@martin: I don't know what the "industry" is nor do I know who their "customers" are. I don't mean that as rudely as it sounds, sorry. But I don't. Who really thinks that base 2 is more comprehensible than base-10?
I recall a survey back in the 1980s (yep, I've been a software engineer that long) about programming langauges. The overwhelming "favorite" compiler was C. Because I supervised a large technical software engineering department, I was interviewed after the article came out to see how we felt about it. I suggested that the article was off track, and suggested the author run another survey, and this time ask what language most folks programmed in. This time the answer was Pascal. So the journal ran /that/, and asked the question "If your favorite language is C, why do you do most of your programming in Pascal?" The answer was that the favorite language was C because respondents, reading various trade journals, thought that C was the "in" language (because that's what journals published), and /should/ be their "favorite", despite the fact that it was arcane and inadquate at the time. You see the point? Programmers chatted up C because they thought it was "cool" and "in", and then trade journals reported that C was "cool" and "in", and folks read those journals and thought that C was "cool" and "in", and...
So who is driving this boat?
In a country (US) that is resisting going to metric in general and SI specifically, I moved to SI for the sense of it and for the convenience. Yep. Down in my woodshop, I build all my projects in SI. I measure my cycling performance in SI. I use the 24 hour clock. Women in this country now know that mascara product X will make their lashes 4 mm longer... my mountain bike dimensions are all metric... but my file sizes are reported in base 2.
I work in a technical field, not primarily software engineering, but we use software extensively to solve scientific and engineering problems. I'll bet that if I asked 100 coworkers how much a MiB is, I'd be lucky to get 1 correct answer. And those are technical folks. If I surveyed 100 computer users in the area, I'd be surprised to get any correct answers. So while I can think in binary and hex and Boolean algebra, I am in a very small minority, AFAIK.
In closing, I understand that this is just my opinion and perspective. I may simply not be seeing the vast number of users who prefer their file sizes reported in base 2 because base 2 provides them with information that base 10 does not. I do get to hear the whining complaints of those who are frustrated with not knowing why that 1 GiB file won't fit in the 1 GB of file space left on that USB drive.
I promise not beat this up any more ;-) Not here. Maybe with MS ;-) I appreciate knowing that you read the earlier post and responded.
~R~