WORDSTAR Exact Clone for LINUX / DEBIAN / UBUNTU
 

Hello,

Wordstar is still no longer used. However, it would be great to have a clone, something else than JOE editor, something closer.

There are still users (mostly Windows but also Linux) that are running DOS or old MAC applications.

A clone of WORDSTAR would be really cool.

Thanks

They're working on one!
http://wordtsar.ca/

Run wordstar in dosbox?

wow

I had such a keyboard http://wordtsar.ca/wp-content/upload...5/keyboard.png

It's neither free nor "abandonware". I found a dealer with copies in stock: from $89 for starter kit release 3.1 to $179 for professional release 5.0. I doubt if many people are that nostalgic!

WordTsar is only an approximation of the wordstar environment.
It has very limited features and completely different key-bindings. On the plus side, it can open some wordstar formatted files and some plain text files if they are imported correctly. It has gtk interface for Windows that is kind of nice. But you will never get the feeling that you are using Wordstar. It is rather unstable and is, of course incompatible with any modern word processor except Lotus WordPro. My advice is that you buy an official version from a legitimate reseller. It takes money to create successful projects.

The JOE editor is much closer to wordstar than any other option. You seem to be asking for a free copy for hobby purposes.

Wordgrinder?

Since I re-read this 6 year old thread I notice I should have suggested dosemu but the original issue is almost pointless.

Or a VM running FreeDOS

I can't imagine there's anything other than nostalgia involved in wanting to use WordStar itself. Ever since the standard keyboard layout moved the Ctrl key down to the bottom left instead of next to the 'A' key, WordStar navigation would be pain. (Yes... one could remap the keyboard but who's really that fanatical about WordStar?) Using an editor that understands WS format should suffice for the occasional ancient file---or a simple filter to clear bit 7 if there's a lot of old files '.wst' laying around that still need to be accessed.

Aside: During our last move and I was going through stuff to pack, I ran across an old WordStar command card. $DIETY only knows how -- or why -- it remained in my files all these years but it sure brought back some memories.