Internet Archive Expands Its Software Collection, Now The Largest Collection Online In The World

Posted on Apr 15 2013 - 7:14am by Editorial Staff

Do you like History? Do you like the collectibles from the past? If the answers for both the questions are YES, then you would be delighted to know that Internet Archive aggressively expands itself via its software collection, being now the largest of its kind. “The largest collection of historical software online in the world,” said the Internet Archive’s Jason Scott by saying that the organization now hosts the world’s largest software collection.

Thanks to the Internet Archive partnerships with many of independent archives, including the Shareware CD Archive, the TOSEC archive, the FTP site boneyard, and the Disk Drives collection. To start with all you have to go up here, and start exploring, raging the stuff from vintage PC games collections to Linux format magazine.

Scott elaborates that its “metadata is shit:” We’re not good at having all the careful twee metadata entry that most archives and libraries demand. If you look at, say, the Apple I manual we have online, it’s kind of just that – an Apple I manual. Not much detail, page listing, context. It’s just there. Preserved, easily accessed, easily read – but not described all that much. That’s a thing. People in more formal disciplines might call that a showstopper. I call it a minor issue for the moment, but one worth improving.

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