This is true. There are a lot of "abandonware" versions of all sorts of apps out there. It is almost trivially easy to find a copy of WordPerfect for DOS and install it on DR DOS or PC DOS in a VirtualBox VM, or run it under DOSemu on Linux. I link to instructions on how to do it in that article.
But it's not legal. Abandonware is a nebulous term with no legal meaning.
WordPerfect Corp is gone but the product is alive and well under Corel Corp. This still counts as piracy.
But the MacOS and Linux versions were given away, for free, by WordPerfect Corp and so they are legit.
This is true. There are a lot of "abandonware" versions of all sorts of apps out there. It is almost trivially easy to find a copy of WordPerfect for DOS and install it on DR DOS or PC DOS in a VirtualBox VM, or run it under DOSemu on Linux. I link to instructions on how to do it in that article.
But it's not legal. Abandonware is a nebulous term with no legal meaning.
WordPerfect Corp is gone but the product is alive and well under Corel Corp. This still counts as piracy.
But the MacOS and Linux versions were given away, for free, by WordPerfect Corp and so they are legit.
That's why I wrote the blog post. :-)