[TriLUG] Availability of bzip2 in 20 years?

[Warren Myers]

On 11/26/06, John Mitchell <john280z at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 11/25/06, Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
> <snip> I'm considering backing up to bzip2 instead of gzip (.tgz) to
> pack more on a single DVD. <end snip>
>
> Steve, you are missing something here. In 20 years you will not have a
> device that is capable of "reading" a DVD. (That assumes that the
> plastic disk is still in working order also.)


I have CDs from 20 years ago that read fine in my CD player of today - why
would you expect DVDs to be any different in 20 years? Shoot, you can still
walk into yon electronics department of almost any store and buy VCRs - and
they've been around for closer to 30.

True enough, the media might go bad (burned discs seem to never last as long
as stamped), but the technology shouldn't be going anywhere.

   Not counting one in the closet, do you still have a 5 1/4" flopply
> drive on your PC? That is 20 year old technology. The IBM 3.5" flopply
> came into being only 19 years ago:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2
>    I don't even want to think about all those 20 years old back-up
> tapes!  :)
>
> john mitchell
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-- 
http://warrenmyers.com
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