Death to the Floppy! Hurrah!

[Asher]

Originally posted by Frogger
a) It's faster to write to a floppy than it is to email myself

How about burning it to a CD-RW?

b) Floppy drives are in the front of my computer, USB ports are in the back

Newer computers come with them at the front, for this reason. They're playing up the ability to hot swap lots of USB things, and it's a pain when they're at the back.

c) For shared-access computers, it is often difficult to get permission to install programs like the driver for a USB device (they do require a driver, right?)

USB Storage drivers are a standard and included in Windows XP and installable on other versions. If you're taking them to old, legacy computers, other media like CD-ROMs are a better bet.

d) If I lose a floppy I'm out .30$ If I lose a USB storage thingy I'm out 30$

How much if you lose a CD?

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Frogger

b) Floppy drives are in the front of my computer, USB ports are in the back

My USB ports are in the front. I assume that any PC's without floppy drives would also have them at the front.

Having said that, I agree with you. Floppy's should stay.

[Asher]

You can still buy a floppy drive if you're going to be anal and install it in a drivebay.

It's time to start shoving people away from floppies onto new standards, which is what this move does.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Asher

Um. No, I don't.
I have a very hard time believing your work computers don't have a USB slot or a CD-ROM drive.

CD-burner, Asher. And, of course, I didn't say that the computer wouldn't have a USB slot, just that you'll get in the ****-house for installing your periphrials (sp, again!) to it.

Oh, and in matters of fact, belief is not required. So, do yourself a favor and let go of these erroneous beliefs and start dealing with computers the way they're actually used in the workplace.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Asher
I have a very hard time believing your work computers don't have a USB slot or a CD-ROM drive.

1) CD-ROM drives are different from CD-R drives.
2) See Frogger's post on the relative value of USB external drives vs floppy disks.

[Paul Hanson]

Originally posted by Asher

How about burning it to a CD-RW?

It's overkill, for one thing.

Plus, unless you have some of that software (I forget what it's called) that allows you to write to CDs as if they were any other form of media, you need a program like Nero to burn a file to a CD. Which is a lot of hassle when you could bung the thing on a floppy in a few seconds.

[Asher]

Dino:

1. You only need a CD-burner to read CD-RW discs. You can read CD-R files perfectly fine on most CD-ROMs.
2. If you're worried about value, use a CD...

If you work for whatever reason refuses to allow you to email files home, and refuses to allow you to FTP them home, and doesn't have a CD burner, and doesn't allow USB storage -- and they only have a floppy, perhaps it's time you tell them to upgrade?

I think that's quite a rare situation. And since mainstream PCs are ditching floppies, the company would find a way to let you move files.

[Drake Tungsten]

It's time to start shoving people away from floppies onto new standards, which is what this move does.

It's always a good idea to copy Apple.

Welcome to five years ago!

[KrazyHorse]

Every single computer I've ever seen at school has been a "legacy" computer by your standards. Not one of them has a CD-RW drive, and some just recently got CD-ROM drives. I'm serious here.

CD-burning takes longer than floppy writing by a factor of about 10X if the file is of average size for documents.

Windows XP. Hah. Windows 95, Windows 3.1, Windows 98 are all far more prevalent. The real old machines that run experiments have DOS 5.0 or something.

[KrazyHorse]

The first time I even saw a Windows XP screen was a week ago.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Frogger
Every single computer I've ever seen at school has been a "legacy" computer by your standards. Not one of them has a CD-RW drive, and some just recently got CD-ROM drives. I'm serious here.

Your school computers surely have internet access?

My school gives out FTP and email accounts to every student for free, and they're all available on all computers...

CD-burning takes longer than floppy writing by a factor of about 10X if the file is of average size for documents.

Uhh...
No.

Have you used a format that treats the CD drive like a floppy? It takes a while to start to burn regular data CDs, but when it's a formatted disc it's much faster than a floppy.

Windows XP. Hah. Windows 95, Windows 3.1, Windows 98 are all far more prevalent. The real old machines that run experiments have DOS 5.0 or something.

Is Quebec in a timewarp?
If you're constantly around old computers like that, go ahead and buy a $20 floppy drive. You can still do that, you know.

The move to not installing them by default is intended to get people AWAY from the mentality that floppy drives are the only way to reliably transfer files. There are so many better ways.

[JohnT]

"If you work for whatever reason refuses to allow you to email files home, and refuses to allow you to FTP them home, and doesn't have a CD burner, and doesn't allow USB storage -- and they only have a floppy, perhaps it's time you tell them to upgrade?"



Heh-heh. You really don't work for a living, do you? "Tell them to upgrade." That's pretty good.

... walks away chuckling...

[KrazyHorse]

Asher, what about transferring files from work/school to the house?

Like we've said, online transfers are not always possible, CD-RW drives are rare in offices/schools, USB devices require programs to be installed, which requires administrative privileges.

You're left with floppies as the media of choice.

CD-burning is most certainly overkill, and it takes 1-2 minutes just to set up a disk for burning (needs to be formatted for drag-n-drop recording on my computer, then needs to be formatted to be read on any computer which takes up 20 MB)

[Asher]

Originally posted by JohnT
Heh-heh. You really don't work for a living, do you? "Tell them to upgrade." That's pretty good.

... walks away chuckling...

Umm....Well John, let me put it this way.

If your company refuses to give you any option but use a floppy drive to take work to and from home, and mainstream PCs no longer come with a floppy drive, they'd better do something.

Or you could even spend $20 on your own floppy drive, you know.

It's a VERY good thing to stop shipping floppy drives with computers. It's a piece of ****, slow, antiquated standard and people need to move on. You can still buy them if you want.

It's not a big deal.

People can go cry elsewhere about it.

[Paul Hanson]

To give an example of why Dell's move is premature (not unnecessary, but premature) is this: I have two computers here at uni: my desktop PC and my laptop. Neither are state of the art; although my desktop PC has a CD-writer, it's still a P166. My laptop is a 486, and has no CD-ROM and only a 200 meg hard disk. I use it to type stuff up when I'm in the library, and to transfer the files to my other computer (to print, for example), I have no choice but to use a floppy.

I have no choice in this. I can't afford a new computer of any kind on student money, so I have to make do.

Like I say, Dell's move is ultimately necessary, but a little premature.