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Perpetual Exhibits

A standing room for a project or a life’s work: what it is, why it mattered, who carries it on. Notes for whoever takes it over wait behind the warden.

Start my exhibit
Glass cases on pale wooden plinths, holding an old book, a laptop, a drawing, a house model and a camera, by a window onto a snowy lake
The exhibition wing · generated image

On display

A wooden desk with a brass lamp, an open notebook of drawings, a mug and a closed laptop, before a window wall onto a frozen lake at dusk

Catalogue number E-000002Perpetual ExhibitReal

Cold Library

The library, shelved in itself.

Kept since 2026-10-04 · a successor is wanted

A snowy wooden pier at dusk, a small lit ferry coming in across the water from a wooded island

Catalogue number E-000001Perpetual ExhibitPractice

Island Ferry Timetable

One island, one timetable, twelve years.

Behind the warden: 1 letter1 place to go1 badge

Room for more. The next number is E-000003. Hang your own →

How to write an exhibit

  1. One line a stranger understands. Then the story, in your own words.
  2. Behind the warden: what whoever takes it over should know first, and what they should never change.
  3. Where the domain, the servers and the accounts are, and who to ask. Never passwords.
  4. A badge for your successor, so they can show they were chosen.

Start my exhibit →

Still running

Projects whose founder or a core maker is gone, and which others carry on. Facts checked on 2026-10-04, each with a source.

  • Debian since 1993

    Thousands of volunteers and a release team keep it going.

    Source: Debian

  • Boost C++ since 1998

    Library authors and the community; releases continue.

    Source: Boost C++

  • ZeroMQ since 2007

    An open team still merges fixes and security patches.

    Source: ZeroMQ

  • NetHack

    The NetHack DevTeam still ships releases; 5.0 came out in 2026.

    Source: NetHack

  • Erlang/OTP

    The Erlang/OTP team ships releases; OTP 29.1 came in September 2026.

    Source: Erlang/OTP

  • Vim

    Christian Brabandt and the Vim team; patches land almost daily.

    Source: Vim

  • Alpine (Pine)

    Maintained by Eduardo Chappa, with commits in 2026.

    Source: Alpine (Pine)

  • Rake

    Maintained by Hiroshi Shibata; v13.4.2 in April 2026.

    Source: Rake

  • J

    Jsoftware and its contributors, with commits in 2026.

    Source: J

One setting worth five minutes: GitHub lets you name a successor (Settings → Account → Successor settings) who can archive or transfer your public repositories. Put the rest in your exhibit. GitHub docs

Precedents in the Open Stacks

People made exhibits of their work long before this library. These are on our shelves, free to read.