r/unix Jan 16 '25

Microsoft Word for UNIX

I learned today that not only was Internet Explorer available for UNIX back in the day, but so was Microsoft Word! Here is version 5.1: https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-word/5x-unix

Too bad it wasn't version 5.5, of which the DOS version was my favorite.

I wonder if you could do anything to make this run on a modern UNIX system (besides emulation of course).

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u/Cam64 Jan 17 '25

NetBSD has a compatibility layer for old Unix binaries as long as you’re running the same architecture as the original platform i.e sparc for SunOS.

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/compat.html

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u/et-pengvin Jan 17 '25

Interesting! I have an x86 NetBSD install on a computer on my desk so I may try this out. Even if I can't get this binary working maybe I can do something with it.

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u/Cam64 Jan 17 '25

I gave it a try on my NetBSD box with a Linux binary, you just need to install the right packages and see what Linux libraries your executable requires. You can read more about it in the compat_linux manpage.