> If you need to send work to a msoffice user, just send OpenDocument. Office can open them. Should there issues, it's more likely to be their bug, not libreoffice's.
In the real world, we can't all afford to be this idealistic. When I need to send someone a document for work purposes and they can't open my .odt file in MS Word (something that frequently happens to me), I'm not going to say "You need to get used to working with the standard document format. It isn't my problem that you can't open it - it's more likely to be your bug, not Libreoffce's". I'm going to send them a .docx so that we can both get on with our work.
MS Office has officially supported ODT for years. Are you sending files to people using decade old versions of MS word, or are you using too recent a version of ODT, or are is MS's ODT support incredibly buggy or what?
>MS Office has officially supported ODT for years. [...], or are is MS's ODT support incredibly buggy or what?
The bugs of programs trying to read others' file formats goes both ways. LibreOffice has problems reading some *.docx files -- and likewise -- Microsoft Word has problems reading some *.odt files.
That type of interoperability issue also happen with *.xlsx and *.ods spreadsheets that have non-trivial formatting or advanced functionality.
The advice of "just use the OpenDocument format" is not that simple because round-trip fidelity of the file may not be 100% preserved depending on what features of the software the collaborators use.
MS Office should be able to open and display ODT correctly but MS Office will produce "rainbow" ODT, ODT with extensions that diverge. I can't find the reference/source at the moment, I will update ASAP.
> Are you sending files to people using decade old
it's sadly not that rear
> or are is MS's ODT support incredibly buggy or what?
Sometimes, _especially_ if it's the "web" Word 365, which in my experience is really good in messing up files including ironically docx files (through I haven't used it in the last ~2 years so maybe it got better).
and yet they will happily say to you: "just get software compatible with a shitty office suite from a crappy company determined to kill interoperability" and expect you to eat it.
I think that's reasonable though. I haven't used Windows or any Microsoft product for over 10 years. However, I accept that that means I use software which is relatively obscure and unpopular. I'm happy with my choice, but I don't expect to enforce it on others, and I think it's entirely reasonable (even if it doesn't personally please me) that when communicating with others for work purposes I should use a medium that is used by virtually everyone else rather than expecting them to adopt mine.
question, how far does this logic go? would you expect people to consider the environmental ramifications if they use a v12 20liter car to go to the grocery store every day? or whether its proper to prepare A LOT of food and just throw out what you dont eat?
Why is responsibility for the software YOU decide to use somehow not something you get, but responsibility for the car you choose to drive is most certainly something you get
The world would be a lot better if people didn't use obnoxious tools for jobs. No, you shouldn't be commuting in your truck that is a tool meant to haul things. Doubly so if it's within walking distance and the weather conditions are favorable.
When I want to collaborate I send a fillable pdf. If I need more collaboration than that obviously mailing back and forth a document in any format is not going to cut it so we're using google doc et al.
In the real world, we can't all afford to be this idealistic. When I need to send someone a document for work purposes and they can't open my .odt file in MS Word (something that frequently happens to me), I'm not going to say "You need to get used to working with the standard document format. It isn't my problem that you can't open it - it's more likely to be your bug, not Libreoffce's". I'm going to send them a .docx so that we can both get on with our work.