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   The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 00:47:15 JST The FreeDOS Project

   Did anyone else use Galaxy, the shareware DOS word processor?

   Here's my look back:

   https://technicallywewrite.com/2023/08/20/galaxy

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 00:49:42 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     Short version: It was a great alternative to WordPerfect. but it doesn't show page breaks or full justification.

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     Guilherme Dellagustin (dellagustin@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 04:59:12 JST Guilherme Dellagustin

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     @freedosproject I think I found a small error on the text "such as bright white for bold, green for italics, and light blue for italics.", the second italics should be underline.

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:33:27 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Guilherme Dellagustin

     @dellagustin Good catch - fixed!! 👍

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:36:57 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Chip

     @bytex64 Very cool! I'd love to keep experimenting with Galaxy, but it looks like it has a limiter after X number of runs, or Y number of days (seems like 1 month).

     I suppose I could put it on a separate VM disk image and just keep refreshing the image. 🤔

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     Chip (bytex64@awesome.garden)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:36:58 JST Chip

     in reply to

     @freedosproject I used a shareware version of Galaxy a ton when I was a kid. It still puts me in a good head space to write when I bring it up today.

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:37:52 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Stevan

     @withaveeay Galaxy was indeed fast, especially on my '386 at the time. I don't think you can change the key bindings though - I didn't see an option for that in the menus.

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     Stevan (withaveeay@mastodon.scot)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:37:53 JST Stevan

     in reply to

     @freedosproject Yes! I'm pretty sure it could be set up too use Wordstar commands, a challenging learning curve, but it was worth it, as I still use those with the joe editor, and must-install on my linux boxen.
     Galaxy was incredibly fast too, as I recall.

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     Jan v/d Broek (balglaas@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:39:33 JST Jan v/d Broek

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     @freedosproject No, this is the first time I'm hearing about its existence. I used TeX (and still do) because of the price. WP costed about 1000 guilders, a CD-rom with a complete installation only fifty.

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:39:33 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Jan v/d Broek

     @balglaas WordPerfect was definitely expensive - they pretty much owned the office word processor market at the time, so I guess they leveraged that.

     $300 for the student edition for me. 💸

     $99 for Galaxy, and it did everything (and more) that WP would do.

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 06:43:10 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Jan v/d Broek

     @balglaas Interestingly, Galaxy was my last desktop word processor. After that, I dual-installed Linux with DOS on my home PC.

     No word processor for Linux in 1993, so I learned nroff (groff) to write class papers, and LaTeX if I needed equations. (LaTeX on Linux - emTeX on DOS, just to have the same env on both.)

     I still enjoy writing with markup languages. (I like groff -me) 🤓

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 09:18:02 JST The FreeDOS Project

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     • Chip

     @bytex64 I should be clear: I'm seeing that limitation because I'm running the unregistered shareware copy. galaxy30.zip

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     Chip (bytex64@awesome.garden)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 09:18:03 JST Chip

     in reply to

     @freedosproject Oh interesting. The version I had definitely didn’t have that limitation. I used it for years. When I’m back at my computer I’ll try to track down the particular version I had.

     The FreeDOS Project repeated this.
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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 12:17:53 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Chip

     @bytex64 What a great find! 👍

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     Chip (bytex64@awesome.garden)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 12:18:10 JST Chip

     in reply to

     @freedosproject Alright, found it. So I have, archived from an old floppy disk, the shareware version of Galaxy 2.3. At this point, it wasn't aiming at WordPerfect - it was definitely a WordStar clone. There was no tracking of how many times or how long you use it at this point.

     I also have a shareware copy of 2.42 that I got from the web somewhere. It's very similar, but it has a slightly updated logo. It does track how many times you use it (but I don't know if it cuts you off).

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     Stevan (withaveeay@mastodon.scot)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 18:56:48 JST Stevan

     in reply to

     @freedosproject Ah - must be mis-remembering the key bindings - personal capacitors need replaced after all this time. I do recall the speed of Galaxy and AsEasyAs in comparison with fully commercial frontrunners at the time though.

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     The FreeDOS Project (freedosproject@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 18:56:48 JST The FreeDOS Project

     in reply to

     • Stevan
     • Chip

     @withaveeay Maybe not, though. Chip (@bytex64) found older copies of Galaxy that look to be inspired by Wordstar. Maybe these versions used WS key bindings?

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     Stevan (withaveeay@mastodon.scot)'s status on Monday, 21-Aug-2023 20:31:38 JST Stevan

     in reply to

     • Chip

     @freedosproject @bytex64 Phew! I'm cracking up slower than previously thought.
     To check, I hauled out my version from 1987, and here's a screenshot showing "Format WS"
     It seems to work with the keystrokes I tried.