WordStar lives! What's behind this retro-techno revival, and how to try it for yourself (2024)

My first text processor was vi, but my first word processor was WordStar, which I started using in 1981 on an Osborne 1. It changed my world. I'd always been a writer, but up until then, I used my prized IBM Selectric II typewriter. With WordStar, my writing speed went from 25 words per minute to 70, and I never looked back. I wasn't alone. Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer Robert Sawyer was a huge WordStar fan, and now he's revived the iconic word processor.

I don't think anyone saw this revival coming. In an unexpected twist of technological nostalgia, WordStar has been rediscovered and is making a surprising comeback on modern computers. Originally developed by MicroPro International, WordStar was the first commercially successful word-processing software for PCs. Before it appeared, word processors were dedicated programs on special-purpose office computers.

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WordStar was quickly followed by XyWrite, EasyWriter, and a host of other programs. Most of them are now long forgotten. However, WordPerfect lives on largely in law offices, and a handful of writers have stayed loyal to WorStar.

If A&T and MicroPro had managed to port WordStar to Unix in the early 1980s, I expect I'd still be using it today. These days, I use LibreOffice and Google Docs, even though I still have the WordStar command set embedded in my fingers.

While most writers long ago switched to Microsoft Word, Sawyer, and at least one famous writer -- George R.R. Martin -- have stayed loyal to WordStar. So, why is that the case?

The answer is simple. Then, and now, WordStar was designed to make life easier for touch-typists. With WordStar, you don't need a mouse or function keys. All you need is the control button, and you're in business. All the major editing commands are easily accessible from the home key row. If you're a touch-typist, once you know WordStar, you can write faster than with any other word processor.

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To quote Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire: "WordStar was magnificent. I loved it. It was logical, beautiful, perfect. Compared to it, Microsoft Word is pure madness." I couldn't have said it better myself.

The WordStar program has long been available. Indeed, even when it was coining cash for MicroPro, it was infamous for being one of the most pirated programs on the planet. But the software's last vendor abandoned it 30 years ago.

So, simply bringing the WordStar program out of technology's trash was trivial. What Sawyer's done, which is why the program's getting so much attention again, is he took the trouble to make it easy to use again.

Sawyer wrote on his blog:

There was no proper archive of WordStar for DOS 7.0 available online, so I decided to create one. I've put weeks of work into this. Included are not only full installs of the program (as well as images of the installation disks) but also plug-and-play solutions for running WordStar for DOS 7.0 under Windows, and also complete full-text-searchable PDF versions of all seven manuals that came with WordStar — over a thousand pages of documentation.

I've also included lots of my own explanations on how to use and customize WordStar, as well as many WordStar-related utility programs and numerous other goodies.

You can download the archive and check it out for yourself. It gives you everything you need to get up to speed with WordStar.

With a DOS emulator program -- Sawyer and I both recommend DOSBox-- you can run WordStar on Linux, Macs, and Windows PCs. I'm using it myself on my latest Linux Mint PC. To see if I still had the commands at my fingertips, I wrote this story in WordStar. I've still got the skills.

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If the WordStar command set and its no-frills interface appeal to you, but you don't want to set up a DOS emulator and then install WordStar on it, there are alternatives. The JOE editor comes with the WordStar command set and the same nothing-but-words interface for Linux and Windows.

Now, I'm not pretending WordStar is for everyone. For example, while you can transform WordStar documents to the Word doc format, it can be tricky. But the software is more than just a blast-from-the-past nostalgia trip. Even in 2024, WordStar is still a useful word processor.

It's distraction-free. You can't insert images into it, you can forget about fancy formatting, and the interface is as simple as simple can be. When you want to write quickly without anything getting between you and your words, it's hard to beat.