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File over online app. I'm all for it. But I'm not concerned about the ability to read this or that obscure file format in three decades: just look at the retro

File over online app. I'm all for it. But I'm not concerned about the ability to read this or that obscure file format in three decades: just look at the retro community accessing files in old formats for the C64 or whatever old machine. In a way we know have "app as file": be it a container build file or a complete VM, we can emulate pretty much anything and everything as long as it doesn't depend on something online. Any app, on any OS, as long as it doesn't require a proprietary online server, can be emulated or virtualized. I can run the old DOS programs I wrote back in 1990 or so, decoding weird picture file formats. I've got an emulator running on a Pi hooked to an adapter in my vintage arcade cab emulating thousands of arcade games. If anything it is easier to access all those old apps and file formats today then back in the days, because you can manipulate them from a much more powerful system. Rant done, off to Proxmox to create a container installing QEMU to emulate a Raspberry Pi 2 (it's more convenient to test in an emulator and then deploy later on on the real thing).

A-F-V16 2y ago
I agree that if there are substitutes for the app, then complexity or obscurity of the file format matters less. There are open source spreadsheet programs that can read xlsx format, so its not like if the Excel disappeared overnight I would not be able to access my spreadsheets. But take a less popular app with its own file format. Is it likely there will be an alternative that can process that file format? And if not, how long will it take the community to develop one? More popular app = more likely to become a standard = more likely there will be an alternative More complex file format = less likely someone could make an alternative If a file could be made readable, why wouldn't it? Relying on substitutes to address a problem you created doesn't seem fair. But if the data is intrinisically complicated (like ELF for compiled code), then there isn't much you could do anyways.

A-F-V16 2y ago

I agree that if there are substitutes for the app, then complexity or obscurity of the file format matters less. There are open source spreadsheet programs that can read xlsx format, so its not like if the Excel disappeared overnight I would not be able to access my spreadsheets. But take a less popular app with its own file format. Is it likely there will be an alternative that can process that file format? And if not, how long will it take the community to develop one? More popular app = more likely to become a standard = more likely there will be an alternative More complex file format = less likely someone could make an alternative If a file could be made readable, why wouldn't it? Relying on substitutes to address a problem you created doesn't seem fair. But if the data is intrinisically complicated (like ELF for compiled code), then there isn't much you could do anyways.