# Whine whine whine, Why don't people use open source software?!? Because it sucks moldy donkey balls.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 14, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024 "2010-04-14T03:14:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/61 "2010-04-15T18:27:23Z")

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> [@Palooka](#):
>
> Maybe you should spend 90 seconds installing the Office Open XML compatibility patch for Office \<= 2003?

What is Office \<= 2003? I have Microsoft Word 10.0.0. There are no patches available that I’m aware of.

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**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/62 "2010-04-15T18:29:25Z")

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[QUOTE=WarmNPrickly]  
I tried to tell them to send in pdf or doc, but they never remember. Their software of course automatically saves in docx.  
[/QUOTE]

I don’t remember where the setting are (in properties somewhere), but you can change it so that it save in another format as the default. One of my schools ran into the same issue, and I wrote a small script that would change it for them automatically…but it would be easy enough to just do a quick write up on how to change the settings so that it will always save it properly in the future.

-XT

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**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/63 "2010-04-15T18:35:56Z")

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If you only need to read and print the word documents microsoft has free viewers for windows that you can download.

> **[Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us?correlationid=67841624-7e54-4f67-b04b-95b349b498a6&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us)**
>
> Microsoft support is here to help you with Microsoft products. Find how-to articles, videos, and training for Microsoft 365, Windows, Surface, and more.

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/64 "2010-04-15T18:44:05Z")

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> [@WarmNPrickly](#):
>
> What is Office \<= 2003? I have Microsoft Word 10.0.0. There are no patches available that I’m aware of.

He means “for Office 2003 or earlier.” To find out what Office suite this is part of (at work I have Word 11.something, part of Office 2003), pull down on the Help menu in Word and pick “About Word”. Underneath the version number of Word it ought to have what Office suite it’s part of.

I also downloaded from MS’s website the conversion plugin that automatically makes .docx/.xlsx files readable in my version of Office. I had to specifically go to their website to find this; it wasn’t offered as a patch/automatic upgrade.

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**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/65 "2010-04-15T19:51:27Z")

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[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en](http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en) This, specifically, is the .docx to .doc converter.

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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/66 "2010-04-15T19:58:16Z")

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Those options appear to be for Windows. I’m running Mac OS 10.6.

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/67 "2010-04-15T20:14:23Z")

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> [@WarmNPrickly](#):
>
> Those options appear to be for Windows. I’m running Mac OS 10.6.

[https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EDB6CD8F-832C-4123-8982-AC0C601EA0A7&displaylang=en](https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EDB6CD8F-832C-4123-8982-AC0C601EA0A7&displaylang=en) ?

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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/68 "2010-04-15T20:22:23Z")

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> [@Ferret\_Herder](#):
>
> [https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EDB6CD8F-832C-4123-8982-AC0C601EA0A7&displaylang=en](https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EDB6CD8F-832C-4123-8982-AC0C601EA0A7&displaylang=en) ?

> [@From your source](#):
>
> To open converted documents, you must have Office 2004 11.4.0 or later, or Office v. X 10.1.9 or later installed on your computer.

I have Office 10.0.0. It may be called Office 2000. I’m not sure. The version is 10.0.0.

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**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whine-whine-whine-why-dont-people-use-open-source-software-because-it-sucks-moldy-donkey-balls/536024/69 "2010-04-16T02:21:10Z")

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Shoot, that is a problem. Oooh! Oooh! Can you try opening them with Google Docs? I’ve never tried.

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