On 6/18/24 10:01 AM, John Hasler wrote:
JHHL writes:
Some of us still prefer physical media
Do you mean read-only media? All media are physical.
No, I mean physical media as opposed to downloads.
Application software, I've resigned myself to downloads, although as I
said, I am not happy with software that installs updates of dubious
value without so much as a how-do-you-do.
Even operating systems, when there is no other choice available.
But I prefer my books to be in a form made from an eminently sustainable
and recyclable resource, a form requiring (at least for the sighted) no
auxiliary hardware other than maybe a pair of reading glasses (which I
now need even to read screens). A form that can also be adapted to those
who read with their fingertips. A form that a publisher cannot yank away
from those who paid good money.
As for recorded music and audiovisual content, I again prefer something
that cannot be taken away without physically carrying it off. And I have
the additional objection here that the most common digital music formats
use lossy compression. *VERY* lossy compression. And I find it
thoroughly laughable when vinyl-snobs listen to homemade MP3 dubs of
their records (surface noise, compression artifacts, and all).
But this is veering far off-topic. My previous message was mainly to
point out that the thread title can scare the <censored> out of people,
and seems to have very little to do with what the thread is actually
*about,* i.e., it appears to be about delivery forms other than optical
or magnetic media for OS and application software, and compatibility of
disk-images with those forms. Not about *getting rid of* optical media
(or magnetic media, for that matter).
