Something has GOT to be done about the dire state of Microsoft Office import and export compatibility.

We, like many others, rolled out a trial of Linux on the desktop. We used SuSE, Mandriva and Ubuntu. We've tried Open Office and Libre Office. The trial is falling apart. Why? People love the Linux desktops, primarily KDE but some Gnome, they love the way their PCs sprang back to life, became more responsive, didn't grind to a halt every time the anti-virus kicked off. They loved the vast number of apps on their PCs and they really got on with them. No, the reason it's falling apart is because the Linux office packages just can't play with MS Office. Even the simplest documents won't re-open in Word, loose formatting, end up scrambled or even or several occasions just wiped, even Libre / Open Office's backup file wiped as well. To give it its due Libre / Open Office has never failed to read any of our documents, but usually they look trashed and require re-laying out.

If Linux / Android / Whatever on whatever platform is ever going to truly succeed then office compatibility has simply got to be addressed. After all, you might end up developing the world's best office suite but if it can't seamlessly read and write "the other" office suite's files then it's not going to get anywhere and Windows remain the only option.

Almost a decade ago I posted large number of MS Office documents to the Open Office project, including some huge 3GPP specs.For a while things improved rapidly but after a while the progress appeared to stall and things haven't improved a great deal, I would say, for many years. Minor tweaks, but nothing substantial. I stopped evangelising Open Office some time ago because it simply couldn't live up to expectations, I really hope Libre Office can.