A new open-source word processor called WordCraft has become the primary writing tool for at least one longtime Linux user, according to a review published by Yahoo!ニュース on 20 October 2026. The reviewer, a professional writer who had relied on LibreOffice Writer and Apple Pages for years, describes the app as an impressive early release that already handles demanding editorial work. The review says the article itself was written in WordCraft.
WordCraft was built by the team led by Brandon Thomas, the same group that previously used AI and the Rust programming language to reverse-engineer Adobe Photoshop and produce an app called PhotoCraft, according to the review. The team reportedly applied the same approach to other Adobe products, including Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat, After Effects and InDesign, before turning to Microsoft Word.
Why it matters
For years, the reviewer argues, Linux users have been left out of conversations about Microsoft Word, and that gap has been one reason many people avoided adopting Linux. WordCraft ships in Linux, macOS and Windows versions from the start, which the reviewer says removes that excuse. The review also positions the app as a direct answer to long-standing complaints about LibreOffice, particularly its handling of comments and tracked changes.
The reviewer's own history illustrates the problem. They say they often turned to Apple Pages when writing novels, for one reason only: collaboration. Their publisher's editor works in Microsoft Word, and the reviewer found LibreOffice's review tools too poor to use. Pages brought its own trouble, though. The reviewer reports occasional error messages claiming a document does not exist and therefore cannot be saved, even mid-session, and says the cause has never been explained. Work has been lost to that behaviour.
Speed and review tools draw praise
The reviewer's first surprise was performance. They describe WordCraft as the fastest-launching full-featured word processor they have encountered, with an interface that responds instantly. The review compares the reaction to the one the same team's PhotoCraft release provoked.
The bigger gain, according to the review, is in editorial work. LibreOffice's comment and change-tracking features, the reviewer says, are unusable on long manuscripts; they recall LibreOffice crashing while trying to open a book manuscript containing hundreds of comments. WordCraft, by contrast, handles such documents without trouble, the review states.
The reviewer also prefers how WordCraft presents revisions and comments. LibreOffice shows tracked changes in a pop-up window, which the reviewer calls awkward and inefficient. Because WordCraft closely reproduces Microsoft Word's behaviour, the review says, collaborative editing runs smoothly, and it rates the app above every other open-source word processor on this point.
The interface cannot be customised, according to the review, but its familiar design means new users should get comfortable quickly. The reviewer would like customisation options eventually but does not consider the lack a serious fault given how well the app works overall.
A familiar dilemma for open-source loyalists
The review addresses the obvious question of why the writer does not simply use Microsoft Word. The reviewer says switching is not that simple for people who have spent years with open-source software and Linux, and notes that no Linux version of Word exists. Microsoft 365 is an option, but the reviewer is reluctant to depend on an external service for writing work.
The review does not present WordCraft as flawless. It is described as an alpha release that is not perfect, though remarkably usable for its stage. The piece is structured around strengths first and weaknesses second, with the criticisms promised for later in the article rather than detailed in the section summarised here.
What the review makes clear is that the app has already displaced the reviewer's previous tools for daily work. Whether that experience holds for other writers, and how the team addresses the shortcomings the review flags, will be the things to watch as WordCraft moves beyond its alpha stage.
