WordPerfect. history of the company
In the open access is the book “Almost Perfect” by Pete Peterson, one of the founders of WordPerfect.
The book describes the period from the late 70s to the early 90s. Computers in these times were not so big, and the programs are not so small. It is interesting to follow how the company created by programmers has grown to 4,000 people, and their main product, WordPerfect, has become the most popular word processor for DOS. A typical story for those times, isn't it? The main thing is to be at the right time in the right place and be able to program.
')
I wonder how much the software business of the eighties was different from the business of our time. It is even more amusing to observe completely unexpected parallels. That's what I'll tell.
Current software writers complain that they have to support Windows, a couple of versions of Mac OS and a handful of Linux. At least it all works on the same hardware. In the eighties, everything was worse. The first version of WordPerfect was written for Data General. The bestseller version for DOS was written much later, and in an attempt to extend success to other platforms, more versions were released for PC Jr, Macintosh, Atari, Amiga, VAX, the version for DOS era before the IBM PC and a few others. None of the additional platforms brought much success.
Software at that time was not enough and was expensive. WordPerfect for Data General was sold for $ 5500 (and take into account inflation). Nevertheless, it was still beneficial for customers, since the only alternative was to buy a special computer to create test documents for 15 thousand. The version for DOS was already cheaper, $ 500, but still not cheap.
There were no decent development tools. The company had a lite version of WordPerfect (P-Edit), used as an editor for programmers. When mastering the new platform, P-Edit was first translated, and then WordPerfect itself was developed with it.
While computers were not yet used in every business, typing documents on them was considered something frivolous, and typed manually was valued. Therefore, one of the requirements for word processors was the ability to print documents “like a typewriter”.
With printer support before Windows, everything was bad. I had to write a separate code table for each popular printer. By the way version 4.0 supported 50 printers, and version 5.0 already 200.
But the worst of it was with distribution and support. Since the World Wide Web has not even appeared on the horizon, it was impossible to sell directly to end users, they worked only through distributors and resellers.
Support, of course, was only on the phone. When version 5.0 was released, a lot of new features were added and the release was delayed. When all the important errors were eliminated, the installer was compiled. It turned out that not all files get onto a floppy disk and a couple had to be thrown away. The team was already so tired and exhausted that no one checked the final version of the installer. Hundreds of thousands of boxes with the new version were sent to distributors.
The installer did not find these two files and swore softly. The program was installed and worked without problems, but the error message itself scared users and they rushed to call for support. A few days later the trickle of calls turned into a powerful stream that put the 1-800 ATT system in Utah, at the same time stopping the operation of the Delta and American Express support centers. Such a small flash mob turned out. How much simpler it is now, when a new version of the program and answers to any questions can be put on the web.
Due to the difficulties of updating the frequent release of new versions is not welcome. It was believed that frequent updates talk about errors that have to be corrected. WordPerfect and its main competitors released one version per year, trying to catch the COMDEX autumn exhibition, where the presentation of the new version was organized.
A variety of software was small. Many companies began with the development of a word processor or something extraordinary. If the first product began to sell well, work began on related programs. Each company tried to create an analogy of a complete office suite: a word processor, work with tables, a database and a graphic editor. Virtually no one except Microsoft has succeeded. Interestingly, Microsoft didn’t like it even then; they proved to be tough and unprincipled competitors.
A major competitor to WordPerfect was WordStar for DOS. WordStar was very popular on CP / M, but when it came time to translate it under DOS, the developer had already left the company. It was rumored that the new developers were not really familiar with the assembler for CP / M and translated the program literally, which can be compared to translating the book into another language in one word. It is not strange, the program has earned, albeit with some bugs. By the time WordPerfect appeared, WordStar had 75% of the word processor DOS market. Nevertheless, WordPerfect developers managed to catch up over several years, and then overtake WordStar in market share.
At the end of the eighties, the company had sales of about 400 million a year, 3,000 employees, 10 million users and about 70% of the DOS word processor market. It was the point of maximum success and further things went into decline. The company has not been able to release a competitive version with a graphical interface. Mostly they were let down by the fact that they made a bet on IBM with their OS / 2. The release of OS / 2 was postponed all the time, and when Microsoft released Windows 3.0 in May 1990, WordPrefect was forced to stop working on the OS / 2 version and drop all programmers to the Windows version.
At the same time, we had to stop working on version 5.2 for DOS in order to give a chance to the Windows team to catch up with the latest dos version. Even this did not help much and the dates were postponed several more times. In order not to waste time, the company simultaneously began work on versions 6.0 for DOS and Windows, having in its hands unfinished WPWin 5.1. A similar situation was with the version for Mac, where not having finished version 3.1, most of the team was transferred to work on version 4.0.
Probably it was during this period that company owners began to lose control over what was happening.
To divert public attention from the delayed version of Windows, the company arranged a national lottery. Who most accurately predicts the sales of WPWin for the first month after release, gets 25 thousand dollars. The advertising campaign was a great success, giving a delay and heated interest in the new version. As a result, a single woman with a recently adopted child won - you can’t think of a better result in terms of marketing.
At the end of 1991, WPWin 5.1 was finally released, the first version for Windows. Despite the fact that this version received not very good reviews, WPWin overtook Word for Windows in sales. 1991 set another record - sales amounted to 533 million.
In 1992, Pete Peterson "left" the company. After an unsuccessful IPO attempt, the company was bought by Novell. Sales have been growing for some time, but costs have grown faster. Novell was forced to sell WordPerfect for nothing Corel, and in this story of the company can be considered over.
UPD: Screenshots
Then: WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS
Now: Wordpefect Office X4
It seems like the product itself is still alive. Link
The book describes the period from the late 70s to the early 90s. Computers in these times were not so big, and the programs are not so small. It is interesting to follow how the company created by programmers has grown to 4,000 people, and their main product, WordPerfect, has become the most popular word processor for DOS. A typical story for those times, isn't it? The main thing is to be at the right time in the right place and be able to program.
')
I wonder how much the software business of the eighties was different from the business of our time. It is even more amusing to observe completely unexpected parallels. That's what I'll tell.
Current software writers complain that they have to support Windows, a couple of versions of Mac OS and a handful of Linux. At least it all works on the same hardware. In the eighties, everything was worse. The first version of WordPerfect was written for Data General. The bestseller version for DOS was written much later, and in an attempt to extend success to other platforms, more versions were released for PC Jr, Macintosh, Atari, Amiga, VAX, the version for DOS era before the IBM PC and a few others. None of the additional platforms brought much success.
Software at that time was not enough and was expensive. WordPerfect for Data General was sold for $ 5500 (and take into account inflation). Nevertheless, it was still beneficial for customers, since the only alternative was to buy a special computer to create test documents for 15 thousand. The version for DOS was already cheaper, $ 500, but still not cheap.
There were no decent development tools. The company had a lite version of WordPerfect (P-Edit), used as an editor for programmers. When mastering the new platform, P-Edit was first translated, and then WordPerfect itself was developed with it.
While computers were not yet used in every business, typing documents on them was considered something frivolous, and typed manually was valued. Therefore, one of the requirements for word processors was the ability to print documents “like a typewriter”.
With printer support before Windows, everything was bad. I had to write a separate code table for each popular printer. By the way version 4.0 supported 50 printers, and version 5.0 already 200.
But the worst of it was with distribution and support. Since the World Wide Web has not even appeared on the horizon, it was impossible to sell directly to end users, they worked only through distributors and resellers.
Support, of course, was only on the phone. When version 5.0 was released, a lot of new features were added and the release was delayed. When all the important errors were eliminated, the installer was compiled. It turned out that not all files get onto a floppy disk and a couple had to be thrown away. The team was already so tired and exhausted that no one checked the final version of the installer. Hundreds of thousands of boxes with the new version were sent to distributors.
The installer did not find these two files and swore softly. The program was installed and worked without problems, but the error message itself scared users and they rushed to call for support. A few days later the trickle of calls turned into a powerful stream that put the 1-800 ATT system in Utah, at the same time stopping the operation of the Delta and American Express support centers. Such a small flash mob turned out. How much simpler it is now, when a new version of the program and answers to any questions can be put on the web.
Due to the difficulties of updating the frequent release of new versions is not welcome. It was believed that frequent updates talk about errors that have to be corrected. WordPerfect and its main competitors released one version per year, trying to catch the COMDEX autumn exhibition, where the presentation of the new version was organized.
A variety of software was small. Many companies began with the development of a word processor or something extraordinary. If the first product began to sell well, work began on related programs. Each company tried to create an analogy of a complete office suite: a word processor, work with tables, a database and a graphic editor. Virtually no one except Microsoft has succeeded. Interestingly, Microsoft didn’t like it even then; they proved to be tough and unprincipled competitors.
A major competitor to WordPerfect was WordStar for DOS. WordStar was very popular on CP / M, but when it came time to translate it under DOS, the developer had already left the company. It was rumored that the new developers were not really familiar with the assembler for CP / M and translated the program literally, which can be compared to translating the book into another language in one word. It is not strange, the program has earned, albeit with some bugs. By the time WordPerfect appeared, WordStar had 75% of the word processor DOS market. Nevertheless, WordPerfect developers managed to catch up over several years, and then overtake WordStar in market share.
At the end of the eighties, the company had sales of about 400 million a year, 3,000 employees, 10 million users and about 70% of the DOS word processor market. It was the point of maximum success and further things went into decline. The company has not been able to release a competitive version with a graphical interface. Mostly they were let down by the fact that they made a bet on IBM with their OS / 2. The release of OS / 2 was postponed all the time, and when Microsoft released Windows 3.0 in May 1990, WordPrefect was forced to stop working on the OS / 2 version and drop all programmers to the Windows version.
At the same time, we had to stop working on version 5.2 for DOS in order to give a chance to the Windows team to catch up with the latest dos version. Even this did not help much and the dates were postponed several more times. In order not to waste time, the company simultaneously began work on versions 6.0 for DOS and Windows, having in its hands unfinished WPWin 5.1. A similar situation was with the version for Mac, where not having finished version 3.1, most of the team was transferred to work on version 4.0.
Probably it was during this period that company owners began to lose control over what was happening.
To divert public attention from the delayed version of Windows, the company arranged a national lottery. Who most accurately predicts the sales of WPWin for the first month after release, gets 25 thousand dollars. The advertising campaign was a great success, giving a delay and heated interest in the new version. As a result, a single woman with a recently adopted child won - you can’t think of a better result in terms of marketing.
At the end of 1991, WPWin 5.1 was finally released, the first version for Windows. Despite the fact that this version received not very good reviews, WPWin overtook Word for Windows in sales. 1991 set another record - sales amounted to 533 million.
In 1992, Pete Peterson "left" the company. After an unsuccessful IPO attempt, the company was bought by Novell. Sales have been growing for some time, but costs have grown faster. Novell was forced to sell WordPerfect for nothing Corel, and in this story of the company can be considered over.
UPD: Screenshots
Then: WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS
Now: Wordpefect Office X4
It seems like the product itself is still alive. Link
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/77680/
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