I've been using computers for 20 years. Since my transition away from [[Notion]] to [[Obsidian]] I've begun to commit to using [[Durable File Types]]. While Obsidian may not be around in 40 years, I can say with great confidence that this note _will_ be interpretable by _something_ in that time. I've considered what [[Use Case Diagrams|use case]]s I would need to cover, generally, and have created the following table that I'm going to soft-commit to for the foreseeable future to the extent possible. [[What are You Optimizing For]]: A set of file types that can be operated on using a minimal set of applications, to save for posterity. | File Type | Extension | Typical Application | Note | | ------------------------------------------ | --------- | -------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Textual | `.md` | [[Obsidian]], [[VS Code]] | Or `.txt` if [[Markdown]] isn't being used | | Basic tabular data | `.csv` | Excel, VS Code | | | [[Spreadsheet]] | `.xlsx` | [Excel](https://gillespedia.com/Excel) | | | Hierarchical data | `.json` | VS Code | If primarily for machine use | | Human-readable hierarchical | `.yaml` | VS Code | | | Editable, formatted document | `.docx` | Word | Rarely used, prefer plaintext | | Read-only document | `.pdf` | Preview, Chrome | | | Image, lossless | `.png` | Preview, Chrome | Used in most cases | | Image, lossy | `.jpeg` | Preview, Chrome | Used when optimizing for storage | | Image, [[Vector (Disambiguation)\|vector]] | `.svg` | [[DrawIO]], [[Excalidraw]] | Often with baked-in data models for the application | | Drawings | | [[DrawIO]], [[Excalidraw]] | Stored as either `.svg` or `.png`, depending on needs | | Video | `.mp4` | Any media player | | | Audio | `.mp3` | Any media player | | | Compressed files | `.zip` | 7zip | | The list above covers the vast majority of use cases (in terms of bits needing saved), and can be opened essentially in perpetuity by any of a huge number of applications. I am currently centering nearly all of my work around the following small set of apps: - Creation: - [[Obsidian]] - Excel - or [[LibreOffice]] - VS Code - One of: [[DrawIO]] or [[Excalidraw]] - See [[Markdown Graphics Anxiety]] - Consumption: - Chrome - Apple's "Preview" app - VLC or whatever player is local to the machine - Tooling - 7zip **Notes:** - I don't really do photo editing, so RAW isn't included - I'm not really including video or audio _creation_, as those things feel like something you just use whatever is best at the time - Presentations aren't really something I use personally either, if I had to store one for posterity I'd PDF-ize it - The above list doesn't include _databases_, for which I'd probably use [[Postgres]], [[SQLite]], or [[MongoDB]] depending on the use case, but honestly I'm not rolling my own databases for anything (yet) - I need to spend more time with [[LibreOffice]] - however the Microsoft-based formats are incredibly widely supported, I see minimal reason to shift from `.xlsx` to `.ods`, for example **** # More ## Source - [[Myself]]