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by 1337p337 4805 days ago
Since _why's stuff was open, he addressed bitrot in his (brilliant) novella. The article treats it some; the open-source remarks were about the code that you don't see, that suffers from being under lock and key as well as bitrot.
1 comments

Yes, bitrot is _addressed_, but not resolved.

That's the source of my frustration whenever the open source solution is brought up. It only works when there are hands present to maintain the source.

Which is much more effort than, say, writing a book and leaving it some place to be rediscovered. Only the popular or the intensely niche seem to survive.

Well, the Urbit essays (linked in the article) are one attempt to resolve it, but bitrot still remains unresolved. I don't think I wrote anything indicating otherwise. If it doesn't see the light of day, it dies; bitrot is a slower death, but open source is a prerequisite to software not just disappearing into the void. I'd really like to have presented a solution to bitrot, but I don't have one.