As the Internet Archive continues growing in acquiring software and files, our propensity for easily searchable and accessible programs means that people will rush in, encounter a file like a .ZIP file, and not know about this 30 year+ history with that format and issues that could arise. How could they be expected to?
In earlier eras of computer history, the user whatsapp lead was expected to be able to build and pilot the ship as comfortably as ride in it as a passenger. Thankfully, those days are mostly behind us and picking up a piece of technology and using it runs into issues like placement of buttons or lacking a headphone jack, instead of concerns of header information or data formats.
But under this surface of ease and frictionless experience is the occasional roiling current of decisions, movements and changes. It reflects how truly unsettled our computer world is, and how, every once in a while, we get a glimpse into it in ways that are not obvious.
It’s a privilege to be able to hold and present these vintage programs and documents from technology and time long past. But these items lived in an environment and support structure now truly gone, and it is sometimes a period of rediscovery for researchers professional, academic and hobbyist to re-learn what we’ve forgotten.
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