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by expathacker 2694 days ago
2038? Does this have to do with Epoch time ending somehow?
2 comments

Yeah, coal-powered computers can only handle 32-bit integers ;)
In 2038, the coal company clocks roll back to 1901, when all was good in the world for them.
...to 1970...
No, it rolls over to 1901. time_t is a signed value, and 2038 is when it rolls over from 2³¹ - 1 to -2³¹. That would be 2 billion seconds before 1970, or 1901.
... which was a very great year for lignite mining: https://www.oeko.de/fileadmin/oekodoc/BET2017-Hermann-Oeko-I...
If our Unix forefathers had the foresight to make time_t unsigned, then we wouldn't have to worry about this problem until after 2100.
I would guess, when originally suggested, it was $current_year + 2 decades.