The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

William Donzelli wdonzelli at gmail.com
Sat Nov 20 15:22:37 CST 2021


> Unfortunately, we're just not doing enough. I don't have an answer, but for several years I worked for the LOCKSS project at Stanford University. Their software is open source, and is used to archive online academic journals in a distributed, fault-tolerant peer to peer network (their primary research was on how to prevent bitrot and enable automatic format migration, for example). With some effort, it could be retooled into a general-purpose software archive, but I don't think anybody has ever seriously proposed doing that. I only point it out as inspiration for one possible way to do things.
>
> Until we have a better answer, we're just at the mercy of bitrot, and we have to accept that.

Unless, of course, you have a mainframe shop and figured all this shit
out back in the 1960s.

--
Will


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