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Poll: Could you live without an optical drive?

Can Apple drop the optical drives?

  • Yes, drop m today!

    Votes: 249 65.4%

  • No, I will be using discs for a longgggg time to come.

    Votes: 57 15.0%

  • Apple can drop optical in a couple years, but not today.

    Votes: 75 19.7%
  • Total voters
    381
Stankonia said:
Of course, I'm sure people felt the same way about manufacturers removing floppy drives from computers, but I think DVDs are so much more useful that they really can't be compared to eliminating floppies.
Click to expand...

Actually its pretty much the same. If you need it for something their is always an external drive. In fact you could even go get a 60 or 70 dollar external drive that plays blue ray!

The optical drive is dead... ive ripped all my movies onto my computer lol. If they get rid of it ill go out and by an external for $20. I would much rather they had the space for something else. There is nothing that couldn't be replaced with another hard drive... (back ups) external drive(movies) I see no reason for them to not get rid of it.
 
come to think of it i rarely use my OD on my 15'' MBP.

now i feel like selling it and getting the MBA :(
 
If they would make movie and TV show downloads available through iTunes in other countries than the US and a few select ones, I'm game.
 
I've only used my optical drive a few times since I got this mac (8,1), and all of that was mainly in the initial set-up/install phase when digital downloads weren't as common. I haven't used mine now for at least a year and a half.
 
I use my FireWire ports seldom, but when I do, they are incredibly handy and for that reason, I refuse to own a Unibody MacBook (either Aluminum or Plastic). I feel the same about the optical drive, though some days I burn/install/play-from it more than others. I would be fine sans the optical drive on a Mac mini (like in the server model) as a third-party external does the job better than the internal one ever did; though on a laptop that needs to go with me to places where I'd rather not carry around an external, that's annoying.
 
I don't have an optical drive in my machine, but I do have an external burner as I backup my data to optical media.

Optical media is not susceptible to issues of mainly drop and water damage that hard drives are suspectible. Plus I can put my discs in a fireproof safe and things are pretty safe from damage.

I don't know other people who do what I do, but that's why I want to keep the optical drives, but only as an external.
 
I think the biggest pro argument for removing it that most can agree with is that you really don't need to carry an OD around.
The few times you use it an external USB drive at home works fine. You can easily switch to some bluray alternative and you can just plug it into any hub as the transferspeeds are usually soo slow.

I hope we get some decent interface like eSATA or Lightpeak soon. I don't like firewire because I never bought an external HD capable of it and I don't see a reason to change that as it is still too slow and only their for compatibility reasons.
 
I like it the way it is atm - I'm away on a 3 month worktrip right now, so I've put in an optibay HDD for increased storage + redundancy on the go, but when I'm back home I can swap the optical drive back in and carry that around instead for occasional use whilst putting the HDD back into a USB enclosure for backup purposes.

I have an external HP DVD drive shared with my little eeepc which only cost me about $35. Its reasonably slim and lightweight, and I use it to watch the occasional DVD when not at work. As for software, I've already put the SL CD onto a spare bootable flash drive and I imaged most of the software I need and put them on a 2TB 3.5-inch external drive which I leave in my current accommodation.

Apple should continue to provide an optical drive, and 3rd parties should continue to roll out the optibays; optical media does have its uses. This gives people the choice to ditch their optical drive without paying a fortune for an adapter, and I also hope all Apple laptops in the future come with their recovery on a USB drive like the new Air.
 
My opinion on this for my situation would be simple:

drop the optical drive - i used it last to do a reinstall and also import about 4 cd's into itunes that i had just got from the local HMV...

if there is anything i would need as a iso / dmg image then i have a pc that i could get the dmg on and just transfer across - usb hdd / pen drive / ftp

with the size of pen drives i have a 16gb one that doesnt really get used a lot then i dont think optical is needed...but i know for a fact there will be the ONE time where i do :) but where i work we have 3 usb externals that i could use if that happens :D
 
Maybe keep them on the 17'' models, but the 15'' and 13'' models are far too small to waste such precious space. External ones will do their job very well.
 
I voted for "drop m" but I add this: I use optical drives, I would be fine if they remove it from the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but the external drive should be free with every MacBook Pro and MacBook, they can even offer you a discount if you do not want it ($80 off your total price if you don't want the extra hardware, same price they are charging you now to get one with the MacBook Air)

I can see the reasons to remove it, but as many have pointed out, there are still a lot of reasons to have one. These notebook computers are pretty expensive, we should not have to pay extra to have an optical drive at a time where Apple sells so many products on DVD, not just 3rd party software like Microsoft's Office 2011, but Apple's own software like iWork and iLife which list "DVD drive required for installation." as a system requirement on their own website!

Apple should move to a purely download store for their software (They would still have to carry DVDs for other vendors for Adobe, Parallels, Office, etc. It's up to those companies to move away from optical media) before they totally eliminate the optical drive as part of the package (either built-in or a free external drive) for the notebook computers that are not "ultra portable"

The MacBook Air is not meant to be a primary computer, it's designed to be in an environment with other computers so that you can share their optical drives when you do need one. So I can see the external optical drive being an accessory for the MacBook Air, but not the MacBook Pro or the MacBook. Unless Apple just expects us all to have iMacs/Mac Pros in addition to our NoteBooks!
 
croooow said:
I voted for "drop m" but I add this: I use optical drives, I would be fine if they remove it from the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but the external drive should be free with every MacBook Pro and MacBook, they can even offer you a discount if you do not want it ($80 off your total price if you don't want the extra hardware, same price they are charging you now to get one with the MacBook Air)

...
Click to expand...
If the majority of people don't want an optical drive why include it is the free default? Seems to me that Apple would continue with the Air model where you pay extra for the drive.
 
miata said:
If the majority of people don't want an optical drive why include it is the free default? Seems to me that Apple would continue with the Air model where you pay extra for the drive.
Click to expand...

Agreed, if Apple does drop the optical drive from the Pro or White MacBook, they would probably use the Air model and offer the external as an accessory, not include it for free.

I would be very interested in them offering to not include the external drive, but making it available as a no cost option. Leave it up to the customer. If a majority of the people don't want it, then a majority of the notebooks shipped will not have it. I think, even if there was no cost difference, most people would opt for the external because they either would use it often or think they may use it at some point and want to have the option available. I'd put up a poll to find out, but I don't think this forum is a good sampling of Apple's notebook computer customers.

Sure, a majority of people would like to not have it built into the notebook, but I don't think a majority of people don't want an optical option of any kind included with their notebooks. Even if it's just an easy way to watch the DVD movies they already own and they have no plans to install software from a CD/DVD.

My attitude would be different if Apple did not sell their own software on DVD. If they move it all to the Mac App store then I can see not including an item needed to use that software.
 
qawes said:
Maybe keep them on the 17'' models, but the 15'' and 13'' models are far too small to waste such precious space. External ones will do their job very well.
Click to expand...

Then make them larger. There's no reason why they HAVE to be that thin and can't be 0.2" thicker so we can have our cake and eat it too. I don't use an optical drive every day, just like I don't use a FireWire port every day, just like I don't use the SD card every day, but when I want them, I'm happy that they're there.
 
Yebubbleman said:
Then make them larger. There's no reason why they HAVE to be that thin and can't be 0.2" thicker so we can have our cake and eat it too. I don't use an optical drive every day, just like I don't use a FireWire port every day, just like I don't use the SD card every day, but when I want them, I'm happy that they're there.
Click to expand...
That is why they have external drives. Why carry around the weight and bulk when you can simply attach an external drive for those rare occasions?
 
miata said:
If the majority of people don't want an optical drive why include it is the free default? Seems to me that Apple would continue with the Air model where you pay extra for the drive.
Click to expand...

This poll isn't a complete sampling. If anything it's skewed by people who are still high on last month's MacBook Air announcement. The optical drive is something that the average user won't be using all that much, though Pro customers (at least quite a few of them) need it and count on it. So, take it out on the Mac mini, take it out on the white MacBook. If those customers want it, they can shell out the extra $100. The iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro should all still have it because, as those machines are geared to a wide variety of professionals, they should.
 
I could probably live without one on a laptop like the air but for a desktop I like it to watch DVDs space isn't too much of an issue in desktops though.
 
sigh...

to everyone that wants an optical drive and thinks it's worth everything you'll be giving up considering what they can do with that space....

And as a professional I would think that a better cpu and or gpu, better battery life, or maybe more storage is more important than a optical drive.

and do people really use the optical drive on the go? "Oh I'm taking the subway, let me take out my laptop and install some software or burn some cd's" who the hell does that? the 2 or 3 times you'll use it, just use the damn external.
 
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Given the amount of digital media these days I could probably live without it. I've purchased games which once you register online, you have access to the digital media (Convenient as hell if you leave your DVD's in another province like me), broadband access is cheap and easy to come by for me, so I'd probably rather have an additional HD spot, instead of a drive that I MAYBE use once a year, perhaps twice if I have some freak catastrophe happen.
 
For those that want the SuperDrive is it because:

____ you want to be able to play or burn media on the go?
____ you don't want to pay extra for an external drive?
____ you don't want to have to deal with an external drive?
 
miata said:
For those that want the SuperDrive is it because:

____ you want to be able to play or burn media on the go?
____ you don't want to pay extra for an external drive?
____ you don't want to have to deal with an external drive?
Click to expand...

* I want to watch DVDs on my airplane flights.
* I don't want to pay extra for an external drive
* I use it for putting some CDs on my hard drive
* I don't really have the space on my desk to set up an external drive easily.

Honestly, the biggest thing is the DVDs on the plane (and too cheap to buy an external drive ;) ).
 
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