On Dec 6, 2007 7:51 PM, Joey Rockhold <joey.rockhold at gmail.com> wrote: > I find this conversation very interesting, but here is another perspective > to think about. > > 2038 is 30 years away. Will you be using the same type of computer in 30 > years? No, I'm guessing not. Think of what computers were 30 years ago. > Will you be using software after 30 years? I don't think so, it won't run > on your new operating systems, because so much will have changed. It's > possible you will use the same software, but it will be a much later / fixed > version. What about data stored in databases? I'm guessing date/time > fields will be converted as needed. This is the exact same argument that was used in the 1960's and 70's, when some programmers noticed that they were going to have a Y2K bug if their 6-digit date code was still around in the year 2000. How much you want to bet that there will still be 1990's-era and 2000's era hardware and software still in production use by 2038? We will probably see the same IT boom starting in about 2036, that we did in 1998 -- maybe on a lesser scale. I don't know much about GNU date, but I think I know something about human nature :-) -- Dave Sherman MCSA, MCSE, CCNA Linux: Because rebooting is for adding new hardware.