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One thing I really like about software is that it can theoretically live forever. I know bit rot is real, but with some maintenance, and even a quite small comm

One thing I really like about software is that it can theoretically live forever. I know bit rot is real, but with some maintenance, and even a quite small community, it can keep getting revitalized basically forever.[1] The field is generally still young, so I look forward to good solid software just getting older and older and still working well. Makes it worth learning and internalizing. C is in its 50s, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere (: Part of what pains me about much modern software, with its always-online and tied-to-some-cloud-service nature, is that it tends to die. The learning you do goes to waste, when some fickle company pulls the plug in the future. I like to build stuff that lasts, whether it's a cathedral or a bazaar, and I like to use stuff that was built in that way, too. [1] Okay, forever is a long time. Maybe some day keyboards will be extinct, and that will make keyboard-centric software obsolete. Same could be true for screens, or even the broad architecture of computing hardware as we know it. But those changes tend to happen slowly, and there's time to adapt.

squidgedcricket 2y ago
I love being a C developer. I'll still be using it when I retire, though hopefully mixed with Rust instead of C++.
- hyggetrold 2y ago
  My prediction is that C will still be in active use 100 years from now.
  - supportengineer 2y ago
    Probably Java and python will also
    - rombuu 2y ago
      SQL will definitely be around.
  - tmountain 2y ago
    Linux will likely still exist and have a team of people maintaining it, so the odds are pretty good that you’re right.
    - marcosdumay 2y ago
      Those things are immortal right until they suddenly die without a warning. In 100 years there will probably be somebody maintaining Linux for sentimental reasons. But it probably won't be in practical use.
      - dgfitz 2y ago
        I sincerely think Linux is “too big to fail” at this point. Will it morph and evolve into a charmander? Probably, but the evolution will be fluid.
        marcosdumay 2y ago
        It will keep evolving until it's faced with a situation where it just can't move on the correct direction. Probably because of some social reason, not a technical one. It's hard to imagine this happening to Linux in particular because it's ridiculously flexible. But things always change.
        daedrdev 2y ago
        I think the most important thing for its survival is it needs young contributors who care and thus can one day take over, which seems difficult to do consistently.
seabass-labrax 2y ago
> One thing I really like about software is that it can theoretically live forever... ...The learning you do goes to waste, when some fickle company pulls the plug in the future. I think you could say that software lasts forever when it's author wants it to. There is plenty of dead proprietary software that dates from before the era of cloud services; it's dead because, just like the SaaS company that pulls the plug today, nobody thought (or dared) to preserve the source code. To make sure software really lasts, history shows us that the best thing one can do is to release the code as FOSS :)
terminalgravity 2y ago
One thing i like about Emacs is i can be reasonably sure it isnt going anywhere anytime soon. The GNU version was first released almost 40 years ago and its still actively used and maintained. I like investing my time learning quality tools that stand the test of time.
rldjbpin 2y ago
my relatively myopic view: due to enterprise "laziness", we have been able to enjoy backwards-compatibility for the longest time. x86 has done a lot for this, and i wonder how much future code could benefit from this. on the other hand, most new code sold is not designed with longevity in mind. everything has support lifetimes, and the same thing gets rehashed under new banner and sold. the incentives are not aligned for long-lasting stuff. can't have old opera buildings if the new concerts set up tents every season. regardless, C is too big to never get worked on supporting for future hardware.

squidgedcricket 2y ago

I love being a C developer. I'll still be using it when I retire, though hopefully mixed with Rust instead of C++.

hyggetrold 2y ago
My prediction is that C will still be in active use 100 years from now.
- supportengineer 2y ago
  Probably Java and python will also
  - rombuu 2y ago
    SQL will definitely be around.
- tmountain 2y ago
  Linux will likely still exist and have a team of people maintaining it, so the odds are pretty good that you’re right.
  - marcosdumay 2y ago
    Those things are immortal right until they suddenly die without a warning. In 100 years there will probably be somebody maintaining Linux for sentimental reasons. But it probably won't be in practical use.
    - dgfitz 2y ago
      I sincerely think Linux is “too big to fail” at this point. Will it morph and evolve into a charmander? Probably, but the evolution will be fluid.
      - marcosdumay 2y ago
        It will keep evolving until it's faced with a situation where it just can't move on the correct direction. Probably because of some social reason, not a technical one. It's hard to imagine this happening to Linux in particular because it's ridiculously flexible. But things always change.
      - daedrdev 2y ago
        I think the most important thing for its survival is it needs young contributors who care and thus can one day take over, which seems difficult to do consistently.

seabass-labrax 2y ago

> One thing I really like about software is that it can theoretically live forever... ...The learning you do goes to waste, when some fickle company pulls the plug in the future. I think you could say that software lasts forever when it's author wants it to. There is plenty of dead proprietary software that dates from before the era of cloud services; it's dead because, just like the SaaS company that pulls the plug today, nobody thought (or dared) to preserve the source code. To make sure software really lasts, history shows us that the best thing one can do is to release the code as FOSS :)

terminalgravity 2y ago

One thing i like about Emacs is i can be reasonably sure it isnt going anywhere anytime soon. The GNU version was first released almost 40 years ago and its still actively used and maintained. I like investing my time learning quality tools that stand the test of time.

rldjbpin 2y ago

my relatively myopic view: due to enterprise "laziness", we have been able to enjoy backwards-compatibility for the longest time. x86 has done a lot for this, and i wonder how much future code could benefit from this. on the other hand, most new code sold is not designed with longevity in mind. everything has support lifetimes, and the same thing gets rehashed under new banner and sold. the incentives are not aligned for long-lasting stuff. can't have old opera buildings if the new concerts set up tents every season. regardless, C is too big to never get worked on supporting for future hardware.