Comment on Why a kilobyte is 1000 and not 1024 bytes

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Eyron@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

This is all explained in the post we’re commenting on. The standard “kilo” prefix, from the metric system, predates modern computing and even the definition of a byte: 1700s vs 1900s. It seems very odd to make the argument that the older definition is the one trying to retcon.

The binary usage in software was and is common, but there’s definitely more recent, and causes a lot of confusion because it doesn’t match the older and bigger standard. Computers are very good at numbers, they never should have tried the hijack in existing prefix, especially when it was already defined by existing International standards. One might be able to argue that the us haven’t really adopted the metric system at the point of development, but the usage of 1,000 to define the kilo, is clearly older than the usage of 1,024 to define the kilobyte. The main new (last 100 years) thing here, is 1,024 bytes is a kibibyte.

Kibi is the recon. Not kilo.

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