Almost Perfect - The Rise and Fall of WordPerfect

Now I realize the future I always imagined working for one of these companies is only going to come from creating it myself. It's interesting that his story starts with a recession forcing his hand into innovating.

I wouldn't normally make a long winded "personal" post on hn but I figured no one else is really going to care about word perfect history so I may as well give my two cents for posterity. Anyway back to building the dream - what else are weekends for?

"Near the end of the first lecture, I explained what WordPerfect Corporation was not. This set the stage for the next two days, when I would explain what WordPerfect Corporation was.

WordPerfect Corporation was not a platform for personal achievement, a career ladder to other opportunities, or a challenging opportunity for personal improvement. The company did not put the needs of the individual ahead of its own. The company was not concerned about an employee's personal feelings, except as they related to the company's well-being.

WordPerfect Corporation was not intended to be a social club for the unproductive. While other companies might condone many personal or social activities at the office, ours did not. Things like celebrating birthdays, throwing baby showers, collecting for gifts, selling Tupperware or Avon, managing sports tournaments, running betting pools, calling home to keep a romance alive or hand out chores to the children, gossiping or flirting with co-workers, getting a haircut, going to a medical or dental appointment, running to the cafeteria for a snack, coming in a little late or leaving a little early, taking Friday afternoon off, and griping about working conditions were all inappropriate when done on company time. Even though these activities were condoned by many businesses across the country, we felt there was no time for them at WordPerfect Corporation."

While all this can be justified, why would anyone want to work at a compnay like this?

I found this interesting since most companies these days at least pretend to do many of these things in order to attract and retain a talented workforce. There is no mention of any ESOP like scheme either. But WP made a lot of money so they must have done something right and hired at least a few good people.

Maybe the eighties was just a different time.

"Sadly for Micropro, the one thing they could not do very easily was update their product. After their luck at getting the CP/M version of WordStar running on the PC, they could not seem to get an updated version out the door. They decided instead that they would produce an entirely new product, one which was easier to maintain and improve than the original version.

Luckily for us, the new WordStar, introduced at COMDEX as WordStar 2000, was entirely different from the old product. Micropro intentionally attempted to replace their market leader with a product that was bigger and slower and used a different interface. Although it was not obvious at COMDEX, the product was doomed from the start. In spite of all the product hype and the size and beauty of the Micropro booth and presentation, the new product did not stand a chance.

Micropro did more for us at that show than we could ever have done for ourselves. They convinced their customers that the old WordStar was not very good and that they needed to look for something better. Not only would these customers take a look at WordStar 2000, but they would also look at WordPerfect 4.0."

http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedScript

Anyway, I'd like to hear the story of how the book rights went back to the author, that's unusual.

Also, speaking of word processors, does anyone else here use Write Room/Dark Room/JDarkRoom or similar?