Re: [Trisquel-users] need examples of non-free format abandonment

[andrew]

ISTR a web article by an author/writer back in the day about how by the time  
of Office 95 Microsoft had abandoned Word v2 format.  He was annoyed to say  
the least, because as a writer he needed long term access to his text.  
Fortunately he hadn't thrown away the old computer with Word 2 on. He moved  
to ASCII as it was then.  I can't find the article again on a quick search,  
but it might be worth a dig.

You might also try writing to the secretary of your local/regional GUIDE  
(z/OS) and VMSHARE (z/VM) user groups.  Mainframe owners were on the case of  
open formats when I started in software back in '84. Unless they've changed  
lots don't mention W$ to them, it's not polite, generally mainframe people  
hate it with a passion.