V2 incompatible with V1

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, Fritz_H said:

In these cases:
1. the updates are free
2. the updates provided an improvement over the previous version.

But your arguments are completely irrelevant to the fact that users have already experienced format incompatibility several times during version 1 updates, and that incompatibility between version V2 and V1.10 is therefore "expected".

 

58 minutes ago, Fritz_H said:

2007? really?
we discuss incompatibility from V(n) to V(n+1).

If you expect/require compatibility with the previous version, i.e. "from V(n) to V(n+1)" you mentioned, then of course the same compatibility must apply to all previous versions, i.e. "from V(n-1) to V(n)" and "from V(n-2) to V(n-1)". According to the relationship you mentioned, versions >= 2007 can really be compared to all older ones.

[Pyanepsion]

Hello @Fritz_H,

The functionality and updates of the Microsoft Office perpetual and rental applications are completely identical.

• In the rental version, the software Office 365 remains active as long as you pay. It stops working when you stop paying.
• In the perpetual version, the software Office [Vintage] remains active even after the upgrade has been completed.

[PaoloT]

15 minutes ago, Pyanepsion said:

Hello @Fritz_H,

The functionality and updates of the Microsoft Office perpetual and rental applications are completely identical.

I'm not sure it is totally this way. I own the perpetual version of 2021, that freezes the features of that year. The 365 version has continued to evolve, but I can open its files with my version.

Also, I would think that the DOCX and XLSX file formats can be opened with any version of Word and Excel from a few years up to today. Only, the missing features are ignored by the older versions.

Paolo

 

[Pyanepsion]

According to Microsoft, there are no differences between the 365 and vintage versions.

Here are the new features of Word 2021 compared to Word 2019 : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-word-2021-for-windows-8f0b9117-8cf4-4677-8cd5-d848dd0e1ac9

[Fritz_H]

5 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

According to Microsoft, there are no differences between the 365 and vintage versions.

Here are the new features of Word 2021 compared to Word 2019 : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-s-new-in-word-2021-for-windows-8f0b9117-8cf4-4677-8cd5-d848dd0e1ac9

What's the difference between Microsoft 365 and Office 2021? - Microsoft Support

For some unknown reason, you keep talking about the different license-models. That´s not the point here...

[Fritz_H]

7 hours ago, Pšenda said:

But your arguments are completely irrelevant to the fact that users have already experienced format incompatibility several times during version 1 updates, and that incompatibility between version V2 and V1.10 is therefore "expected".

 

If you expect/require compatibility with the previous version, i.e. "from V(n) to V(n+1)" you mentioned, then of course the same compatibility must apply to all previous versions, i.e. "from V(n-1) to V(n)" and "from V(n-2) to V(n-1)". According to the relationship you mentioned, versions >= 2007 can really be compared to all older ones.

Trying hard to disagree at any cost, hm?

I pointed out clearly that incompatibility is NOT common, it can easily be addressed by the developer and even a "save as <old version>" is common practice.
None of that is provided by Serif. I can not think of any reason why a customer like you does intentionally disagree to a relevant feature and useful improvement for all those victims of Serif who lost many hours of work due to Bugs in pre-Beta Software sold as "V2.0".

[Pyanepsion]

@Fritz_H, read it again. All updates to perpetual versions of Microsoft Office are included until the next upgrade. After the upgrade there are no more updates except for security updates. It is important to understand that the perpetual version freezes the version at a given level. It is exactly the same product as the rental version existing at that time. An old file of the rental version produced at that time will have the same incompatibility problems.

Pšenda is right. The incompatibility is common in computing except when the data storage format is fixed, and even then, there is frequently data loss when you go from one level to a lower level and back to the level. This can be seen for example with DOCX files. If you use, for example, advanced formatting features in a recent version of Word that do not exist in earlier versions, these features may not be displayed correctly in earlier versions. Word is never just a texter. Between DTP and a text editor, it is obviously night and day and therefore the incompatibility are much greater.

Whether or not v1 allows v2 to be read is therefore a financial choice. Its cost is generally very high and the result will be poor anyway, whatever the software and whatever the manufacturer, even though it can often be circumvented. In my humble opinion, it is therefore not really justifiable. The money is better spent on new features and improvements.

[Dazmondo77]

On 1/21/2023 at 5:50 PM, PaoloT said:

It could even be IDML. If Publisher 2 could export this format, Publisher 1 could open the exported files. With the obvious limitations imposed by the different features available in the source program. A single interchange format would solve so many problems.

Didn't think of that one Paolo 👍 - yes that would be an amazing option, I'd bet that a lot of Adobe users would take a fresh look at Affinity if IDML export was available, plus we'd be able to open V2 docs in V1 with everything intact apart from unsupported features which would be converted accordingly  = a huge benefit to both Serif and users

[Pšenda]

15 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

I can not think of any reason why a customer like you does intentionally disagree to a relevant feature and useful improvement

Given that Serif's development capacities are limited (which is a well-known and often presented thing here), it is obvious that any work of a similar type will take development capacity somewhere else - which will thus be missing when fixing bugs and developing new features.

7 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

The money is better spent on new features and improvements.

I understand that Serif decided not to support forward compatibility, which is expensive for developers, and after my experience with previous updates, it is completely "expected" for me. It is possible that over time, when its data format is stable enough (as it is with the other presented companies after several decades of product development), Serif will reconsider this position - we'll see.

 

16 hours ago, Fritz_H said:

for all those victims of Serif who lost many hours of work due to Bugs in pre-Beta Software sold as "V2.0".

Why would anyone lose hours of work? Data from V2 can be easily transferred to V1 using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. Exactly what V1 could open from a V2 data file will be transferred, so all the new stuff will be lost.