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Comment by ocdtrekkie | Hacker News Reader

100%, the file format compatibility drama is long over. I have no issues at home using Excel files with LibreOffice. Microsoft has not meaningfully changed any Office file format in fifteen years, you can go all the way back to Office 2007 (with the compatibility pack) and open modern documents.

Office has no issues with ODS formats either. This is a purely performative exercise.

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Compatibility isn't the problem it's requiring proprietary tech when you've specified requiring open tech.

Office formats have also, as mentioned in the source link, been an open standard for fifteen years. It may not be the better open standard, but it is an open standard, and it works fine, including with LibreOffice's software, for many years.

This is like if Google was whining someone sent them a JPG instead of a WebP. Not invented here syndrome more than an actual openness complaint.

It's also stupid and self-defeating: The top reason people disregard LibreOffice as an option at work is because people believe it's incompatible with the Office everyone else uses. And it's NOT! But if LibreOffice itself keeps promoting misinformation about its own software, it's going to continue to be obscure in business.

LibreOffice is better software and deserves better marketing than this incredibly dumb claim made above.

> Office formats have also, as mentioned in the source link, been an open standard for fifteen years.

No, they haven't. See:

https://fossforce.com/2026/02/why-ooxml-is-not-a-standard-fo...

I mean, ODF has been a standard; what Microsoft uses isn't.

Well, first of all, your source is the same author as the blog post. Second, a messy standard is still a standard.

And the biggest problem is by claiming it doesn't handle OOXML well, LibreOffice sabotages its own marketability. This blog is exactly what you write if you want to torpedo LibreOffice's success in the business environment.

You can not like Office or Office's file formats, but it's important to understand that it is table stakes for LibreOffice to promote how well it handles those formats and how safely it can be used as a replacement for Microsoft Office in an environment dominated by it.

> you can go all the way back to Office 2007 (with the compatibility pack) and open modern documents

Great, I can open proprietary document formats with proprietary software. I think you are missing the point of this "performative exercise".

You can also open all of those documents with LibreOffice. My point is the support LibreOffice has for Office documents is fine and not at all a problem, because Office formats have not meaningfully changed over time and they have been supported in LibreOffice for all of that time.

The comission has themselves made the commitment to reduce the reliance on exactly such standards. You are arguing for a position that they themselves aren't even arguing for as they recognize the importance of the problem.

By your logic, it would have been fine for Apple to stick with the Lightning port for charging because USB->Lightning charging ports are widely available so "it's not a problem at all".

No, because Lightning is not an open standard. OOXML has been an open standard for nearly two decades.

And a big issue for me is this blog post hurts LibreOffice because the largest reason enterprises won't touch it is that it is perceived as incompatible even when that compatibility works just fine.

If success and good marketing was the focus, LibreOffice would happily promote that it will take any file format they get because they have robust interoperable software that doesn't actually mind handling XLSX!

In another way, LibreCalc is a better old Excel file reader than Office 365...

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