Megabytes (MB) or Mebibytes (MiB)?

An anonymous reader says: "KernelTrap has an interesting story about megabytes versus mebibytes. Though the article refers to Linux, the topic is applicable to all computers. Will there be a time when all computer users will talk about adding mibibytes of RAM, rather than a megabytes? From the article: '[the kernel patch] changes references from the familiar MB (megabyte) and GB (gigabyte) to the NIST standard MiB (mebibyte) and GiB (gibibyte). According to these standards, technically a megabyte (MB) is a power of ten, while a mebibyte (MiB) is a power of two, appropriate for binary machines. A megabyte is then 1,000,000 bytes. A mebibyte is the actual 1,048,576 bytes that most intend.'"

Comments

Re:Pointless, Revisionist, And Stupid.

[Bowie J. Poag]

Even at that, a megabyte is megabyte. If you girls cant stand the idea of something not being flush to your idea of a "round number", follow the standard. A ton, by definition is 2000 pounds. A "metric ton" is 2200 pounds.

So call it what its supposed to be called. A megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes. A "metric megabyte" by the same logic should be 1,000,000 bytes.