Take it a step further: consider what will happen when you die and people come in to clear out your stuff. Will this just end up in the trash? Is that okay? If not, how can you ensure that?
I super doubt that. I don't think my collection is significant in any way. I decided long ago that I would collect very few computers and that they would have to be things that I personally used and care about. So, I have the following:
KIM-1
Sharp MZ-80K
Research Machines 380Z
Research Machines 480Z
BBC Micro Model B (my original machine)
OLPC XO-1 (my original machine)
Minitel 1b
Minitel 2
IBM ThinkPad 701c (the one I did a complete restoration on)
And that's it. These are all in working order because I keep them that way. Truly believe that keeping these machines alive it important.
My apologies. My presumption was based on a fever dream from what I know of the many ex microsofties from U. Waterloo and elsewhere in Canada that have piles of retro gear. Eg. Vax 11/780 and two PDP in basement and garage and 20+ workstations from their career at MS.
Interesting take, but probably overkill in this case:
* the USB-to-serial drivers are standard and included in every OS. Even if 10 years from now they weren't, it's easy to fire up a VM and get it working
* Serial cables are a standard thing for anyone working with old hardware. And even if someone, 10 years from now, doesn't have one, it's not hard to rig something up, maybe even using jumper cables
* That leaves the usb-to-serial adapter itself. While these might be more at risk on first glance, the chips they work on are still produced by the millions, and I can't envision a future where those things would cost more than a few bucks new or even from places like eBay
I mean I totally get this, and I have done similar things in the past (e.g. I have a box with a PCI SCSI controller and an ISA SCSI controller, together with a dozen or so different SCSI cables and terminators, in case I need to dump yet another SCSI device...) but doing this for serial cables just seems... unnecessary?
KIM-1
Sharp MZ-80K
Research Machines 380Z
Research Machines 480Z
BBC Micro Model B (my original machine)
OLPC XO-1 (my original machine)
Minitel 1b
Minitel 2
IBM ThinkPad 701c (the one I did a complete restoration on)
And that's it. These are all in working order because I keep them that way. Truly believe that keeping these machines alive it important.
I am glad you keep a curated set of devices.
* the USB-to-serial drivers are standard and included in every OS. Even if 10 years from now they weren't, it's easy to fire up a VM and get it working
* Serial cables are a standard thing for anyone working with old hardware. And even if someone, 10 years from now, doesn't have one, it's not hard to rig something up, maybe even using jumper cables
* That leaves the usb-to-serial adapter itself. While these might be more at risk on first glance, the chips they work on are still produced by the millions, and I can't envision a future where those things would cost more than a few bucks new or even from places like eBay
I mean I totally get this, and I have done similar things in the past (e.g. I have a box with a PCI SCSI controller and an ISA SCSI controller, together with a dozen or so different SCSI cables and terminators, in case I need to dump yet another SCSI device...) but doing this for serial cables just seems... unnecessary?