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How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

blog.documentfoundation.org

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Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#11

Post by whateverboat »

"Have become"?

Always have been. It's like people have forgotten Halloween Documents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

> In discussing ways of competing with open source, Document I suggests that one reason that open source projects had been able to enter the server market is the market's use of standardized protocols. The document then suggests that this can be stopped by "extending these protocols and developing new protocols" and "de-commoditiz[ing] protocols & applications". This policy has been internally nicknamed "embrace, extend, extinguish". Document I also suggests that open source software "is long-term credible ... FUD tactics can not be used to combat it", and "Recent case studies (the Internet) provide very dramatic evidence ... that commercial quality can be achieved / exceeded by OSS projects."

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#12

Post by preisschild »

consonaut wrote: post #9
whatever1 wrote: post #2

An ms shop wanted to share a folder from their onedrive with me. I could not access it until I signed up for a Microsoft account and forced to download their authenticator app.

I mean, I'm not going to defend Onedrive (aside form saying it "mostly works just like the rest") but how is it the app or the vendors fault that someone send you a link that required an account to access? There is an "anonymous access through this link" sharing option that does work as advertised. This works the same for Google drive and most of the other services. The problem is that most users don't understand tha…

The problem is also how much MS pushes Onedrive. In Outlook for example its very easy to accidentally upload your attachment to onedrive and sending a link instead of attaching the file to the email.

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#14

Post by tonyhart7 »

whateverboat wrote: post #11

"Have become"? Always have been. It's like people have forgotten Halloween Documents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents > In discussing ways of competing with open source, Document I suggests that one reason that open source projects had been able to enter the server market is the market's use of standardized protocols. The document then suggests that this can be stopped by "extending these protocols…

its been 20 years, their strategy now is to incorporate open source into their product offering

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#15

Post by preisschild »

est wrote: post #13

I think people should get over with "file formats" Cloud/browser based office tools were already a thing decade ago. Do we have an open format except .md ? Sadly no. Afterall, format is just a way to serialize features.

And what if those "cloud based office tools", which would be using proprietary file formats internally, shut down? Or heck, what if they announce to raise their pricing? All of your docs gone. No possibility to migrate.

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#16

Post by wazoox »

whatever1 wrote: post #2

An ms shop wanted to share a folder from their onedrive with me. I could not access it until I signed up for a Microsoft account and forced to download their authenticator app.

In case it can help, you don't need to install Microsoft authenticator. FreeOTP+, Aegis etc will do just as well.

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#17

Post by muglug »

FWIW, LLMs make this 95% less of a problem.

It’s possible to create read-only viewers for Word, Excel & PowerPoint files that are more-or-less pixel accurate on 99% of files, so long as the user has the correct fonts installed (or, in the case of the PowerPoint, they come embedded).

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#18

Post by nemo136 »

tonyhart7 wrote: post #14
whateverboat wrote: post #11

"Have become"? Always have been. It's like people have forgotten Halloween Documents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents > In discussing ways of competing with open source, Document I suggests that one reason that open source projects had been able to enter the server market is the market's use of standardized protocols. The document then suggests that this can be stopped by "extending these protocols…

its been 20 years, their strategy now is to incorporate open source into their product offering

Yeah, and block as much as possible the possibility to include their cash cow (office) in open source: the desktop Microsoft Office apps are impossible to run under Linux without a VM, and the web versions are a PITA and lack many necessary features.

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#19

Post by tpoacher »

h4kunamata wrote: post #8

This is one of the things the community is pissed with https://github.com/euro-office They are using Microsoft formats instead of the open-source one.

> Open Source is a global effort, but current political situation makes collaboration hard and trust difficult to earn. Especially when development is not transparent and open.

I find this an odd statement. I would understand an explanation that forking was chosen on ideological grounds, but, how is development "not transparent and open" in an open source project? Sounds a bit contradictory. Plus doesn't the fact that a fully functioning fork was performed effortlessly show that the project was indeed truly transparent and open?

Re: How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in

#20

Post by est »

preisschild wrote: post #15
est wrote: post #13

I think people should get over with "file formats" Cloud/browser based office tools were already a thing decade ago. Do we have an open format except .md ? Sadly no. Afterall, format is just a way to serialize features.

And what if those "cloud based office tools", which would be using proprietary file formats internally, shut down? Or heck, what if they announce to raise their pricing? All of your docs gone. No possibility to migrate.

Hmm, I believe there're many open-source self-hostable office solutions.

And they don't share a universal format.

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