On 2011-03-04 14:32, Mark Rages wrote: > On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Gerhard Fiedler > wrote: >> Joe Koberg wrote: >> >>> Getting bitten by proprietary vendor file formats is common. Try to >>> find something to open old WordPerfect documents with some accuracy! >>> >>> This is one of the biggest reasons to choose open source software and >>> software that uses open file formats to me. The vendor can't >>> disappear. >> >> >> IMO this is not much different (albeit some) from keeping the last >> WordPerfect installer around if you need to read WordPerfect files. If >> it is not available anymore, there's no guarantee that the sources would >> still be available in a buildable form if it had been open source. >> > It's a lot different from WordPerfect, because the subversion is Free > software. This means sources and binaries are legitimately mirrored Right.... The whole point is that if you use a proprietary VCS, you=20 might tend to have the vendor disappear, just like WordPerfect did. The=20 person to which I replied said that he disliked VCS's because the vendor=20 might disappear, locking his repository from being accessed in the=20 future. He had seemingly used a proprietary VCS in the past. If you use open source software and open file formats, this can't=20 happen. ZIP, as well as SVN and Git repos (not to mention ODF and PDF)=20 are such formats. That was the whole point of mentioning WordPerfect. Joe Koberg --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .