It seems like a lot of european countries have started becoming more concerned with digital sovereignty and some have begun enforcing using open formats like ODF / ODS

I’m struggling to find support though. A lot of software seems to open ODS files but force the XLSX format on save.

I’d expect something like OnlyOffice to have support since it’s used by the French government and the government of their German neighbours is enforcing ODS usage + there should be a reasonable library they could import to make it work without a large overhead

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
    16·
    2 days ago

    Microsoft had an almost total stranglehold on Office productivity software for about 3 decades, only their formats really mattered. I think they still have over 3/4 of business & enterprise market share.

    Google’s productivity suite is probably in 2nd place in terms of usage today (much more popular than office outside of business) which I believe doesn’t have an external file format, followed by either LibreOffice (via OpenOffice, the originator of ODF) or maybe even the Apple suite.

    Essentially the support isn’t super ubiquitous because, especially until recently, the percentage of documents created in that format is quite small compared to the Microsoft formats

    • NotSteve_@piefed.caEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      I vaguely remember reading an article about Microsoft fully supporting the creation of ODF but only to influence its direction towards being a convuluted and limited document format so they could both argue they weren’t a monopoly and ensure their monopoly

    • porcoesphino@mander.xyzOP
      1·
      1 day ago

      Yeah, I get why Microsofts formats are entrenched

      I don’t so much get why they aren’t mostly export formats since:

      1. A proprietary format seems like it would be more error prone to use as the only format you edit documents in
      2. I presumed there would be some overhead like fees to using microsoft formats
      3. With governments caring more about digital sovereignty, I thought there would be better placed suppliers

      I guess #3 will just take time and to them there is risk that Trump leaves and everyone goes back to Microsoft

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 day ago

        Oh, I feel like I’ve gotta let you know the (post 2003/7?) Microsoft formats are technically “open” in that the spec is available for anyone to implement, license free

        They saw ODF coming and made sure to kneecap any advantage

        #3 is an incredibly recent development. You don’t need to go back even half a decade before everyone was happily gargling Microsoft

        • porcoesphino@mander.xyzOP
          2·
          1 day ago

          Ah! They are open? Partly my bad then. I also wondered if ODF was written in a way that prohibited online collaboration, or at least made it very expensive.

          Yeah, on #3 I think I misremembered how far back France started using open source. Hopefully this means more ODF native options