Microsoft Office 2010 - support ending in October

[DynamicSpirit]

You can still purchase an traditional licence for Office so I don't get the point?

I was replying, expressing empathy, to a post that drew attention to another piece of software that didn't allow you to buy a traditional license, so not talking directly about MS Office (maybe a little off-topic in this thread, admittedly, but relevant to the post I was replying to).

Right. Now give me an example of a major player in the cloud services space that actually does this.

Not quite sure I've quite understood your question, but if you're asking for examples of software that do or don't allow you to easily export your data in a standard format, WhatsApp and WeChat are obvious examples of apps that don't let you export your data easily (WhatsApp will let you export a bit, but only individual conversations, one at a time). More relevant to office, I'm fairly sure Access and Outlook also used not to support exporting in a standard format - although I could be mistaken as I've not used either tool for a long time. Word, Excel and Powerpoint are all OK-ish on that score due to their native file formats having been published. Adobe PDF software is another example of something that I'd put in the 'good' category, again thanks to the PDF file format having been published.

 

[najaB]

maybe a little off-topic in this thread, admittedly, but relevant to the post I was replying to

Fair enough.

if you're asking for examples of software that do or don't allow you to easily export your data in a standard format, WhatsApp and WeChat are obvious examples of apps that don't let you export your data easily (WhatsApp will let you export a bit, but only individual conversations, one at a time).

I don't know much about WeChat, but WhatsApp isn't nearly in the same boat as a MS Office subscription though, is it? That's an app whose raison d'être is that it is a closed platform, and it isn't used to create content in the way that office productivity applications are.

More relevant to office, I'm fairly sure Access and Outlook also used not to support exporting in a standard format - although I could be mistaken as I've not used either tool for a long time.

Access has had the ability to create open formats (XML and CSV) since at least Access 2003, and I'm fairly sure it supported it in earlier versions too. The Outlook .MSG binary format has been public for at least a decade, probably longer. It's always been possible to export messages in an RFC822 compliant format from Exchange (well, every version I've used), though it's more difficult than it needs to be.

Word, Excel and Powerpoint are all OK-ish on that score due to their native file formats having been published.

That, plus they have supported saving to other formats since at least Office 95, again more than likely earlier than that.