Are you sure you're not confusing techie geekieness with marketing ploys? Or perhaps I am confusing what you meant with what I think :-) In any case, since you did not specify any examples, that is an open question. "What I've been forced to adopt" sounds somewhat ominous though. Generally speaking, a self-education about open open data formats is well worth the time and effort it takes, and then to make sure you are able to store all data in such formats, and that your programs can read all such formats. Sometimes it is a bit of a pain to find the plugins, or to learn what programs are needed to read or write X format. But basically, if you can store your data in text format rather than a binary format, that is great (Address books, and so forth), while PDF or PostScript (or TeX/LaTeX) is wonderful for more complex representations. Images and movies too are easier to manipulate (especially in the future when who knows what legislation and company policies will appear) if in non-proprietary format -- i.e., in short, nothing is for free, you will do better to invest in time and effort now than later.
Speaking from experience, much the wiser for it. Good luck, Gernot