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

If LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org did not support M$ Office file  
formats, nobody would support them. Like it or not, the M$ Office  
file formats, both the older ones and the newer XML based ones, are  
the defacto industry standards. The greatest marketing point that OOo  
and its variants, including LibreOffice, have is reasonably good  
compatibility with M$ Office. That's what makes them a viable  
alternative for most users. They can download this software for free  
that does most everything M$ Office does and does it reasonably well.  
It doesn't do it 100 percent perfectly, but it does it reasonably  
well and and that's good for most people who choose the free  
alternatives. They can get their work done and they can share files  
fairly seamlessly with others, most of whom are using M$ Office.

I actually have both M$ Office and LibreOffice on my computer but  
most of the time I choose to use LibreOffice because I like the way  
the software works. I like the integrated approach as opposed to  
separate applications and I like the fact it's not a M$ product. I  
share files with M$ Office users on a regular basis and most are  
unaware that I'm using something other than M$ Office. That's just  
how good it is. But if it didn't support the M$ Office file formats,  
I would have no use for it because file sharing is a necessity.

That's the bottom line as I see it.

Edwin

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