Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenMonkey
True. But there's a lot of files from the 90s that are becoming neigh unreadable. Digital obsolescence is a risk. I spent hours trying to open some writing my dad created in the 90s. .doc files on a modern PC. Apparently they started off in WordStar or StarOffice or something.
For example, I actually encountered some powerpoint / word files at work that were created in Office 97 or older. I could not open them for the life of me. And I tried installing Office XP in a WinXP Virtual Machine - still no luck opening them. I wasn't quite willing to go track down a copy of win98 or whatever to open them. We ended up just deleting them.
Just because it's popular now doesn't mean it will be that way in 10, 20, or 30 years. At least DRM-removed ebooks are a bit safer in that regard.
A hardcover will simply *work* and that's one of the nice things about it. And when I know it's a book I will still want to read in a couple of decades I like that about it.
People are way too confident that their files will be openable in the long run. The prevalence of epub and mobi mean it's likely at least for the next decade or so, but so were the formats I mentioned above.
Don't get me wrong - I like ebooks plenty - but for archival/long term purposes, a sturdy hardcover is better in my mind. Or both. I like that approach the best.  |
The difference being that EPUB and AZW3 are just plain old xhtml. xhtml is not going to be obsolete, unlike proprietary not-fully-understood formats that have reached their expiry date re: support from the manufacturers.
Next thing you know, plaintext files will be acquiring digital obsolescence as well.
