http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/2005/11/23/microsoft-to-open-up-office-formats/ Open Source > Linux > LQ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:24:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/2005/11/23/microsoft-to-open-up-office-formats/#comment-207 Anonymous Wed, 23 Nov 2005 22:21:57 +0000 http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/2005/11/23/microsoft-to-open-up-office-formats/#comment-207 This is indeed a worry if the open source products are constantly playing catch-up. The only thing that I can see being a problem though with the idea is that all those people who are using Office version X will need to upgrade their version to be compatible with version X+1 (at least be able to read the new 'open' file format). This could be easily done I suppose if they are using the new web delivered Office (i.e. everyone uses the new format) but I'm still not convinced that all Microsoft Office users will be able to use the new formats without making changes to their Office software. That in effect would defeat the purpose of the 'open' file format and would be exactly the same problem that currently exists - oh, I see the problem now! This is indeed a worry if the open source products are constantly playing catch-up.
The only thing that I can see being a problem though with the idea is that all those people who are using Office version X will need to upgrade their version to be compatible with version X+1 (at least be able to read the new 'open' file format). This could be easily done I suppose if they are using the new web delivered Office (i.e. everyone uses the new format) but I'm still not convinced that all Microsoft Office users will be able to use the new formats without making changes to their Office software. That in effect would defeat the purpose of the 'open' file format and would be exactly the same problem that currently exists - oh, I see the problem now!

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