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Even the giants can die. And as they do, their willingness to help you export your data from their proprietary formats and products will decrease at a rate fast

Even the giants can die. And as they do, their willingness to help you export your data from their proprietary formats and products will decrease at a rate faster than the neccessity of doing so. Properitary software is a short sighted choice, and probably one made by people with greased pockets. It's difficult to get funding to work on open source software. Governments are a natural source, but time and time again bribery fucks everything up.

beefhash 9y ago
Would it be wrong to say that Microsoft is "too big to fail", similar to some banks? I'd expect governments to actually try and save Microsoft precisely because of this situation.
- AnthonyMouse 9y ago
  > Would it be wrong to say that Microsoft is "too big to fail", similar to some banks? I'd expect governments to actually try and save Microsoft precisely because of this situation. It doesn't really work like that. If Microsoft fails, it will be slow. You don't go from 90% installed base to 0% installed base overnight. There is no point at which they still have enough customers to be too big to fail but don't have enough to continue operating. But as businesses transition to something else, they have to pay the transition cost. Which is a lot higher when changing market conditions force you to transition unexpectedly than when you have the foresight to plan and get ahead of the curve.
bunderbunder 9y ago
Office's formats are now open, and have been for a long time, now - they're basically just zip archives full of XML files. Whether they're easier or harder to work with is maybe a topic for debate. My experience from working with them is that OXML tends to be easier to work with than ODF in simple cases, in part because of better open source library support on more languages, and more StackOverflow-type advice. (Yes, open source support for the Microsoft formats really is quite a bit better than for the OpenOffice ones these days.) But it also tends to be the one that produces really gnarly compound documents that are just impossible to make sense of. I'm not sure that's because the format allows for more complexity, though, so much as because MS Office makes it easier for the kinds of people who use templates that look like spiral bound notebooks with Comic Sans type to create trouble.

beefhash 9y ago

Would it be wrong to say that Microsoft is "too big to fail", similar to some banks? I'd expect governments to actually try and save Microsoft precisely because of this situation.

AnthonyMouse 9y ago
> Would it be wrong to say that Microsoft is "too big to fail", similar to some banks? I'd expect governments to actually try and save Microsoft precisely because of this situation. It doesn't really work like that. If Microsoft fails, it will be slow. You don't go from 90% installed base to 0% installed base overnight. There is no point at which they still have enough customers to be too big to fail but don't have enough to continue operating. But as businesses transition to something else, they have to pay the transition cost. Which is a lot higher when changing market conditions force you to transition unexpectedly than when you have the foresight to plan and get ahead of the curve.

bunderbunder 9y ago

Office's formats are now open, and have been for a long time, now - they're basically just zip archives full of XML files. Whether they're easier or harder to work with is maybe a topic for debate. My experience from working with them is that OXML tends to be easier to work with than ODF in simple cases, in part because of better open source library support on more languages, and more StackOverflow-type advice. (Yes, open source support for the Microsoft formats really is quite a bit better than for the OpenOffice ones these days.) But it also tends to be the one that produces really gnarly compound documents that are just impossible to make sense of. I'm not sure that's because the format allows for more complexity, though, so much as because MS Office makes it easier for the kinds of people who use templates that look like spiral bound notebooks with Comic Sans type to create trouble.