9 Mar
2020
9 Mar
'20
3:16 a.m.
On 9 Mar 2020 07:22 +1100, from peter(a)rulingia.com (Peter Jeremy):
I have discovered that he kept an extensive collection
of 5¼" floppy
disks. I haven't looked through them but they appear to include
things like OS-9 and Hitachi Peach files (and presumably Minix stuff,
though I haven't found any of his Minix work). He also has a
selection of newletters from an Australian Peach users group. Is
there any interest in this material from a historicial perspective?
Suppose that we say no, there is no interest in the material. The
upside is that it'll be less work in the short term; the downside
seems to be the possible loss of actual interesting material.
Suppose that we say yes, there is at least potential interest (now or
later) in the material. The downside is that it'll take some work to
process once; the upside is that _if_ it turns out to be of interest,
even if we can't see that interest now, then the material will be
available or at least preserved somewhere.
_I would say YES, it should be preserved._ Far too many computer
historical artefacts have been lost to various trash containers over
the decades because people didn't envision at the time how they might
be of interest later.
Just consider: back in the 1970s, who'd have thought that a sales
department printout of minicomputers and corresponding peripherals
would be of any interest whatsoever upwards of half a century later?
--
Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • michael(a)kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”