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Using serialized instances of Java classes for the purposes of long-term persistence is evil. It doesn't matter whether the serialization format is native Java serialization or XML-based (Archiver). The bad thing is that internal implementation details get exposed where they shouldn't be. Using serialized Java objects for module settings and configuration data introduces architectural problems and makes applications fragile from the compatibility point of view. For example 1. internal data structures exposed via serialization cannot be changed freely 2. obsolete classes need to be sustained in order to support compatibility with previous versions 3. instances of custom classes provided by modules cannot be read by other modules/apps or external tools This requirement applies even to the seemingly "innocent" utility classes like ArrayList, Vector, Hashtable, HashMap, String, etc. For the purpose of long-term persistence, all persistent data should be translated into a simpler, JDK-independent form (preferrably XML). See issue 19915 for the origin of this task.