#Word Perfect
Dale,
This is an old sore with me, one that goes back to the first weeks when
the original WP was released for the Amiga.
Not sure if you remember or not, but WP when first released was probably
the most buggy software since the release of Diga! It didn't work as
advertised and it took nearly a year and half to get something that was
completely stable running on the Amiga. I purchased Amiga WP sight unseen
thinking I bought from a company that understood quality control.
Instead, what I got in my opinion, was a poorly devised buggy word
processor with an inteface straight from hell. Sorry, I don't mean to
mince words Dale. 🙂
In the first three months, according to Word Perfect, they had recovered
their development costs on the product. They went ahead and began work on
the second buggiest program ever to hit the shelves, WordPerfect Library.
Have you seen this piggy? I can still here it oink in the distance!
Amazingly enough the Amiga community took one look and said "Ut Oh, not
again!" and this one didn't sell. To this date, WordPerfect Library is
still loaded with bugs.
Isn't it amazing that these products lost momentum? You write schlock,
you die in the Amiga market; especially when you are selling at $399.
To WordPerfect's credit they went ahead and mostly fixed Word Perfect, it
still doesn't work right. Have you used the Preview mode??? How about
the broken print requester if you use something other than topaz 8?
However, I still remember their inital promise to be work straight away
and finish the port of 5.0 to the Amiga. Funny that they would release
4.1 for the Amiga (not even 4.2!!), while at the same time releasing 5.0
for the PC.
Now we launch up to about a year or so ago. Beta testers were called up
and told "We have 5.0 for the Amiga!". The nets hummed. They stirred the
pot, and proceeded to call Mr. Commodore who already had significant
investment in the first Amiga WP disaster. Amazingly enough Commodore
declined to participate in the "Let's give WP a couple million so that
they can release more trash for the Amiga" program.
Then the day came, a person from Word Perfect Quality Control (Yeah
right!) came to these forums and wrote the speech that still brings a tear
to my eye. In my opinion, they intended to blacken Commodore's eye as
well as their users by making public announcement that they were killing
the Amiga project because in their mind it just wouldn't sell.
I am still mad at this company, and probably always will be. I look at
programs like Final Copy II and say, they couldn't produce this (and
better) for the Amiga?
Sigh. I am sure there were other factors involved in the decision process
at WP. I just think the company has taken the Amiga owners for a long big
ride and never made good on their promises. It hurt the Amiga
significantly when they posted their "It won't sell on this platform"
message. Who knows who was scared away from the Amiga.
So Dale, I am not alone with feelings like this. I still think I should
be refunded my money by Word Perfect and not offered yet another Trade Up
to the PC. A slap in the face if you ask me.
May Word Perfect die.
-mark=
Otto Pilot Engaged..