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You are missing the point here by seeing only the technical aspect. You are misleading technical description with abstraction. A database is hardly if not acce

by pjerem 5y ago

You are missing the point here by seeing only the technical aspect. You are misleading technical description with abstraction. A database is hardly if not accessible to the user. The files are an abstraction that enables the user to owns its data. Once you have a file, you can do more than opening it in your app. You can store it wherever you want, edit it with any software you wish, arrange it the way you are confortable with. As a user, you can’t do that with your SaaS database, you must rely on the « export / share » function of your SaaS provider, hoping it will export all data, in a readable format and that the import function exists and is reliable. You don’t own anything and as soon as you stop paying your subscription, you are stuck with nothing.

jeffreygoesto 5y ago
If the file roughly maps to a table, the filesystem and filemanager would be the query? To get access to the data, you must first find it.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  A filesystem would be like an index on the table.
bzzzt 5y ago
File formats like DOCX or PSD (fitting extension) are almost impossible to parse 100% correct and render without the (hired) software used to create them. While you may be able to copy your files, without the software they are quite useless. The file system won't save you there.
- pjerem 5y ago
  You are right and it's a real issue, but you can share them with whoever you want, however you want. You can just keep them and be pretty confident that they will be readable again in years : even if it could become difficult as the time passes, if it is nothing too exotic, chances are you will be able to at least read them. And I prefer a "95%" correct DOCX or PSD that I can recover and rework if needed than a "0% this App is not available in the WhateverStore anymore".
  - bzzzt 5y ago
    For popular formats that would be possible, but there are a lot of binary only formats that are completely impossible to parse these days. You're free to copy it but the bits are essentially useless. Try to load a current ML model 20 years from now. Probably tied to proprietary software and if you're unlucky also hardware (like CUDA)

by pjerem 5y ago

jeffreygoesto 5y ago

If the file roughly maps to a table, the filesystem and filemanager would be the query? To get access to the data, you must first find it.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
A filesystem would be like an index on the table.

bzzzt 5y ago

File formats like DOCX or PSD (fitting extension) are almost impossible to parse 100% correct and render without the (hired) software used to create them. While you may be able to copy your files, without the software they are quite useless. The file system won't save you there.

pjerem 5y ago
You are right and it's a real issue, but you can share them with whoever you want, however you want. You can just keep them and be pretty confident that they will be readable again in years : even if it could become difficult as the time passes, if it is nothing too exotic, chances are you will be able to at least read them. And I prefer a "95%" correct DOCX or PSD that I can recover and rework if needed than a "0% this App is not available in the WhateverStore anymore".
- bzzzt 5y ago
  For popular formats that would be possible, but there are a lot of binary only formats that are completely impossible to parse these days. You're free to copy it but the bits are essentially useless. Try to load a current ML model 20 years from now. Probably tied to proprietary software and if you're unlucky also hardware (like CUDA)