I hardly ever use my superdrive anymore. Most of the applications I use can be downloaded online. I buy my music, tv and movies off of itunes and back it up. If for whatever reason there is a song a friend or somebody ripped from a CD, we just use USB drives and copy it to one another. I personally do not like CDs or DVDs. I prefer just dragging files to and from media than ripping it to CDs or DVDs. Then again I've had my superdrive replaced three times so that could be a factor.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Optic drive: obsolete dinosaur destined to extinction? or legacy relic for ever?
- Thread starter xoggyux
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
No way. Using CDs and DVDs are an integral part of my computing. I would like to add BluRay, though, in the near future. Hopefully in two years when I purchase my next notebook I *may* be able to buy an Apple notebook. Those "unibodies" are such a turnoff as it is, rip out the optical drive and I'm shopping for an PC.
My GF and I don't have decent TVs or even cable, so we watch movies from optical, purchased or Netflix.
I use optical a lot, and while I could do an external it would be a hassle.
People use them far more than you think.
I use optical a lot, and while I could do an external it would be a hassle.
People use them far more than you think.
I think this is probably down the road several years until flash memory is such that they can make and sell a 1 gig USB drive for a few cents. CD's are still the cheapest physical media they can distribute programs on. The internet is still way to slow and not wide spread enough, especially here in the US. The US is only 230 million or so people spread out over a huge area vs say China or Japan with 5x the population in an area the size of a few states. The cost to deploy in the US is many times higher and the fact there is not one carrier/network provider it slows everything down even more.
The internet will eventually be the distribution channel of choice but even then I see the CD hanging around at least another 10 years while SSD's become pennies per gig vs a few dollars a gig now. They may even be super cheap in 3 or 4 years but until the SSD drive is common place in every laptop, I see the CD/DVD drive hanging out. Look at the VHS technology... you can still buy VHS tapes 10+ years after it was considered dead. I think the CD has a long life ahead of it for many reasons listed here and some we haven't even thought of.
Reading back over some of the other comments it's also pretty clear until the technology to stream "HD/BlueRay" feeds is possible with the huge bandwidth it requires, DVD's won't be going anywhere anytime soon. When we see Netflix going broke because they are losing customers to streaming providers, that will signal the end is around the corner
While I wish this was a few years away, I'm afraid were a good 10 years+ away from sitting at home or frankly even wirelessly with a 300mb to 1gb downstream internet connection. Widespread to anyone that wants it at a reasonably cheap price.
The internet will eventually be the distribution channel of choice but even then I see the CD hanging around at least another 10 years while SSD's become pennies per gig vs a few dollars a gig now. They may even be super cheap in 3 or 4 years but until the SSD drive is common place in every laptop, I see the CD/DVD drive hanging out. Look at the VHS technology... you can still buy VHS tapes 10+ years after it was considered dead. I think the CD has a long life ahead of it for many reasons listed here and some we haven't even thought of.
Reading back over some of the other comments it's also pretty clear until the technology to stream "HD/BlueRay" feeds is possible with the huge bandwidth it requires, DVD's won't be going anywhere anytime soon. When we see Netflix going broke because they are losing customers to streaming providers, that will signal the end is around the corner
While I wish this was a few years away, I'm afraid were a good 10 years+ away from sitting at home or frankly even wirelessly with a 300mb to 1gb downstream internet connection. Widespread to anyone that wants it at a reasonably cheap price.I think this is probably down the road several years until flash memory is such that they can make and sell a 1 gig USB drive for a few cents. CD's are still the cheapest physical media they can distribute programs on. The internet is still way to slow and not wide spread enough, especially here in the US. The US is only 230 million or so people spread out over a huge area vs say China or Japan with 5x the population in an area the size of a few states. The cost to deploy in the US is many times higher and the fact there is not one carrier/network provider it slows everything down even more.
The internet will eventually be the distribution channel of choice but even then I see the CD hanging around at least another 10 years while SSD's become pennies per gig vs a few dollars a gig now. They may even be super cheap in 3 or 4 years but until the SSD drive is common place in every laptop, I see the CD/DVD drive hanging out. Look at the VHS technology... you can still buy VHS tapes 10+ years after it was considered dead. I think the CD has a long life ahead of it for many reasons listed here and some we haven't even thought of.
Reading back over some of the other comments it's also pretty clear until the technology to stream "HD/BlueRay" feeds is possible with the huge bandwidth it requires, DVD's won't be going anywhere anytime soon. When we see Netflix going broke because they are losing customers to streaming providers, that will signal the end is around the corner
I do not think that flash memories of any kind will be worth few penies at least in 20 or 30 years time and the reason for that is that making a 1GB memory could just worth marginally less than making a 32 or 64gb (same material just different equipment/design) and this might keep music producers and "cheap" software developers away as they would have to pay a couple of bucks for the media rather than a few cents)
However I do no see a reason for which we should keep carrying DVD/CDs drive in a top of the line laptop (obviously people that pay two thousand dollars in a laptop would not mind buying a few 4~16GB flash memories) a year or two from now. It is not like we stop having them built in in the laptop and everything is over... In fact of all complains about macbook air, the one I see less frequent is the lack of optic drive builtin (I have read battery concerns, lack of USB, lack of power [very stupid reason as the MBA is not intended to be your game computer or video rendering photo edition music demuxing computer] or price [probably the most justifiable complaint]) and this obviously hints the level of usefulness CD/DVD have in today's world.
Anyway I agree with you, we can just trow all DVD/CDs and readers in the garbage tomorrow, and they will be still used for a couple of decades down the road, I can still buy 3.5" floppy disk from newegg but there is no reason to have a floppy disk in my MBA.
And the alternative to the builtin optic drive could be a great one. The 17" MBP for instance has a battery that last ~6hours (being realistic) if it would be extended to occupy the optic drive space, it would probably be 40% bigger and the real battery life could be as high as 10hours! (imagine that, thats 1 weekend worth battery [for medium-low usage such as emailing, web-browsing, excel/word documents, etc] and they could think of many other things to include in that space that could actually be better than a 10hours battery (apple would say 14hours battery
)I have to say the optical drive will stay for several years. With the advent and proposed sizes of bluray this will keep optical media alive for another generation of formats.
My next computing purchase will be a pair of 2.5" SSDs and an optibay adapter for my MBP to run an internal RAID0 set, along with an external USB DVDRW drive. I don't need the optical drive often enough anymore to waste the limited internal space and bandwidth on it.
Can you imagine Netflix sending us USB drives or SD cards instead? Fantastic.
Not just movies but everything!
SandDisk is already taking a lead with "slot music"
http://www.slotmusic.org/
Though I doubt they [alone] will make any difference.
I used to think that I needed it for music, installation, etc, but now that I take a good look at it, except to check my old DVD collection, I don't use it for anything else.
I'm going to search the forums for a good guide or link to a guide to take it out and replace it with another hard drive. Maybe put an SSD as my main disk and use the one I have now as my second.
I'm going to search the forums for a good guide or link to a guide to take it out and replace it with another hard drive. Maybe put an SSD as my main disk and use the one I have now as my second.
And the alternative to the builtin optic drive could be a great one. The 17" MBP for instance has a battery that last ~6hours (being realistic) if it would be extended to occupy the optic drive space, it would probably be 40% bigger and the real battery life could be as high as 10hours! (imagine that, thats 1 weekend worth battery [for medium-low usage such as emailing, web-browsing, excel/word documents, etc] and they could think of many other things to include in that space that could actually be better than a 10hours battery (apple would say 14hours battery
I would love that option
10 to 12 hours of realistic battery life would allow me to not carry my charger to work with me. I usually can get by all day now but have a few days when it just fell short of making the 8 to 5 day. Granted that was me watching my slingbox and sportscenter lol but hey, 12 hours would get me by for sure I would love that option
The only bad thing is that the battery density (weight by volume unit) is higher than the optic drive, which mean + battery = heavier system.
But to be honest I think size is more important than weight in terms of portability so I do not think that matters much.
Anyway this is not going as I expected it. Many people still think they important...
Anyway what really annoys me is BD-DVD it remembers me 5.25" floppy -> 3.5" floppy transition.
Drop the notebook prices all by $100.
Make them thinner/better utilize the inside space of the notebook
Sell the superdrive separately for $100.
Wont happen, I know, but that's what I would want to happen since I hardly ever use the damn thing.
Make them thinner/better utilize the inside space of the notebook
Sell the superdrive separately for $100.
Wont happen, I know, but that's what I would want to happen since I hardly ever use the damn thing.
Oh no, you are wrong, it will happen and probably sooner that we expect it.
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/...floppy-drives-assigned-seats-credit-cards-etc
The only thing that might keep DVD alive is BD
but something is telling me BD will have an even shorter life than DVD and CD (BD prices have dropped abruptly and we have many alternatives such as HDD which are very cheap, thumb drives, flash memories, internet, PVR, and many other xD)
The laptop manufacturer that gets rid of the optical drive first will be the first to fail. Many of you are not gamers, but I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my Mac and have... 26 games that all require a disk. Plus, there is always the software installation problem, as well as the fact that (I don't know about Europe) in the United States, half of the broadband downloads that you make are terrible quality, or they fail in the middle. Right now, the optical drive will most likely be with us for a very long time.
Until cd sales and dvd sales really tail off i dont see them removing it from laptops. Many people i know use a laptop in bed to watch a film or on long journeys by train. Now personally i don't mind using a separate drive for the very few times i would need it but my needs probably aren't reflected by the masses... not yet anyway.
How many out there game with their laptop in their lap? I mean that must be the most difficult thing in the world
. And if you are going to play on your desk then what's the problem with using external during transition.... Besides if any industry moves fast to adopt a particular technology thats the gaming industry, I bet that as soon as there is rumors of a particular system not to have builtin optic drive, game developers will start offering (as option) the game in flash drives.
I rarely use my optical drive. I used >10 times. I watched a few movies (I usually watch them through my HDTV or rip them to my external HD) and burned a few discs for some projects...
I think once internet speeds are stable and faster, then we can ditch the optical drive.
I think once internet speeds are stable and faster, then we can ditch the optical drive.
I voted to keep them, but not because I use it that often. I think that if I had a macbook air, I wouldn't even notice the lack of optical drive. It's kind of like my external harddriveI do need the data, but it isn't essential that all my music be on my computer all the time.
Instead, I voted to keep because I don't really need any of the features that would replace it.
Card reader? ew, what an awful way to add ugly holes on the side of your computer. maybe if they standardized the format to a single type of card, but as it is, i think card readers on computers are really sillynever ever had a use for one.
second hard drive? nope, my 60 gig internal is doing just finethe only thing i need extra storage space for is my music, which i don't need on my laptop (hence the external... and the ipod).
lighter computer? maybe, but my ibook was already one of the lightest, smallest notebooks on the market when it came out. i've never felt as though it needed any change. if in the future, i am looking for something really portable, i might consider a macbook air, but that option already exists, no need to take out the optical drives from the other models.
come to think of it, one of the only times i even use my optical drive is to rip cds often not at home (helping myself to a friend's music).
so yeah, it isn't that i feel that an optical drive is totally neccessary on a laptop...
more that i can't think of a single good reason to take them out.
Instead, I voted to keep because I don't really need any of the features that would replace it.
Card reader? ew, what an awful way to add ugly holes on the side of your computer. maybe if they standardized the format to a single type of card, but as it is, i think card readers on computers are really sillynever ever had a use for one.
second hard drive? nope, my 60 gig internal is doing just finethe only thing i need extra storage space for is my music, which i don't need on my laptop (hence the external... and the ipod).
lighter computer? maybe, but my ibook was already one of the lightest, smallest notebooks on the market when it came out. i've never felt as though it needed any change. if in the future, i am looking for something really portable, i might consider a macbook air, but that option already exists, no need to take out the optical drives from the other models.
come to think of it, one of the only times i even use my optical drive is to rip cds often not at home (helping myself to a friend's music).
so yeah, it isn't that i feel that an optical drive is totally neccessary on a laptop...
more that i can't think of a single good reason to take them out.
Oh no, you are wrong, it will happen and probably sooner that we expect it.
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/...floppy-drives-assigned-seats-credit-cards-etc
The only thing that might keep DVD alive is BD
when do you honestly think that a new Mac computer will be out there, without an optical drive? I see it happening but not yet. And if/when it happens, I wouldn't mind a few extra USB ports or something.
4th
4. - Sharing 'auto-archived' photos and movie clips
When I go on a trip with friends I usually take pictures and movie clips with my camera, a small Canon with 12 megapixels that also does VGA movies. Per trip that's usually 1-2 GB of data.
Afterwards my friends often ask me for the pictures and movies. But they'd like the originals not some shrunk and reduced online quality.
I don't have the server space, nor the Internet speed to upload all my images and movies so for me the best way to distribute the images is still burning them to DVD.
Most my friends also like to get a DVD, rather than bringing a USB stick, as the DVD automatically is an 'archive' for them and doesn't require them to copy the data to HD, eating their disk space.
Also it's faster as they get the DVD when we next meet, rather than give me a USB stick then and get the copied images the time after next time we meet, which might be a while.
With the camera megapixel trend still going up and their movie taking capabilities constantly improving while cheap 100+ GB online data storage is still rare, and with Internet upload speeds still stuck around 0.5Mbit (if that in real world performance, at least in my area) we're not nearly ready for a 'digital only' image distribution.
In 5 years maybe. But by that time photo cameras will likely take 1080p HD movies at 60fps and I might need to distribute 10 instead of 1 GB...
The real solution is a camera with built-in 4G wireless upload/streaming, that goes straight to a 1TB online server space that comes with the camera.
When's that going to happen? Cheap, ubiquitous 4G wireless service will not happen in the USA or Europe for another 10 years.
I'd like to add a 4th justification:
4. - Sharing 'auto-archived' photos and movie clips
When I go on a trip with friends I usually take pictures and movie clips with my camera, a small Canon with 12 megapixels that also does VGA movies. Per trip that's usually 1-2 GB of data.
Afterwards my friends often ask me for the pictures and movies. But they'd like the originals not some shrunk and reduced online quality.
I don't have the server space, nor the Internet speed to upload all my images and movies so for me the best way to distribute the images is still burning them to DVD.
Most my friends also like to get a DVD, rather than bringing a USB stick, as the DVD automatically is an 'archive' for them and doesn't require them to copy the data to HD, eating their disk space.
Also it's faster as they get the DVD when we next meet, rather than give me a USB stick then and get the copied images the time after next time we meet, which might be a while.
With the camera megapixel trend still going up and their movie taking capabilities constantly improving while cheap 100+ GB online data storage is still rare, and with Internet upload speeds still stuck around 0.5Mbit (if that in real world performance, at least in my area) we're not nearly ready for a 'digital only' image distribution.
In 5 years maybe. But by that time photo cameras will likely take 1080p HD movies at 60fps and I might need to distribute 10 instead of 1 GB...
The real solution is a camera with built-in 4G wireless upload/streaming, that goes straight to a 1TB online server space that comes with the camera.
When's that going to happen? Cheap, ubiquitous 4G wireless service will not happen in the USA or Europe for another 10 years.
This poll is taking a path I did not expected to.
23 people selected "Don't get rid of them, I do not use them but I like my laptop to have many built-in features." the last place I thought I would find people trying to add more unesseary stuff into a laptop was in an mac forum. Anyway I thought it would be top 5% of maybe the few "just switched" from pc world...
23 people selected "Don't get rid of them, I do not use them but I like my laptop to have many built-in features." the last place I thought I would find people trying to add more unesseary stuff into a laptop was in an mac forum
. Anyway I thought it would be top 5% of maybe the few "just switched" from pc world...