In article , J. P. Gilliver (John)
wrote:

Quite a few years ago now, I remember being startled to find a young
computing graduate had never done any assembler.

why? assembly is rarely needed anymore and has been for many, many
years. compilers can do a *better* job than humans in nearly every
case.

(Nowadays, I could
imagine one not having done any textual coding at all, having used
entirely graphical tools for code development.)

software development still requires text coding.



| So far I haven't lost one, and given the cost I probably
| won't keep them running for their expected life. I'm not

That seems to have been another thing which to me is a sea change in the
change from HDDs to SSDs: the concept of limited life. Yes, I know
everything is really, but actually making it part of planning is (or
will be), to me, a change.

ssds are *more* reliable than hard drives, therefore less likely to
fail.

the concept of limited life is *more* applicable to a hard drive.





Would take me certainly many days - I suspect weeks - to restore
everything, especially including setting changes. So I make an image
that's a lot more than basic. (Once I learnt about imaging, I saw/see no
reason to do _other_ than image all of C:. Maybe OK for business/school
situations where a standard configuration's needed for many machines.
But not for me.)

if it takes more than a day (likely less) to restore everything then
you're doing something very wrong.