Towards Reproducible Execution of Closed-Source Applications from Internet Archives

Abstract

Olive enables execution of closed-source applications decades after their creation. With appropriate authentication and authorization, anyone on the Internet can execute any archived application with no more effort than a mouse click. User experience is good, even for an interaction-intensive application. Olive uses virtual machine (VM) technology to encapsulate legacy software, including the operating system and all layers above it. If the legacy hardware is already obsolete at curation time, an emulator for it on more modern hardware can be included within the VM image. This paper is an experience report on the decade-long evolution of this concept.