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> the dependency problem seems far worse on Linux.

Mostly fixed by containers, which the solution proposed here, and other new technologies like flatpaks, snaps and appimages. It is sad we have no unique ultimate solution for the problem, but yes it is mostly solved nowadays.

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Exactly, yes. I do not know how easy it would be to create a container with an old 32-bit version of Ubuntu, Debian or even Fedora, one old enough to run WordPerfect 8 well. But if someone could do it, the app could be packaged as a Snap or a Flatpak and in theory it would work on any modern x86 distro. I'd like that very much.

the ultimate solution is to release the source code and compile it against the newer ABI.

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