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On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 06:59:06 +0100 Simon Robert <simon.robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > can we really know that ogg vorbis, or any other codec free or not, > will be around in 50 years time? Even if there is no binary package, as long as there is a CPU that can run current code then I see no reason why not. As I mentioned, it may well need some updating but the code will still be available. > And if it is will be compatable with > an ancient version? A small update may be needed to link with the updated front-ends / cards / whatever. > If Your great grandson comes accross a box of CDs > in the attic will there be hardware he can look at the stuff on, > software he can read them with? AFAICT, there is no format or archived media that cannot be read today, even ones that are already 50 years old. There will always be archivists and historians who will seek to use the old formats and that can keep the codec alive. As long as one person is interested in the format, the source code remains available and it can be updated to whatever is around at the time. Compare that with proprietary formats where the original company must remain viable and be sufficiently motivated to provide an updated driver. Such restrictions dramatically reduce the chances that the format will be available in 50 years. There are no absolute guarantees, if WW3 comes along and destroys all modern infrastructure putting us into a nuclear winter etc.etc. ... but as long as some form of computing is available in 50 years, the source code for these codecs is likely to survive in archives all over the world making it a relatively minor task to update the code for whatever systems are in use at the time. Just as now, there are likely to be emulators for the 'ancient' x86 processor by that time. > This isn't really a open source v closed issue. Its about > technological change and the problems future social historians are > going to have. OK today I can probably find a PC that'll read a > "floppy" (ie 5 inch hard plastic thing) disc, but I'm not sure how > I'd be able to read a floppy floppy disc? dd If you can make a suitable piece of hardware visible to the Linux kernel, you can access any data that the hardware can itself obtain from whatever media it supports. You don't have to be able to mount it as before, you simply need to be able to find the device somewhere in /proc/ - i.e. visible to the kernel. Readers exist for Amiga and other customised cartridge formats, emulators exist for the relevant CPU's. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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