So we’re just basically considering statistically which is more plausible? A HDD failing versus a corporation being greedy? I think both are bad and unreliable. A company guaranteeing a “purchase” in perpetuity (not subscription) and having the standard be offline installers (for your own backup) is the best bet. Everything else is just dictating the best way to stub your toe.
So far I’ve had one hard drive fail and lose a bunch of my work from long ago (before I knew to use git), have physically lost memory sticks to similar effect
On the other hand I’ve still got everything in my Dropbox that I worked on as a child, everything on my old web server was still there until I pulled it down and cancelled it, all the contacts on my phone I have ever made, and I’ve never lost a steam game
I get not wanting to put your faith in big companies and I don’t like the idea but so far they’ve proven far more reliable than I am in looking after my stuff
(I also tend not to keep anything sensitive in there and open source all my code nowadays anyway so leaks and ai training don’t bother me that much)
What about when that HDD gets lost or dies, then I need a backup.
Without an automated system will be unreliable and a pain in the ass to maintain
If it’s automated and not just a hard drive I shove games on every now and then it requires a machine to run it and constant electricity
So we’re just basically considering statistically which is more plausible? A HDD failing versus a corporation being greedy? I think both are bad and unreliable. A company guaranteeing a “purchase” in perpetuity (not subscription) and having the standard be offline installers (for your own backup) is the best bet. Everything else is just dictating the best way to stub your toe.
So far I’ve had one hard drive fail and lose a bunch of my work from long ago (before I knew to use git), have physically lost memory sticks to similar effect
On the other hand I’ve still got everything in my Dropbox that I worked on as a child, everything on my old web server was still there until I pulled it down and cancelled it, all the contacts on my phone I have ever made, and I’ve never lost a steam game
I get not wanting to put your faith in big companies and I don’t like the idea but so far they’ve proven far more reliable than I am in looking after my stuff
(I also tend not to keep anything sensitive in there and open source all my code nowadays anyway so leaks and ai training don’t bother me that much)