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whats funny is in this near post optical drive world, I never got into the thumb drive thing. I know they are cheap and are getting bigger and bigger in capacity. I just always make the jump to a HDD.
 
I did the same as many others here and put in an Optibay in place of my optical drive. But I do disagree with many here about CDs not being needed anymore. I highly disagree. I almost never buy music on iTunes/any other online service. Why? Because it's in compressed MP3 format. Might not bother the average joe, but I'm an audiophile and I can tell the difference between a well ripped WAV/AIFF from a CD and a 256kbps MP3. Also, you don't get anything fun with a digital download. With a CD, you often get pages of album art (or even a poster). And this is all for basically the same price (maybe even less if you buy used). With digital downloads, you pay and download. There's nothing extra to appreciate like you get with a hard physical copy.

That being said, it does make sense for Apple to take out the optical drive. USB disc drives are not that expensive and do the job well. I only use my optical drive to rip my CDs to WAV for storage. After that it's back on the shelf till I get a new album.
 
I'm not a Macbook user, so I won't know this personally. But when the retina macbooks were being rumored/announced, so many people so badly wanted the disc drive removed from the updated version. Yeah, I get that it'll make it thinner and lighter. But then obviously, you can't use CD's anymore. I know the Mac App Store is trying to make the transition to downloadable software rather than software on CD's, but there are still software out there on discs. How are those installed? What if you want to play a CD? Or DVD? A computer game?

I'm just curious why people were so strongly in favor of the removal of the disc drive. Personally, I would've been slightly disappointed. Again, I'm not a Macbook user, but is the disc drive really that obsolete on a Mac?

I've had my MacBook for 5 years and can count on 2 hands how many times I used the CD Drive. There's your reason.
 
Wow you guys are so odd, I rather have a machine with more ports also optical drive than pay more for a machine that offers less and that has a fancy high end screen. As a computer tech it would be bother me having to rely only on external devices, externals cant be taken everywhere.
 
I had the first MacBook Air in 2008 with no drive. First thing I did was buying a hub and the external dvd-drive. I used the dvd-drive to install windows to bootcamp in the first days I had the computer.

Next time I used it was to install Lion, which was in 2011... I knew because the windows DVD was still inside.

Sure, it depends on your work, on your habits etc., but many people can very well live without DVD/CDs. If you need the drive, get an MBP, it's as easy as that.

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(...) it would be bother me having to rely only on external devices, externals cant be taken everywhere.

Like... when?

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it's not worth it for something I use a handful of times a year. I work at an AV company and we barely deal with DVD or CD discs these days, thumb drives are cheap and there are plenty of web file transfer services. USB dvd reader/burners are like $30 for the rare times it is needed.

Even in my pc tower the disc drive collects dust, whenever I do my next build I will not even put one in it.

This somehow made me think of how people started to scream out how I could buy a computer that has no Floppy Disk drive. They were like "Oh my gosh, how can you pay so much for a computer if it can't even have read a floppy disk? You're bonkers!"
 
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I'm not a Macbook user, so I won't know this personally. But when the retina macbooks were being rumored/announced, so many people so badly wanted the disc drive removed from the updated version. Yeah, I get that it'll make it thinner and lighter. But then obviously, you can't use CD's anymore. I know the Mac App Store is trying to make the transition to downloadable software rather than software on CD's, but there are still software out there on discs. How are those installed? What if you want to play a CD? Or DVD? A computer game?

I'm just curious why people were so strongly in favor of the removal of the disc drive. Personally, I would've been slightly disappointed. Again, I'm not a Macbook user, but is the disc drive really that obsolete on a Mac?

You could buy an external DVD drive, and use it when you need it.
The cost is really cheap, compared to the cost of MBP: ~$30 on eBay.
 
Apple doesn't give a care.

Doesn't matter if you need it or want it, they don't care at all. They are in the business of innovation and trend setting, dominating and crushing any and all potential rivals, plain and simple. Your money and opinions are insolent to them. If you have cash, get the toy, play with it and then throwing it back in their face all you want - don't matter a bit. Consumerism perpetuate the corporate greed and domination over our lives. That is what Apple's new line of toys represents, nothing more, nothing less - they no longer produce tools for productivity, it just serves them in the end. Save your hard earned money. Or get a 2011 MACBOOK PRO and upgrade the CRAPP out of it.
 
Nobody really wanted it to go, but nobody really needed it either.

case in point-my wife purchased new MBA for business travel. Bought an external drive because she thought she'd "need" it. It sits on the shelf gathering dust. She has used it once in 10 months. Internal drive is unnecessary, adds weight, and yet we all tied to thinking we need it. :confused:
 
case in point-my wife purchased new MBA for business travel. Bought an external drive because she thought she'd "need" it. It sits on the shelf gathering dust. She has used it once in 10 months. Internal drive is unnecessary, adds weight, and yet we all tied to thinking we need it. :confused:

This is not true, I never thought that. Speak for yourself!
 
Agreed, I've used the superdrive once on this machine (to install Windows XP). Not plugged it in since. Probably haven't used a CD drive other than during installation of a new computer for five or more years. I remember people getting all antsy about Apple (and others) binning floppy drives.
 
I only had one person try to give me something on a DVD in the past 5 years. It was a 28mb PowerPoint file. I told him to stick it in his dell and email the file to me as an attachment. He was stunned that I didn't want a hard copy in case the file got "lost in the mail". True story.

As for movies. I challenged my mother in law who wanted to keep her collection of 200 movies on sd DVD to find a movie in her collection that I could not locate a digital version via any of our existing resources.. PS3, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, On Demand, iTunes, Amazon Prime. She found 6 movies that I was unable to find a digital version. Her DVD collection is now made up of 6 DVDs.
 
As for movies. I challenged my mother in law who wanted to keep her collection of 200 movies on sd DVD to find a movie in her collection that I could not locate a digital version via any of our existing resources.. PS3, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, On Demand, iTunes, Amazon Prime. She found 6 movies that I was unable to find a digital version. Her DVD collection is now made up of 6 DVDs.

I think DVDs and BluRays are separate from internal drives and the use of disks in a work environment, though....

I do use iTunes to rent random movies, but I also like having a hard copy of my favorites resting in my shelf. Digital media are fine for consuming, but collecting and physically owning things is fun in itself.

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I have not used or bought an optical disk CD, DVD or Bluray in the last two years that's why. With MacBook Air or rMBP you can either buy a external DVD drive or share a drive in another Mac or PC via Remote Disk. Apple still sells a classic Mac Book Pro for those users that still care about optical disks, but clearly the future is no optical disk.

Also with no mechanical drive or mechanical optical drive these were the two parts with the highest failure rate on any notebook so reliability has also been improved as well.

You really said "Reliability Improved with the Retina Issue"!

I agree with the optical drive thoughh , i could take it or leave it, the future is no optical, but I stll buy every now and then physical media. I am buying the cMBP, not for optical, but upgradability, and the optical drive is just another slot for an SSD. rMBP to much of a closed system for me.
 
I'm not a Macbook user, so I won't know this personally. But when the retina macbooks were being rumored/announced, so many people so badly wanted the disc drive removed from the updated version. Yeah, I get that it'll make it thinner and lighter. But then obviously, you can't use CD's anymore. I know the Mac App Store is trying to make the transition to downloadable software rather than software on CD's, but there are still software out there on discs. How are those installed? What if you want to play a CD? Or DVD? A computer game?

I'm just curious why people were so strongly in favor of the removal of the disc drive. Personally, I would've been slightly disappointed. Again, I'm not a Macbook user, but is the disc drive really that obsolete on a Mac?

I have not used boxed software for several years now. For backups and data sharing, I have external disks and internet, both are faster, easier to use and more reliable than DVDs. Music CDs? These I haven't used in over 6 years.

Its almost 2013 - ODD is an outdated and inferior medium, just accept it. I see no reason to sacrifice precious volume and weight for a legacy feature only very few people need.
 
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