Ok, I prefer to use software which is future compatible, like ZFS, which is 128-bit.

“The file system itself is 128 bit, allowing for 256 quadrillion zettabytes of storage. All metadata is allocated dynamically, so no need exists to preallocate inodes or otherwise limit the scalability of the file system when it is first created. All the algorithms have been written with scalability in mind. Directories can have up to 248 (256 trillion) entries, and no limit exists on the number of file systems or the number of files that can be contained within a file system.”

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/819-5461/6n7ht6qth/inde...

Don’t want to hit the quadrillion zettabyte limit..

Come for punchcards, stay for legibility.

80 characters per line is an odd convention in the sense that it originated from a technical limitation, but is in fact a rule of thumb perfectly familiar to any typesetting professional from long before personal computing became widespread.

Remember newspapers? Laying the text out in columns[0] is not a random quirk or result of yet another technology limitation. It is the same reason a good blog layout sets a conservative maximum width for when it is read on a landscape oriented screen.

The reason is that when each line is shorter, the entire thing becomes easier to read. Indeed, even accounting for legibility hit caused by hyphenation.

Up to a point, of course. That point may differ depending on the medium and the nature of the material: newspapers, given they deal with solid plain text, limit a line to 40–60 characters; for programming it may be wider due to often longer “words” and other factors and conventions like syntax highlighting or indentation, and when dealing with particularly long identifiers (I’m looking at you, CNLabelContactRelationYoungerCousinMothersSiblingsDaughterOrFathersSistersDaughter) wider still.

[0] Relatedly, codebases roughly following the 80 character line length limitation unlock more interesting columnar layouts in editors and multiplexers.

It did, but 80 columns also pretty closely matches the 50ish em/70ish character paragraph width that’s usually recommended for readability. I myself wouldn’t go much higher than 100 columns with code.

While 80 characters is obviously quite short, my experience is that longer line lengths result in much less readable code. You have to try to be concise on shorter lines, with better phrasing.

It's very impressive indeed.

Linux goal is only for code compatibility - which makes complete sense given the libre/open source origins. If the culture is one where you expect to have access to the source code for the software you depend on, why should the OS developers make the compromises needed to ensure you can still run a binary compiled decades ago?

My original VB6 apps (mostly) still run on win11

Didn't Microsoft drop 16 bit application support in Windows 10? I remember being saddened by my exe of Jezzball I've carried from machine to machine no longer working.