This question was studied in considerable detail by Carl Shapiro and Hal
Varian (1998) Information rules: a strategic guide to the network
economy (Harvard U. Pr.). In brief, Shapiro and Varian say that
organizations with a small market share need to make the effort to make
it as easy as possible for others to use their product. Organizations
with a dominant market share may make more money being arrogant, making
it as difficult as possible for their customers to try a competitor's
product. Spencer
On 9/10/2011 1:51 PM, Anthony Papillion wrote:
Hi Dennis,
While I haven't looked at the list, I'd have to guess that the entirety of the
MSO file formats probably isn't documented since we don't have 100% MSO
compatibility in any open source office suite. Microsoft has done a good job of
opening up a lot of their specifications, but there is still more work to be
done.
Anthony
----------------------------------------
From: dennis.hamil...@acm.org
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Subject: RE: [libreoffice-users] Should LibreOffice even support Microsoft
secret formats?
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:14:57 -0700
Which formats to you consider to still be secret? Microsoft has provided
free-to-the-public, downloadable specifications for a great number of formats
and protocols.
Have you checked the lists of those?
[I am not objecting to the plug-in strategy either way, just wondering whether
secrecy of formats applies these days.]
- Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: anth...@cryptofreaks.tk [mailto:anth...@cryptofreaks.tk] On Behalf Of
Anthony Papillion
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2011 12:28
To: LibreOffice Mailing List
Subject: [libreoffice-users] Should LibreOffice even support Microsoft secret
formats?
I've been thinking a lot about this lately as many of my clients are coming to
LibreOffice from Microsoft Office and I deal with both packages quite a bit.
Many times, one of the first things I do once LibreOffice is set up is to show
clients how to save in Microsoft format as opposed to .odf. It's actually one
of the first questions they ask. Lately, I've been wondering about the wisdom
of an open source package actively supporting a secret format like the Office
ones.
Would it not be preferable to support *only* saving in the open document format
and then providing a plugin for Microsoft Office users who needed it? IMHO,
allowing users to save in secret formats just continues the problem. They're
still using proprietary software, just packaged a different way.
Thoughts?
Cheers,
Anthony
--
For unsubscribe instructions e-mail to: users+h...@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
--
For unsubscribe instructions e-mail to: users+h...@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
