WordStar lives! What’s behind this retro-techno revival, and how to try it for yourself
1994’s WordStar 7 running on 2024’s Mint Linux. Screenshot by Steven Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNETMy first text processor was vi, but my first word processor was WordStar, which I started using in 1981 on an Osborne 1. It changed my world. I’d always been a writer, but up until then, I used my prized IBM Selectric II typewriter. With WordStar, my writing speed went from 25 words per minute to 70, and I never looked back. I wasn’t alone. Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer Robert Sawyer was a huge WordStar fan, and now he’s revived the iconic word processor. I don’t think anyone saw this revival coming. In an unexpected twist of technological nostalgia, WordStar has been rediscovered and is making a surprising comeback on modern computers. Originally developed by MicroPro International, WordStar was the first commercially successful word-processing software for PCs. Before it appeared, word processors were dedicated programs on special-purpose office computers. Also: 81% of workers using AI are more productive. Here’s how to implement itWordStar was quickly followed by XyWrite, EasyWriter, and a host of other programs. Most of them are now long forgotten. However, WordPerfect lives on largely in law offices, and a handful of writers have stayed loyal to WorStar. If A&T and MicroPro had managed to port WordStar to Unix in the early 1980s, I expect I’d still be using it today. These days, I use LibreOffice and Google Docs, even though I still have the WordStar command set embedded in my fingers. More
