[Leaplist] Re: Microsoft Suggest Linux Hotmail Users Use Outlook Express (long)

[Jason Boxman]

On Saturday 26 January 2008 20:08, Sun State Martial Arts wrote:
<snip>
>
> playing the devils advocate on this one.  unless you program the
> application that creates the data, it is not your data.  just being an
> ass on that point.  now the difference with MS product lock in vs FOSS
> is that the license are different and thus allow you to do things each
> to their own.

From a practical standpoint that's not correct.  Because it's Open Source 
(tm), I can always reasonably get at my data.  The format is going to be 
documented somehow in the source code.  With proprietary stuff based on 
closed, obfuscated, or no standards, that's not the case and you're at the 
mercy of the vendor not to screw you over.

-- 

Jason Boxman
http://edseek.com/ - Open Source (tm) guides and tutorials