RE: [WinMac] Re: iMac

David Linsey(linseyda[at]pilot.msu.edu)
Thu, 4 Feb 1999 11:50:14 -0500

>
> Actually, going to no floppy was the best move anyone has made in the
> computer industry in recent years. This archaic, buggy,
> data-destroying
> disk ought to be completely obsolete. It already is for many
> people. The
> only times I ever use them are for the executives, who seem
> to be unaware
> of "progress". I haven't used a floppy disk since last fall.
> I use Zip
> drives for small data transfer if email or the network is not a good
> choice.
>
> Jeff T
> thorstadj@macconnect.com

You also must think of the reason(s) Apple would want to nix the floppy
drive. Is it because it is an innovative idea? Possibly, but quite
frankly, I don't see how removing a floppy drive from a computer is
innovative, if I unscrewed mine from my computer would I suddenly be called
innovative? I doubt it. Probably the most important reason for Apple was
cost. The Mac disk drives don't have a little price tag due to their
electric motor. If they wanted an inexpensive computer, they figured they
could nix the disk drive, hey, people will also call it innovative.

Look at those new G3s. Ok, so they have the same basic design as the iMac
as far as case goes etc right? Who are these aimed at? Most likely the
higher end people, perhaps even more specifically the graphics departments.
Since when do you see graphics departments using disks more than home users?
If one of those categories were to use disks, it would be the home users as
those G3s will probably be on a network, yet they have a floppy drive (I
checked to make sure it wasn't a zip or anything, doesn't seem to be). If
Apple wanted to be innovative and remove the floppy drive, wouldn't you
think they would have put in a superdisk or zip drive? Probably, but they
didn't, more ammo for the reason it was removed is due to cost.

As far as using floppies, I still do. In fact I used some yesterday. I
needed immediate access to a scanner and there was not one currently
available on the network, so I used one on a computer off of the network.
With a modem is it just not feasible to transfer the files via phone line to
a computer, so I used disks, and they worked great, I got what I wanted in
the time allotted. If a disk drive can save me once, I am all for the extra
$10 it probably would cost to have one. (this is a PC drive)

David

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Feb 04 1999 - 08:56:38 PST