Dell Saying Bye to Floppy Disk Drives

[Grasshopper27]

What's a floppy drive?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Many times you can.

But I'd bet money that an external USB floppy drive costs SIGNIFICANTLY more than the $3 that Dell probably pays for their floppy drives.

Viper GTS

Da. USB floppys go for about $30 on the Eeb Hay markets, and Apple wanted $100 for theirs. (Hey, gotta pay for the chronic somehow.)

- M4H

 

[ISAslot]

The real important question that arises out of the phasing out of the floppy drive is:

What image will software makers now use to represent the save function in toolbars?

:Q

Could it be that we are all now doomed?

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: notfred
Getting rid of floppies is fine by me. Just have to make boot CDs instead for bios updates.

Or do like some manufacturers are doing and be able to update BIOS via the web. Download, reboot, let it do it's thing, and reboot again. QUite nice.

 

[dolph]

floppies were bound to die soon, and even though i only use a floppy about 3 or 4 times a year, i'd like to see a standard as universal as the floppy replace it, like computers that had both 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 drives. when they start making cf/sm/sd/xd/mmc/ms/whatever the hell else is still to be invented, not to mention the usb pen drives or ipods/zens/etc. apparent that it will be the dominant portable storage solution, and making them standard issue on computers, then floppies should be retired.

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Many times you can.

But I'd bet money that an external USB floppy drive costs SIGNIFICANTLY more than the $3 that Dell probably pays for their floppy drives.

Viper GTS

Da. USB floppys go for about $30 on the Eeb Hay markets, and Apple wanted $100 for theirs. (Hey, gotta pay for the chronic somehow.)

- M4H

the USB floppies go for like $30 at compusa and the like. I personally like having a floppy drive...simply another way to back up important documents and cant beat the convenience.

 

[Anubis]

anothere reason i will never buy a Dell. i use my floppy all teh time

 

[brtspears2]

I think I've used my floppy drive all of 20 times in the last 4 yrs. The current drive in my computer has lasted 4 computer upgrades, only used it to flash bioses.

 

[dman]

I use mine on occasion, but wouldn't miss it 99% of the time. I can get around it w/ bootable win98 cd and prior access to a fat32 partition but not as convenient.

 

[Miramonti]

floppys are the only way to transfer files from older computers.

 

[Ferocious]

the No. 2 personal computer maker

I thought they were #1??

 

[Mallow]

I have mixed feelings about this move. I think floppy drives are a must for legacy systems. Also, my Linksys 10/100Mbit NIC does not have drivers built onto my win2k disc so I must use my FD ever time I format my computer.

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: Beau
Good. It's well past the time to let the floppy die. I haven't had a floppy in 2 years, don't think I've even used one in 3.

 

[Booster]

Originally posted by: jjsole
floppys are the only way to transfer files from older computers.

Exactly. At my last workplace I had a very old computer and could use only a floppy to transfer files. I don't like floppies too much since they're so small, but you don't feel it or think about it, right? Pretty much anyone can imagine what type of files will fit on a floppy so this shouldn't be an issue. They need to invent a new, better format that would be cheap and all, just like a floppy.

Dell, the No. 2 personal computer maker,

Who is the no. 1 computer maker then? IBM? Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[Dacalo]

they will still offer it as an option

dont freak out

 

[Analog]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Not a good move, IMHO.

I still use my floppy every now & then, & my roommate has had to steal mine several times after abandoning the floppy with his latest system build.

They still have their purpose, although the majority of what I use them for the average end user wouldn't be doing...

So maybe for Dell it would be OK.

Viper GTS

yup

 

[MainFramed]

I kinda like the floppy, still use it alot, but heh if they started making zip drives 20.00$-or $15.00 like the floppy then yeah i'd say good-bye to it.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Dacalo
they will still offer it as an option

dont freak out

That's right ... and:

Dell Computer said goodbye to the past on Thursday when it announced it would stop making floppy disk drives standard equipment on its higher end desktop personal computers.

Only the higher end systems will not feature these drives. I guess Dell assumes that someone purchasing their $3,000 top-of-the-line system should be technically savvy enough to not require the silly floppy drive.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Hmm.... I like how Dell makes its flash BIOS utility available. Just download the executable, insert a floppy disk, run it, and there's your BIOS update disk... I guess they're gonna do something else about that....

 

[Lonyo]

Average user - doesn't flash BIOS
Average user - buys Dell
Average user - doesn't really know what BIOS is and lets Dell sort out problems

Dell - makes money if something goes wrong and BIOS needs sorting

Experienced user - flashes BIOS
Exerienced user - doesn't buy Dell

Well, that's some arguments as to why it might work for the average computer.
Couple that with XP and its ability to wite to CD-RW without software (I think, I read it somwhere, use 2K so I dunno if it's true)

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa
Hmm.... I like how Dell makes its flash BIOS utility available. Just download the executable, insert a floppy disk, run it, and there's your BIOS update disk... I guess they're gonna do something else about that....

Some new motherboards allow for "live BIOS updates" which you run right from Windows. Dell will have this resolved before the can the floppy drives ... hopefully

 

[Maverick2002]

Originally posted by: Booster

Originally posted by: jjsole
floppys are the only way to transfer files from older computers.

Exactly. At my last workplace I had a very old computer and could use only a floppy to transfer files. I don't like floppies too much since they're so small, but you don't feel it or think about it, right? Pretty much anyone can imagine what type of files will fit on a floppy so this shouldn't be an issue. They need to invent a new, better format that would be cheap and all, just like a floppy.

Dell, the No. 2 personal computer maker,

Who is the no. 1 computer maker then? IBM? Can anyone enlighten me?

HP/Compaq

 

[CrazyDe1]

I use a floppy to transfer little files back and forth to my friend for printing...o we'll be working on some p-cad schematic and I'll send him the stuff I'll have...the problem is my email doesn't work at school and I'm too lazy to use webmail so it's easy to just toss it on a disk and throw it over to him...

 

[RobCur]

I find it more convenient to boot from a floppy then a CDROM, and everything that you need to do like harddisk utility still requires a floppy!

 

[NFS4]

I say f*&k 'em. Haven't used a floppy in years. And if I need to boot (to Ghost, Norton AV, Partition Magic, etc.), I use a bootable CD that has all of those programs on it. Hold's more data anyway.

Good riddens.