Re: [libreoffice-users] Should LibreOffice even support Microsoft secret formats?

On 2011-09-11, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote:

> On 09/10/2011 04:08 PM, Anthony Papillion wrote:
> > I agree, but is not supporting saving in secret formats really
> > isolating them from the rest of the world? Especially if the other
> > software can read the open format, wouldn't it be preferable to just
> > tell them 'don't worry about it, you're compatible' and leave it at
> > that? Besides, I'd think that creating a plugin that helps Microsoft
> > Offices users read .odf files is a lot easier than constantly playing
> > catchup with the secret Microsoft formats.
>
> When you have a deliverable in a MSO format, then you must deliver in
> an MSO format. This is often not negotiable.
>
> If I spend you a document and then tell you "yeah, now here is a list
> of steps to download and install a plug-in that I sure hope works on
> your version of MSO and operating system", well, you just the
> non-technical people.

That's more or less what happens (if the recipient is lucky) when
someone sends an OOXML file to an MS Office 2000 user.

> The only company that I have seen successfully do this is Photo
> Shop. I understand that if you have photo shop deliverables, then you
> really need to use exactly the same version as that used by the
> client. Pretty much everyone else that does this seems to have
> problems in the market.

I guess in the PSP case, their file format is not supposed to be used
for deliverables and information interchange.

But the issue with Microsoft, and that's why Tony is right when he says
creating a plugin is easier, is that Microsoft changes formats as a
market strategy. What changed is that in the recent years some
governments finally understood you can't rely on closed formats, and as
"open standard" became a buzzword, Microsoft built their own standard.

This probably doesn't prevent Microsoft from designing a new,
incompatible version of the standard for the next release of their
office suite. Hence the catching up problem.

-- 
Nuno J. Silva (aka njsg)
gopher://sdf-eu.org/1/users/njsg

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