So we're just basically considering statistically which is more plausible? A HDD failing versus a corporation being greedy? I think both are bad and unreliable. A company guaranteeing a "purchase" in perpetuity (not subscription) and having the standard be offline installers (for your own backup) is the best bet. Everything else is just dictating the best way to stub your toe.

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

So far I've had one hard drive fail and lose a bunch of my work from long ago (before I knew to use git), have physically lost memory sticks to similar effect

On the other hand I've still got everything in my Dropbox that I worked on as a child, everything on my old web server was still there until I pulled it down and cancelled it, all the contacts on my phone I have ever made, and I've never lost a steam game

I get not wanting to put your faith in big companies and I don't like the idea but so far they've proven far more reliable than I am in looking after my stuff

(I also tend not to keep anything sensitive in there and open source all my code nowadays anyway so leaks and ai training don't bother me that much)