Proprietary file format lock in
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| This I feel is the greatest problem for people, especially academics
| when wanting to switch to GNU/Linux. Many people in my family work at
| universities in the UK. These people would happily switch to GNU/Linux
| tomorrow if it could run their .doc and other proprietary file formats
| properly.
|
| [...]
|
| So what are these people to do? An option is that the academics install
| GNU/Linux and if they receive a proprietary file format such as .doc
| that they email the people that sent it with a message for them asking
| for the document in a free format. The problem is that academics are
| terribly busy people, especially with the looming RAE. They hardly have
| time to reply to the emails sent with the file in a proprietary format,
| having to ask for files in a free format would be too time consuming.
|
| Since academics don't have time to fight against the norm, which in
| their institutions are proprietary file formats, the only way I see to
| fix this problem is to change the norm. If the norm were to use free and
| open file formats such as the Open Document Format they would not be
| tied into an operating system...
|
| [...]
|
| Not only would moving to free and open file formats give choice of
| operating system back to the academic, it would also mean that the cash
| strapped Universities wouldn't have to shell out on as many licenses for
| products such as MS Office. It could also mean that they themselves could
| switch to operating systems such as GNU/Linux and save money on operating
| system licenses as well as being able to use older hardware for longer
| (with the right distribution of GNU/Linux).
|
| Another reason academic institutions should strongly consider free and
| open file formats is for history's sake...
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http://www.libervis.com/proprietary_file_format_lock_in
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