Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: OpenOffice to be dumped in Freiburg ?

On 11/19/2012 02:24 PM, VA wrote:
> At the risk of getting political, the last thing I want is my 
> government dictating to me what kind of file format to use on my 
> documents.
>
> Virgil
The issue is not truly political if the agreed standards are used by all 
- it levels the playing field and tends to lower costs for consumers.
> -----Original Message----- From: Jay Lozier
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 2:16 PM
> To: users@global.libreoffice.org
> Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: OpenOffice to be dumped in 
> Freiburg ?
>
> On 11/19/2012 01:13 PM, Steven Bradley wrote:
> > I remember this discussion a few years back, when MSO was the defacto
> > standard, and a moving target. One of the most important things for any
> > agency, company government, or individual is backward compatibility. 
> > I have
> > many documents that are difficult for me to retrieve, and I wrote 
> > them less
> > than 20 years ago, using DOS programs.  I can only imagine what 
> > things will
> > be like in 30 years for those "old" files. I believe it's of paramount
> > importance, even in this age of rapid development and change, to realize
> > that electronic storage of documents is the wave of the future. They 
> > must
> > all be stored in a simple-to-access format that any program can read, 
> > not
> > just the latest flavor of the "big boy."  I am actually fairly concerned
> > about this, since the concept of proprietary file types has never been
> > addressed by any government agency (it would be easy, for example, 
> > for the
> > USGovt to mandate that all files be maintained with the formatting in a
> > separate file.  If a large govt (China, the US, EU) mandated that simple
> > change, then all files would cease to be proprietary, except for 
> > formatting
> > changes.  One might lose the formats, but the file itself would have a
> > permanence that most files do not now have.  I might also suggest 
> > that the
> > file formatting be subject to some sort of regulation (yes, they CAN do
> > that!), which makes all formatting retrievable, no matter how long it's
> > been since the file was created.
> > Otherwise, we'll all lose a huge amount of information.
> > That's my opinion.  YMMV....
> > Steve Bradley
> Add to file formats, ability to read the old media (floppies, zip-disks,
> etc). Back to your point, it will probably take government action to
> force the use of ODF or similar standard formats over any proprietary
> formats. I am waiting for the MSO version that drops support for doc and
> related formats.
>
> <snip>


--
Jay Lozier
jslozier@gmail.com


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