I can see that the preservation aspect is very valid for highly rare or one of a kind items, but that is generally not the case with retro hardware. Yes there are examples for that too (like C65 or other prototype stuff) but nobody would expect a museum to put that to use.

[–] cryptiod137@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That's the case... For now.

No one would have cared to preserve a Mosin Nagant from 1892 when they were making 500,000 of them, why would they? You can just go and buy more, the factory is right over there. Fast forward 132 years later, they are scarce antiques. And in another 100 years, there may only be a dozen left.

The entire field of computers as we know it, integrated circuits, is about half as old as that particular rifle, and the technology has changed so fast, it's really crazy.

So while it might seem like that's reasonable now, I mean the people who designed those systems are often still alive, even still working. Of course we can still fix and use them.

Now give it 60 or so years, your sitting around in you retirement community, sad you lost the auction for a 2003 eMachines tower PC with all the stickers still attached, kicking yourself about how you tossed one out back in the day.

At least you kept your Atari Jaguar, kept in a hermetically sealed container, that managed to save when you had to evacuate from the 2nd Finnish-Korean Hyperwar.

Edit: Abominable spelling