Re: [Usability] Default document formats

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2005, Vidar Braut Haarr wrote:

> Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 11:28:42 +0200
> From: Vidar Braut Haarr <vhaarr+usability gmail com>
> To: usability gnome org
> Subject: [Usability] Default document formats
>
> My parents called me the other day and told me that their friends were
> unable to read any documents they send.
>
> I thought "well, they probably use Windows and MS Word", and of
> course, they did. So I instructed them as to how they should

> change the default save format in OOo2 and Abiword to MS Office 97, and
> now they're all happy.

> I realize that MS formats are not open and free,

> I filed a bug about this in the Ubuntu bugzilla today, but it was
> instantly resolved as WONTFIX, which I understand, but disagree with.

I do not want to get into this (I drafted a long reply which I have
abandoned) but there are tradeoffs and developers have taken the safer
option and not chosen the default you would prefer.

Both OpenOffice and Abiword provide an option to change the default save
format and there are distributions available which do so.

With all due respect I do not see how there is anything Gnome can be
reasonably be expected do about this situation.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/