RIP Floppy disks

Long over due if I do say so

maflynn said:

Long over due if I do say so

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You can say that...

I was surprised to see they still sold 12 million in 2009.

I recently saw a tv show on the science channel about a company that makes player piano music. In the factory that creates the music for the player piano, that have an Apple II with a 5.25 floppy

This was a relatively new show, i.e., 2009

I haven't seen a floppy disk for 10 years. What's the fuss all about?

[Merged 2 threads, exact same topic]

Dang and I was hoping 10.7 would ship on several thousand floppies.

macfan881 said:

and everyone said the iMac would flop with out this

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Actually, when the first iMac came out, it was still necessary for many people, and it was a pain in the ass for those who did. It may not seem necessary today, but even in 1998, it was still relevant and Apple omitted it too early. They sold a lot of those first iMacs, but that doesn't mean people weren't troubled by its omission. Some people weren't computer-savvy enough to even ask about it while they were purchasing it. Of course, those who needed one had a large number of 3rd party options available if they wanted a floppy disk drive, since demand for them was fairly high.

I freak out when customers send a 3.5" in to me as I don't have a computer that has that drive.

Abstract said:

Actually, when the first iMac came out, it was still necessary for many people, and it was a pain in the ass for those who did. It may not seem necessary today, but even in 1998, it was still relevant and Apple omitted it too early. They sold a lot of those first iMacs, but that doesn't mean people weren't troubled by its omission. Some people weren't computer-savvy enough to even ask about it while they were purchasing it. Of course, those who needed one had a large number of 3rd party options available if they wanted a floppy disk drive, since demand for them was fairly high.

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And for those people, they could have purchased a $99 external to read floppies. I never used another floppy after I bought my iMac in '99.

To be fair though, I did have a ZIP drive for back-up purposes...but I saw no need for a 3.5" floppy.

velocityg4 said:

Dang and I was hoping 10.7 would ship on several thousand floppies.

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Now installing disk 7/10000.

rhett7660 said:

You can say that...

I was surprised to see they still sold 12 million in 2009.

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Only in Japan

Farewell Floppy

Sony says its shutting down the last floppy disk plant on the face of the earth next spring. Frankly, I didn't even know anyone still made them.

A professor back in 2002 assigned a take home exam to be submitted on floppy. I had a Mac so asked if a CD was OK since obviously no floppy drive. Was told no so I had to go buy an ext. floppy drive. I wonder what this prof does now. Probably CDs and if you ask if you can submit on a USB drive will give a scowl.

Funny to think one floppy couldn't even hold one decently encoded MP3.

R.I.P. Floppy. R.I.P.

maflynn said:

I recently saw a tv show on the science channel about a company that makes player piano music. In the factory that creates the music for the player piano, that have an Apple II with a 5.25 floppy

This was a relatively new show, i.e., 2009

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I saw that too but wasn't sure what to think about it.

maflynn said:

I recently saw a tv show on the science channel about a company that makes player piano music. In the factory that creates the music for the player piano, that have an Apple II with a 5.25 floppy

This was a relatively new show, i.e., 2009

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TMar said:

I saw that too but wasn't sure what to think about it.

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Most likely someone working for them or some company built a proprietary program back in the 70's or 80's for some part of their manufacturing. If the program worked then there is no reason it would not work now. So why bother spending tens of thousands or possibly a great deal more for a new program to be made that will perform the same function that the IIe must be performing quite well. Then again maybe they just like playing Oregon Trail.

Wwwwhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I've got FORTRAN on a 5 ¼" with no way to get it to any computer.

They're still popular in some US High Schools. My High School would ban you from the computer lab if you were caught using anything other than a school issued floppy disk. USB Thumb Drives were not allowed cuz they thought students could transfer viruses from the USB drive to the school mainframe. What a vivid imagination my school had.

Prof. said:

USB Thumb Drives were not allowed cuz they thought students could transfer viruses from the USB drive to the school mainframe. What a vivid imagination my school had.

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They are mystical things thumb drives! Run by magic wouldn't you believe.

I've definitely used a floppy disc in the last 6/7 years. I remember because they used to fit perfectly in the inside pocket of my school blazer

I can't believe they've stayed in production this long!

Even in '98, my buddies and I were swapping files on 100 MB Zip disks. Floppies were just too small. I had long since ported everything on floppies over to Zips. (Later, the Zips were archived onto CDs, the CDs onto DVDs... I have files from 1990 that have been on four different formats!)

That's progress, baby.

mstrze said:

And for those people, they could have purchased a $99 external to read floppies. I never used another floppy after I bought my iMac in '99.

To be fair though, I did have a ZIP drive for back-up purposes...but I saw no need for a 3.5" floppy.

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you were the expection. But the $99 external was very costly. It is about $130-150 in modern terms.

At the time apple dump the floppy there was no good cost effect solution for moving small files around. Remember at the time free Email attachments did not exist and even if they did our internet speeds were dail up. That means download speed were about 10 mins per meg. So 1.4 meg file would take 15 mins to download.

The iMac did not have a CD burner and at the time CD burners were a few $100 bucks and it was near impossible to find blanks.
USB flash drives were not really out yet and they cost a pretty penny. I remember a 64 meg flash drive being HUGE and a big deal to have. 16 meg flash drives were very costly if you could find them and no widely supported yet.

Yes we could all see the end of the days of floppies were numbered but the replacement of floppies had not really hit yet. Floppies were replaced by flash drives and broad band email.

As for me last time I used a floppy was in 2007. I had a professor who required a project to be turn in on one. I had to go out to the store and buy a pack of floppies to turn in my project. It was worth a few good laughs.

When I built my computer in 2004 I pad 10 bucks for a floppy drive and I called it my $10 insurance plan and it was well worth it. I used my floppy a fair number of times over the years.

Rodimus Prime said:

you were the expection. But the $99 external was very costly. It is about $130-150 in modern terms.

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$99 costly?!?!? Compared to the cost of the $1500 computer??

As I said, I never found the need, since I already had a ZIP drive, but $99 is nothing compared to the cost of other peripherals at the time, like $2-300 for a printer, $150-200 for a scanner...etc. Heck, I think my ZIP drive was $199 at least.

Sounds reasonable that you paid $10 for a floppy drive a few years back. I can buy a combo printer/scanner for $50 too.

The next thing to go will be the good ol' compact disc.

ozzyman500 said:

The next thing to go will be the good ol' compact disc.

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The day can't come soon enough!

mstrze said:

$99 costly?!?!? Compared to the cost of the $1500 computer??

As I said, I never found the need, since I already had a ZIP drive, but $99 is nothing compared to the cost of other peripherals at the time, like $2-300 for a printer, $150-200 for a scanner...etc. Heck, I think my ZIP drive was $199 at least.

Sounds reasonable that you paid $10 for a floppy drive a few years back. I can buy a combo printer/scanner for $50 too.

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Well $99 bucks is very costly given even back then floppy drives for PC you could get for around $20-30. It was a huge apple premium for a basic floppy drive. The drives never got that high in cost as the technology to read and write floppy drives was pretty old tech even by then.

The $99 is an example of an Apple Tax.

You numbers for the cost an ink jet printer are pretty far off as well because lets see my parents bought a color ink jet in 1996-97 for about 70 bucks.