[Nelson69]

Who's gonna preserve that stuff? Even if you have the media, it's non-trivial to play it and get the data off of it. Moreover, the actual owners of it, the almost rush to end of life stuff when they can, they don't want to carry the legacy and they OWN it.

Back in the 70s and early 80s it was like the 'hey day' of alternative hardware and software. There were dozens and dozens of systems, all with their own micro architecture, there are probably a bunch that are completely defunct, even if you had working hardware the software might be extinct. Wang, Kaypro, CDC, there were bunches of them...

The real warning shot this should be to everybody is for your personal media. The video and photos of your family. If you don't actively take part in archiving them (like regularly checking in on them, backing them up, copying them to new media, etc..) it is very possible, some would say likely that in 20, 30, maybe 50 years, you won't even be able to read the stuff. It's already a real chore to play a VHS tape.

[nigwil_]

"Who's gonna preserve that stuff?" There are dedicated groups attempting to do what they can, getting the word out so that more eyes can scan the landscape and sight historical ephemera to be preserved helps too:

http://www.computerhistory.org/groups/spg/ https://archive.org/details/software

My list which has many items still to be found:

http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/spg