The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

[Michael Kerpan]

The recent discussion of the sudden disappearance of DtCyber and the
various classic CDC software to run on it from the Internet has got me
thinking about just how precarious so much of computer history is in. So
much of what's out there online (and in person) today is at risk just
vanishing if whoever maintains the archive either loses interest (lots of
projects over the years succumb to this) , or rage quits (see the
expungement of DtCyber and Controlfreaks from the internet), or ends up
dying without having made proper arrangements (See the sad fate of the
Living Computer Museum, which was killed by its new owners as soon as COVID
gave them an excuse to do so)

What are we, as a community, to do to fix this and make sure that our
history stays peserved and isn't one bad day away from vanishing.

Mike