From: "Antti Kurenniemi" 

"mike"  wrote in message
news:eq3963td0a5qebme2ki0fhd0p88uha5e6u{at}4ax.com...
>>WTF would them wankers have to do with the contents of my docs? The whole
>>reason why MS changed the format was the openoffice/opensource people
>>crying
>>for an open document format
>
> Really, that was the whole reason?
>
> To me, the reason is more of a forced upgrade, since the older
> versions of MS Office cannot read the new format,

Yes they can, there's a free downloadable plugin from MS, plus the new
versions can write old versions at will. All that's changed is the default,
which was the only way to go because otherwise nobody would've ever used
the new file formats.

>>, and now you wouldn't use it 'cause it's from MS? Sheesh...
>
> I suspect the reluctance might be due to Microsoft's IP saber-rattling
> of late.  Would *you* want to use the IP of a company that has been
> threatening lawsuits for such things?

That's only a "problem" if you're ahmurrican or otherwise paranoid.


Antti Kurenniemi

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