All Open Formats, All the Time?

[corbin.loftis]

I've recently made the switch to using Ubuntu full time (as opposed to dual-booting Mac), because of the limitations of proprietary file formats and using a locked-down system. I am now making the transition to using all open formats, because I was unable to use iWork files in anything except iWork. Now all my documents are .odf, all my music is slowly moving towards .ogg and .flac.

Has anyone else made the transition to complete open source / open format products? If so, what are the advantages? Why do you like it? What are the limitations you've come across? I'd like to hear what other people have to say. If you only use them for some, why do you keep others as they are?

Thanks! Hope people enjoy the discussion!

[Dave_L]

I use open formats as much as possible, for the same reason I use free software, because I agree with the philosophy expressed at gnu.org.

I don't like using a file format that's controlled by a commercial organization for its own benefit.

Often I'm stuck with using a non-open format because the document may only be available in that format. Or I'm exchanging information with someone who doesn't share the philosophy.

[grahammechanical]

We can install Ubuntu using only free software. When we run the live session at the first purple screen with the icons of a human and a keyboard we press Enter. At the next screen we select the Language and press Enter. At the Try Ubuntu - Install Ubuntu screen we press F6 and bottom right a menu will appear and it should give us an option of "free software only." Select the option and press Enter then press Esc to get back to the Try Ubuntu - Install Ubuntu screen and take it from there.

Some of us find that it is useful to install proprietary video drivers and codecs. It is our choice.

Regards.

[linuxyogi]

I use mp3 coz my mp3 player wont support ogg and I have installed the Nvidia proprietary driver coz with the open source driver my entire system hanged from time to time.

I was using dropbox but I deleted all my files there and migrated to Ubuntu One.

[SeijiSensei]

In the work environment, you may have problems exchanging ODF files with people using Microsoft Office. There are known formatting problems that can arise when documents are translated between ODF and the various MS formats like docx. Some of these are unsolvable because of how Windows works. I don't need to share documents with MS users, and anything I send I usually export to PDF first.

Otherwise I haven't paid for any software in years except for a Windows-based tax-preparation program once each spring. I don't have any qualms about using proprietary items like the NVIDIA drivers. I do try to avoid products like linuxyogi's mp3 player that cannot handle open formats like FLAC and Ogg. I've noticed that most contemporary players have pretty broad support for open codecs nowadays, as does the player software on my Android phone. The MX Player (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad) Android app even handles 10-bit H.264 encoded videos with A** subtitles in the Matroska container. My PS3 won't play those, though my Linux machines running SMPlayer certainly can.