WordStar, the MS-DOS word processing app predating WordPerfect and MS Word, is the word processing application on which George R.R. Martin is still not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire. Ars Technica posts:
But many writers loved and still love WordStar, a word processor notably good for actual writing. As computers moved on from DOS to Windows, and word programs grew to encompass features that strayed far from organizing words on a page, WordStar hung back, whether in DOS emulation or in the hearts of its die-hard fans.
One of those fans is Robert J. Sawyer, an award-winning science fiction author still using the program last updated in 1992.
Deciding that the app is now “abandonware,” Sawyer recently put together as complete a version of WordStar 7 as might exist. He bundled together over 1,000 pages of scanned manuals that came with WordStar, related utilities, his own README guidance, ready-to-run versions of DOSBox-X and VDosPlus, and WordStar 7 Rev. D and posted them on his website as the “Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive.”
As noted by The Register, Sawyer is also taking on the calculated risk of publicly declaring WordStar 7 abandoned. The program’s path from a CP/M app by MicroPro onward is winding, being shoved into a half-baked office suite, acquired by SoftKey, which became the Learning Company, acquired by Mattel, spun off to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep, and is now the archival property of—well, nobody’s quite sure.