Imperfect

employ software redundancy

In Fun with FLACs and File Trees, Steve ends with this question and answer segment:

WHY LIST SO MANY PROGRAMS THAT DO THE SAME JOB?

Unmaintained software eventually fucks up. It's good to have alternatives. All of these work great now (with the exception of the original tree sometimes), but a decade from now you might find yourself seeking an alternative. Everyone remembers when Neofetch got archived, right? lol I can't be the only one who refers to Fastfetch (great alternative btw) as Neofetch. Point is, don't be afraid to hunt down different, newer projects to replace your old tools...

His sentiment deserves a signal boost if not a shorter time horizon. Instead of employing software redundancy after an incident, employ it now. Ensure the privacy, security, and integrity of your trusted programs, configurations, and data. Maximize not only your efficiency and uptime, but that of your systems and anyone interacting with them.

Here's a quick personal example that illustrates my point. The official Dolphin emulator, which emulates Nintendo Gamecube and Wii games, treated me well. However, it recently stopped recognizing my controller adapter. I troubleshooted the problem for hours only to find no solutions within the software. Downgrading it or configuring settings that others noted as solutions didn't help. After all that effort, I opened up Retroarch and found that it instantly detected my adapter. After I installed their libretro Dolphin core and loaded up a game, I found my controller inputs working as expected.

Yes, the official Dolphin emulator being standalone, more up-to-date, and more open to developer support can make it the better choice over the Retroarch core. That verdict can also ring true for arcade emulation, modern consoles, or those with non-standard controllers like the Nintendo 64 or the Sega Saturn. However, if a trusted emulator isn't workable when I'm itching to game, having software redundancy makes the difference between doing what I want or settling for something else.


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