They have to migrate each time they change the format, surely. Either that or maintain converters going back decades, to apply the right one when a document is opened.
> but they don’t need to maintain 8 different versions of Word going back a decade, make sure all security patches get back ported
Nor does Microsoft for Word.
> With word, I need to be able to open an old document with the new version of word, make changes then re-save it so it’s compatible with the old version of word again.
You don't have to, unless you want the benefit of that.
And Google Docs offers the same.
> Nobody uses the version of Google docs from 6 months ago. You can’t. And that simplifies a lot of things.
Well, I'd love to use the version of Gmail web from 6 months ago. Because three months ago Google broke email address input such that it no longer accesses the contacts list and I have to type/paste each address in full.
That's a price we pay for things being "simpler" for a software provider than can and does change the software I am using without telling me let alone giving me the choice.
Not to mention the change that took away a large chunk of my working screen space for an advert telling me to switch to the app version, despite have the latest version of Google's own Chrome. An advert I cannot remove despite having got the message 1000 times. Pure extortion. Simplification is no excuse.
They have to migrate each time they change the format, surely. Either that or maintain converters going back decades, to apply the right one when a document is opened.
> but they don’t need to maintain 8 different versions of Word going back a decade, make sure all security patches get back ported
Nor does Microsoft for Word.
> With word, I need to be able to open an old document with the new version of word, make changes then re-save it so it’s compatible with the old version of word again.
You don't have to, unless you want the benefit of that.
And Google Docs offers the same.
> Nobody uses the version of Google docs from 6 months ago. You can’t. And that simplifies a lot of things.
Well, I'd love to use the version of Gmail web from 6 months ago. Because three months ago Google broke email address input such that it no longer accesses the contacts list and I have to type/paste each address in full.
That's a price we pay for things being "simpler" for a software provider than can and does change the software I am using without telling me let alone giving me the choice.
Not to mention the change that took away a large chunk of my working screen space for an advert telling me to switch to the app version, despite have the latest version of Google's own Chrome. An advert I cannot remove despite having got the message 1000 times. Pure extortion. Simplification is no excuse.