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@cstross @saliaku WINE can run a lot of Windows software. Open source programs have a lot of dealings with proprietary formats. But it really depends on what sort of format you're even talking about. You left that as such a vague all-encompassing statement, but a surprising number of things don't use proprietary formats anymore. Even, somehow, Microsoft Office went to an open format. (Not sure how anyone got MS, the jack of proprietary, on board with that.) A lot of CAD/etc stuff that is proprietary has Linux builds too.

Of course some companies have things super specialized running in various forms that are super proprietary. Many of those are so specialized and so proprietary they may even be running on DOS or Windows 2000. That isn't applicable to this discussion however...