tdf#140286 - CALC formula =INFO("OSVERSION") gives wrong output

[Chris Sherlock]

On 12 Jan 2022, at 2:45 pm, Kohei Yoshida <kohei at libreoffice.org> wrote:
> 
> On 11.01.2022 17:32, Jean-Baptiste Faure wrote:
>> Le 11/01/2022 à 12:16, Chris Sherlock a écrit :
>>> Hi all,
>>> The output of =INFO(“OSVERSION”) currently gives the wrong version for MacOS (it says it is Windows).
>> From the help, it is not a bug: =INFO("osversion") aswers always
>> "Windows (32-bit) NT 5.01", for compatibility reasons
>> https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/scalc/01/04060104.html?DbPAR=CALC#bm_id3691824
> 
> According to the inputs from various users on the bug report:
> 
> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=140286
> 
> Excel these days returns correct system information, instead of just always returning "Windows (32-bit) NT 5.01".  It was my understanding that we couldn't change the string because that's what Excel always returned back in the old days.  So I assume that's where the "compatibility reasons" clause comes from.  Maybe Eike can clarify whether I remember this correctly.  I believe I heard that originally from Daniel Rentz who was the expert on all things Excel at the time.
> 
> Since the situation has changed today, I think it's reasonable for Calc to return correct system info as well, and update the help text along with it.
> 
> Kohei

That’s my take also. But apparently, it isn’t important on Linux so we shouldn’t change it. Because no-one uses Excel on Linux, therefore they would never use this function if they use Linux.

Chris