One technology memory is associated
with Word Perfect. Word Perfect came into being when I was a BYU student. I
worked in the Business Office of the Wilkinson Center, and we used a
rudimentary, beta version of Word Perfect in our office. As someone who was
majoring in English and writing very long papers on a manual typewriter, Word Perfect seemed like such an amazing thing. I really, really liked it. I
graduated, and we moved to Palo Alto where my husband got his masters in computer science.
While we were there I went to a technology conference with him, and who did I
see there? Young enthusiastic presenters from BYU pushing Word Perfect. Wow. I
was excited. Word Perfect was going to be big. Over the next few years I didn’t
do much with computers, but then my husband and I bought our first computer--333
MG of storage--if I remember correctly. It was a windows computer, but it came
with Word Perfect. Of course we quickly ran out of space on that computer, and
the next one we bought came with MS Word. Oh my. I did not like Word, and I
talked my husband into putting Word Perfect on in. Two or three years later, we
got another new computer, once again carrying Word. I asked my husband to put
Word Perfect on it, and he said, "Honey, I think you’d better just learn to use
Word, as I think Word Perfect’s days are numbered." I fought the idea, but
eventually I gave in, and within two or three years, Word had completely taken
over, and my beloved WP was no more. Thus I feel I lived through the whole
lifespan of that company.
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