Your "Forever Apps"
The world has moved to more ephemeral software, and that comes with some huge benefits, but there is something to be said for having some apps and files that just last forever, no matter what subscriptions you stop paying or companies that go out of business.
RSS and the pleasure of not thinking - All this
Some of this has been forced on me—when an app or service stops working, there’s no way to avoid thinking about the alternatives—but a lot has been self-inflicted. It’s nice to have one part of my computing life that’s stable and should continue to be stable for years to come.
While I subscribe to more than my fair share of web services, I do understand the appeal of having some things in your computer life that just last forever. I like owning a few MP3s on my computer that I’ll never have to worry about disappearing from streaming platforms, I have downloaded a bunch of YouTube videos I never want to lose, and I keep some information in text files because no matter how long I live and how many innovations there are in computers, we’ll always be able to open plain text files.
Header image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash