From: recscuba_google@huntzinger.com   
      
   On 1/27/26 15:37, CrudeSausage wrote:   
   > On Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:35:54 -0500, -hh wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 1/26/26 19:43, CrudeSausage wrote:   
   >>> On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:44:59 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:57:02 -0500, DFS wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> On 1/26/2026 3:30 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>> And yet they can produce a higher-quality distribution than   
   >>>>>> Microsoft can manage with an operating budget several orders of   
   >>>>>> magniture greater.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> You know better than that.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> All I know is, one outfit has done, not one, but *two* “emergency”   
   >>>> patches for serious problems with this month’s update, while the other   
   >>>> has not.   
   >>>   
   >>> Like I've said before, it's just a matter of time before DFS is   
   >>> affected by one of these updates and potentially loses all his previous   
   >>> Excel files. When his computer become unbootable or he loses tons of   
   >>> data for no good reason, he might realize that Linux is not so bad.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Well, MS has been known to abandon their own MS-Office formats, but this   
   >> does raise an interesting question on if they're unique in doing this.   
   >>   
   >> For example, I can recall past advocacy claims about how one doesn't   
   >> need to pay for MS-Office because their files are compatible in some of   
   >> the FOSS "Office" products.  Was this a correct & true statement?   
   >>   
   >> FWIW, I'm guessing Open Office and/or Libre Office were likely examples.   
   >>   
   >> Because if that is so...   
   >>   
   >> ...doesn't this together then imply that the issue of MS file format   
   >> abandonment is solved by simply using a current copy of OO/LO to open   
   >> those ancient formats, because they never abandoned their compatibility?   
   >>   
   >> FWIW, I have an ancient PowerPoint that I've kept for years, as I'd like   
   >> to recover to its original format:  it is available as a test case.   
   >   
   > For me, the only way to make sure that a document written in a format does   
   > not eventually get lost or suffer from incompatibility is to use a format   
   > which is by default open, with OpenDocument being the only one which is   
   > truly open.   
      
   A reasonably fair point ... today ...   
      
   But it wasn't really something that we thought about 30+ years ago.   
      
   Plus this observation doesn't really address the question that I'm   
   posing, which is that since FOSS clones have been around for NN years,   
   have they done a better job in being backwards-compatible to Microsoft's   
   older and now orphaned file formats?   
      
      
   -hh   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)