@mr_harm @libreoffice Yes, ind orgs can set defaults on their local install.
It’s a human factor issue. Imagine you set ODF as default, everyone is happy with it but someone sends an OOXML file from MS Office which doesn’t render right in EO - it’s the sender’s problem. Save in ODF.
If OOXML is “standard”, then people blame EO for not opening it right, mgmt get complaints, maybe even recant and go back to MS because “EuroOffice doesn’t work”.

ODF *is* the native format for most office suites. Forcing MS users to use ODF (because the rest of us are on LO/EO/OO) makes MS treat ODF compatibility as a first class format. Allowing Redmond to dictate the terms on which other office suites interoperate is a bad idea and will stymie adoption.

Obviously there are millions of old docs in MS format. EO needs to open them. Doesn’t mean new docs going forward need to make the issue worse.

@mr_harm @libreoffice It puts you at the whim of MS. If MS change something in OOXML, everyone has to jump up and fix their implementation. Moreover, if MSOffice users send you a file which then doesn’t open properly in EuroOffice/OnlyOffice/LibreOffice then users will complain about “this new thing doesn’t work properly, why can’t we just use MSOffice like we always have?”.

For sure, if ODF changes, everyone needs to update. But that’s the result of a public committee decision and there will be a standards document describing the spec - not reverse-engineering whatever Redmond have done unilaterally.

If you default to a genuinely open spec like ODF, then in a couple of years when people are used to it, if an OOXML file doesn’t open, their instinct will be the at the sender is at fault, not them. And they’ll ask them to resend it in ODF.

In 2026, there’s just no reason to use proprietary formats for things like standard productivity suites.

@GossiTheDog Having read that essay this morning, this makes so much sense.
I’d just assumed it was down to his Institute’s income presumably being tied to the Davos crowd and his job being to make billionaires feel good about themselves.
But shilling his son’s grift works as well.