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

Edwin

On Sun, 2011-09-11 at 20:28 -0400, Edwin Powell wrote: 

> 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 think you hit the nail on the head, MSO is the defacto standard in the
corporate world. The issue is whether LO has good enough compatibility
for most users. For me the answer is yes it does. As you noted below
many have to share files with other users who may not even be aware of
someone using LO.


> 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



-- 
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com

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