah agree!
Oh, I did this exact thing myself! It was perfect!
"Bring out the GIMP."
"...as a kid .." "...on my mom's Windows 7 laptop..." Oof, right in the old.
@@TheWildDeadHero not as old as someone makes ben10 short animation with windows movie maker on a windows xp owned by their parrents
something i say a pretty wild thing during pre social media times
Man, this takes me back. My grandfather gave me an install disc with Corel Linux when I started taking a broader interest in computers when I was around 13. I think he got it from a magazine. I couldn't get it to work on my hardware sadly so I never got to try it out myself, but it did however send me down the Linux rabbit hole with Ubuntu 5.10 being my first successful Linux install and now, almost 20 years later, I'm still using Linux as my main daily driver.
OOH! This was one of my first distros. Got it on a jewel case rack at Fry's Electronics. Great to see it covered. This one and Xandros Professional have a special place in my memory.
Xandros bought Corel Linux, before the bought WinSpire/LinSpire. I fondly remember Xandros 3 OCE, back before I was earning a paycheck to send funds their way.
I LOVED this era of linux. The early KDE was so perfect. I really wish there were some great current day distros like this that out of the box was trying to have this classic/vintage windows look. I really detest most current window managers as they are all just trying to be so clean and flashy, taking all the character out of the interface. Give me a modern Corel Linux with this exact desktop environment, just an updated linux kernel and we'll be good.
there ARE
@@chrisbirch2002 There ARE?
Arch actually has a version of KDE 1.0 that's still maintained, and the Trinity Desktop Environment is a fork of KDE 3 that's still going.
@@jamesross3939 yes. one that comes to mind i lke alot is called q4os. as soon as u start up the first time you're given options to make it look like anything to win 95 to win 7. os is tiny fast and relatively full featured. even plays the startup music like windows used to
Yeah the days of KDE1 was nice. Trinity might be an option today. If you really want the best you have to look at FVWM. It´s very much alive and still looks like in the good old days, and it´s the one that most of the others are based on. Crazy configurable. There was once a "FVWM 95" that looked and worked like Windows 95. But out of the box it´s early 90´s UNIX Workstation looks. OpenBSD uses it with a pretty nice config as default WM. And the internet are full with nice configs.
Linus Torvalds: Linux is not meant for desktops.
Corel: Hold my Word as this will be Perfect!
Hey less than First Run person.... Linux was created out of Minix which actually was designed specifically for the X86 desktop.
Unix was not written to run on the desktop.
@@willedwards7009 The Minix / Linux - question. It's not as clear cut as you suggest.
I remember running Word Perfect 4.2 on my Amiga 2000 back in the day. It was nice that they ported it to different systems.
Same, it was a great app on the Amiga. I'm still running WordPerfect X7 (an older version) on Win7, I just refuse to upgrade. If it ain't broken, don't fix it, right?! hehe
@@BillAnt Available on humble bundle.
Didn't WordPerfect for Amiga infamously have zero WYSIWYG rendering whatsoever?
@@stevethepocket Correct. It was also never updated to newer versions. It was just pushed out on different platforms to die.
I remember using WordPerfect in college. So cool to see this again because I’d forgotten about this program.
Mannnn, this OS was my daily for so long way way back. I remember getting it free from a lil computer store, and they even gave me an inflatable tux that they used to advertise it.
Such fond memories :):)
Corel Linux was the first Linux I had ever heard of, period, before learning more about what Linux really was. It always seemed intriguing to me as a teenager but I never got to try it out back then, so it's nice to see this video pop up in my recommendations.
I love the BeOS options!
BeOS is peak linux lmao
@@itisliamhfjone22 is this bait
@@cbtillery135 no
@@itisliamhfjone22 BeOS isn't Linux
When it OS first loaded my first thought was this looks like BeOS.
When you had problems with the graphics cards and then the system locking up randomly, it unlocked a memory. I remember Corel Linux being bundled with computer magazines of the era, and I remember messing with a lot of those bundled Linux distros back in the day. I remember Corel Linux getting praise in the press for being easy to use, but in my experience it was crazy unstable compared to other distros. I assumed that maybe it just didn't like my hardware of the time, but... Maybe it's just how it was 🤷
NetWinder for anyone who remembers ARM Linux from back then was also the origin of the FPU emulator for ARM, NWFPE which let your ARM CPU execute floating point instructions in software. I remember those days.
I liked Corel Linux back in the day. I still have my copy
Literally my first linux. It was the distro we used in a continuing education class I took when I was 16, "introduction to linux"
As someone who came along a little too late for stuff like this, "source code CD-ROM" is one hell of a concept
When an old Linux Distro works better and looks better than current day Windows. I love it!
Not really. It hang during the video at least twice. No more stability than Windows 95.
I remember using Wordperfect on Solaris (on Sparc) back in the 90s. It was more stable than Wordperfect for Windows which was a nightmare.
10 years ago i started using linux full time and i also dabbled with corel software on my local newspaper at that time. What a coincidence!
I remember using Word Perfect on my Windows 98 computer, as it came with a free copy. I always liked it more than Word, as it was less stringent on all the auto-formatting it would try to apply to text.
Corel was one of the first big supporters of wine because of this.
Their changes were around the time when wine started go from a quirky mess to a usable option.
I had no idea wordperfect was still used. I've only ever heard it mentioned on retro channels.
The first painting program I used, was DrawPerfect 1.1 on DOS. Later I used WordPerfect 6.1. All were on computers handed down from my dad. No idea why he had those as he was an avid MS Works (started on 2.0, now on 8.0) user (much to the frustration of everyone who uses MS Office). He still has Works 8.0 running on a 5 year old pc and still refuses to buy Office.
There was also a version of CorelDraw for Linux at the same time as well.
It was SUCH a huge deal when this came out OMG. Kids these days will kever know 😅
This was pretty much the first time Linux got noticed by a big commercial software company.
Wow Wordperfect is now a forgotten office software overshadowed by Libre Office, Google Office and Yes Microsoft office.
Awesome video! Seeing early KDE brought back so many memories!
Another amazing video by MJD! Love your content! Your videos inspired me to make my own Tech/Computer Content.
Corel Linux was the first RHEL clone based off KDE. Alms Linux and Rocky Linux can trace their ancestry back to it.
This is so fascinating! I will definitely make a PCem machine for this OS and play around with it.
Great video as always Michael.
Ciao, i remember, in 2000 i was online with AOL, and they had a Beta from their Software for Linux out for testing, i loved this version running under SuSE Linux.. many greetings from brunswick in germany and please stay safe 🙃
I have been watching you since the start.(From my other account) Your videos are amazing and they have improved so much! Keep up the good work!
I'm 19 and aside from my tech history obsession, the only other way I'm familiar with word perfect is because a device for the blind released in 2009 that I used for several years had wordperfect 5 as an export option for some reason.
So, what do you use nowadays? A standard computer with text to speech?
@@csolisr yep, I use a few different computers, but my main machine is an MSI laptop running Windows 11, I used to own a Mac but I didn't need it, and I use a Google pixel smartphone.
Cool Michael, nice review..well done 🙂
remember when ottawa was relevant to the tech industry...
those were the days
i would say that limiting the number of pre-installed packages is pretty much the standard approach to linux today
tho it very much was not in 1998, before we had plenty of network bandwidth and generally good and reliable package managers
though maybe in a build targeted at new users you would still try and ensure they had everything they might need from the get-go even today
Remember when Utah was a huge silicon valley predecessor (with Novell)? Or NYC and Westchester County NY (with IBM)?
@@cameronbosch1213Novell had nice networking tools. Used to run them rven on NT.
Kanata.
Old linux version look so cool because of the 9x look!
i remember getting this back in 99 at my local micro center. installed it on a Packard Bell 486. not bad for its time. it was fun. i might just grab it again and test it on my p5 Packard bell from 1996. n Great Video!
This rocks! Great video!
This was my first Linux in about 2001-2002 as it was on the cover CD of “PC User” in Australia. Lasted a couple weeks. Then did I think Red Hat 6.2 for a few weeks and then Debian for a couple years until Ubuntu came out which I switched to very early in 2004.
Sounds similar to my run through Linux, but I started on mandrake before I tried corel Linux.
I still have my discs and my penguin. Tux is basically just made out of stress ball type foam.
I got a version of Corel Linux attached to a book back in the late 90s.
Very cool, thanks for sharing. I started off with WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.
In the late 90s I did work on WINE, and I believe it was native in their Linux untill they stopped with their version. I installed Corell Linux on computers in an alternative school that had no computers at the time. It was a nice version of Linux at the time. And I used Xandros off and on for a few years.
Great video🎉
I used Corel and Xandros distros. I loved the Xandros and found it so good that I thought for sure it would become a standard especially since it had so much similarity to that of the Windows layout making it easier for the user that was used to Windows. I may not be a fan of Windows, but that ease of use was a great convenience and even easy to learn. Thank you for sharing this video.
I used a LOT of WordPerfect from 1990 to 1993, but as your narration hinted, it was in a law office (& law school). Kinda loved it...even the blue screen.
idk why these kinds of videos are entertaining lol, probably because i love technology
I worked as a master caldera Linux trainer at that time and I saw the ad on your flipping through the pages.
I bought this boxed distribution many years ago when it first came out. I think I still have the penguin squishy foam toy somewhere.
I do remember using this one for a couple of days. Might be the first Linux distro I've ever used, in 1999-ish. Goes to show how short was Corel's tenure as a household name - maybe a couple of years in the mid-90s?
My penguin from Corel Linux Select was a stress squeeze type. I had it until his head ripped off.
Corel Linux wasn’t the first distro I used (that would be Mandrake), but it was one of my all-time favorites. I still have the disk!
Maybe I am misremembering this - it was over 20 years ago - but I find it highly unlikely that the Linux version of Word Perfect was built using the Windows version and WINE. There is absolutely nothing about it that makes one to think of Windows. A quick look at the software clearly shows that its GUI makes heavy use of the Motif toolkit which was a sort of commercially supported multi-platform UNIX GUI toolkit and, ugly as it may be, it was very popular to build commercial applications at the time with staples like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Netscape Navigator, CDE, eXceed (an old commercial PC X Server) and others. Plus WP was also available on several UNIX and non-UNIX platforms at the time for which WINE was not an option.
this! it is so apparently, if not obviously Motif or Lesstiff based
Cool,MJD Word Perfect, no wires crossed.Great vlog
I LOVED Corel Linux. It was the first distro in my experience that could see all the Windows share on a local network right out of the box. It was amazing in that regard. I want to say that I purchased a boxed version at our local Kmart.
I'm missing so much returning home from the computer's store with a new box with some software or game, looking at the shining back side of the disk and looking forward to install the software. It was a great time, I'm missing it so much
If you need to see if something is running under wine, open a task manager application before you run the application. If you see wine processes or a process with a .exe suffix start when you start the application, the program is running under wine. I'm not sure if this apply to older versions of wine but it does in all of the ones that I've used.
Yes! also the first ever Linux distro I used
omg I was just looking at this OS some days ago and now you posted a video about it :3c
When he said "the penguin is missing", my heart sunk.
Xandros was my first linux desktop! Never knew it came from Corel.
That was the best desktop distro i ever saw. ❤
Love the old school KDE UI, and this is actually a really nice tweak to it. Tempted to waste a weekend failing to port it, but I'll resist.
Coincidentally, I became aware that Corel made a computer today from a senior engineer at my workplace during a walk after lunch. I wonder if it was the net winder that he was referring to.
I was in my PC Technician college course at Algonquin College in 1999. This is in Ottawa which was/is the home of Corel and we had a whole Corel Linux lab sponsored by them.
I used Corel Linux and loved it because it included Corel Word Perfect. Simple to use, graphical installer and a great word processor.
15:45 Makes you wonder why computers seemed to do that a lot back then. I remember having old Windows 95 computers that would just randomly lock up for no apparent reason. Was it the software? Was the silicon used in those old consumer grade CPUs less reliable and predictable?
I'd say software, everything had to play nice with each other (ie. cooperative multitasking), if one misbehaved... boom.
@@charlesdorval394 Linux never had cooperative multitasking. Also, even taking into account the age of the hardware, do bear in mind this is the version from the CDROM with no updates.
@@TheUAoB Never said it did, Windows 95 was mentioned.
I love how a modified kde from the prehistoric era looks better than any modern linux gui ✨
That taskbar hiding animation was pretty cool. It shud be in win11 Nice vid man...
every time when MJD uploads
i watch it
Wow, that was the first linux distro I lay my hands on about 20 years ago
I remember using the OS at the time. Some specialized magazines used to come with installation CD-ROMs, and that's how I met this OS.
Was a good way to study web development while having a shared family computer... since it came with a very easy UI.
My mom (77 now) - for example - never even learnt Windows... thx to OSes like this.
The real difficulty was usually configuring some shady hardware (had to compile a lot) and translations.
I think this is still a problem today for some distros, although a lot more rare.
I think I ran it for a few months, then I switched to Xandros... then switched back to Debian again.
Very nostalgic video.
=== edit:
Oh! You've mentioned Xandros... nice.
(14:21) If I recall correctly, the Linux option for early Eee PC models was just referred to in specifications and shop listings as ‘Linux’ or ‘Linux OS’, no distro mentioned, then users found out it was Xandros 4 when they bought them and poked around in the software.
Acer did a similar thing with their early Aspire One models but users found out it was based on Linpus.
Surprised this distro didn't have more success back then. Looks really capable and well polished.
I saw that on a shelf at Chapters in 2000... I was already using Slackware and Mandrake but I gave it a try and it wasn't too bad. I had to compile a kernel to get my parallel port zip drive working though. One thing cool about it was that it had some Windows NT-like tools. For example the user manager program was a lot like the one in NT4.
Wish we could see the free Linux "not a toy" penguin
I loved WordPerfect! Once you figured it out.
i love your vids
Not just linux, WP was on a bunch of Unixes as well
Yeap. Often networked versions
I bought this in 2000 along with Red Hat 6 when we moved back out west to try to catch on to the tech boom.
I used WordPerfect when in college and it's a great product. Made great suggestions in replacing words in a sentence, man this product help me get "A"'s in my papers. I was just thinking about this a month ago and was wondering what happened to it. This was much better then MS WORD and most like still is, but I haven't written any college papers in over 30 yrs., so maybe that's not true any more, but it was great at the time.
This looks nice, especially for the 90s! Could you do a video about Xandros? It looks pretty interesting. :)
I had forgotten about Corel Linux! I remember getting it on and trying it from a CD-rom that came with one of those PC magazines. I don't remember really/long using it.
I tried this distro in 2001. The issue 40 of Spanish version of PC Format magazine came with a CD with Corel Linux 1.0.
Oh cool. This takes me back.
I almost always think of Word Perfect as a Linux software. Lol. I was planning on using it for my new Linux set up. When I saw the price tag I ended up going with something else.
Linux locking up 😮 ... Well, it's to make Windows 98 customers feeling 'home'. 😁
Locking up either temporary or completely could be due to but not limited by hardware issues, software conflicts and errors, or drive conflicts.