So submit a patch.

How many people are going to be developing on non-x86 systems anyway?

No but windows does have BSD code in it. Specifically ftp.exe and some zlib code.

SSD drives are not as unreliable as people seem to think, It would take a *minimum* of 5 years of *continuous* writing and thats for the cheaper SSD's like you would find in a netbook rather than the $300 Intel top of the line ones, not to mention ones being used in a RAID would have a longer life.

Besides even if some blocks go bad you can map around them, the SSD itself might even do it.

Besides, you are unlikely to be using the same drive in 5 years time and magnetic drives have a much higher chance of failure, also when magnetic drives die often the entire drive dies at once, a few blocks failing is a much better solution.

In addition to that, the following is from the info on the SandDisc 3G drives: "The G3 SSDs provide a Long-term Data Endurance (LDE) of 160 terabytes written (TBW) for the 240GB version, sufficient for over 100 years of typical user usage.(2,3)", 4GB of writing a day is typical.

Perhaps the spasm was due to an injury obtained from the Emacs shortcuts.

Also important to remember is that CD's degrade after 5-10 years and DVDs are likely to be quicker, unless your making them like those NASA ones they send out on the space probes that last 10,000 years (and cost heaps).

Hard drives are also likely to loose data due to magnetic force weakening over time (also solar flares and whatnot if its not insulated correctly).

A SSD should hopefully be able to retain data for a decent length of time (Although I don't know if this is the case for the 1st generation mainstream drives we are seeing now which have various issues), but I'm assuming this project just involves old scrap systems rather then spending a few hundred $ on something. Maybe you could for out some money for a few SD cards and reader. Once again they need shielding from solar flares.

I was just thinking that, but I don't think you can tell when a particle is measured without measuring it which then collapses the waveform anyway.

When you consider that you only need to print once then never again, just keep uploading documents to the printed screen, you will probably save money.