[gambiter]

That's what the grandparent was explaining though. We have near-ubiquitous tools for dealing with plaintext files. Every Linux admin knows them and uses them in many more situations than just log files. They can be scripted and piped, and an admin worth his salt could easily find the info he needs with them.

A binary file from whatever logging system, OTOH, is effectively proprietary. Even if the logging system provides you with tools to work on them, you have to 1) know that it's a log file for that logging system, and 2) be familiar enough with the tools in order to work with it.