Using WordPerfect on Linux

Revision 4.0

August 2020

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; and again 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 written. Words such as "current" should be understood as referring to August 2020 and subsequently.

There are pages dealing with particular aspects:

(1) Installing WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux by one of the new scripts on a current debian-based distro or OpenSuse.

(2) Installing WordPerfect 8.1 for Linux by a manual method on distros for which the new scripts are not available.

(3) A tutorial on the WP Print Manager.

(4) Some tweaks to WordPerfect 8.1 after installation.

(5) Installing WordPerfect 8.0.

(6) Other versions of WordPerfect for Linux (version 6, 7, 8.2 and 9).

(7) Emulations: using on Linux other versions of WordPerfect, such as WordPerfect for Windows via Crossover.

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

(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 or OpenSuse have been made available.

Last updated in August 2020

(c) Peter Stone, 2020