Will the 3.5 Floppy ever die out? [POLL]

[MBony]

As I was typing a paper for my Psyc. class on my laptop at home. I quickly put it on a floppy to print out at school to give to the teacher. It got me wondering... I know companies like Iomega would love to see the floppy go away as would companies like Dell and Gateway so they could throw some newer technology down our throats, but I just don't see how this media will ever go away. Schools, businesses, and I (personally) use them too much.

So what do you think? Will the floppy ever go away?

 

[zimu]

with the introduction of USB flash drives, cd/dvd burners etc etc, i think floppies will die FAST.

many manufacturers already don't use floppies (i.e. don't ship them w/ their comptuers).

my inspiron laptop has no floppy, i haven't had a floppy for 2 years now, and havne't missed it once.
(ok for those of you sick minded people, get a life.)

 

[Kelvrick]

Maybe when they start giving out little 16mb keychains and then in a few years when everyone has tons of them and use them for stuff liek target practice like I did with floppies.

EDIT: Oh yea, AOL should start sending stuff out on the little keychains instead of cd's. That'll kill the floppies real fast.

 

[gistech1978]

i dont use floppy at home, and on the rare occasion when i do, i just plug it back in.
no sense running cables and making my case more messy for something i would use maybe 3 times a year.

 

[spidey07]

I don't think so. If it does it will be 10 years away.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Cheap drive. Cheap media. Re-useable. Documents still fit on it. There's no sense of "waste" when you only have one document on the diskette, unlike with a CD-R. You can edit documents directly on the diskette without having to re-burn it.

When you consider how cheap they are and how unlike a ZIP drive the readers are essentially universal I really don't see them leavin any time soon.

ZV

 

[zimu]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Maybe when they start giving out little 16mb keychains and then in a few years when everyone has tons of them and use them for stuff liek target practice like I did with floppies.

EDIT: Oh yea, AOL should start sending stuff out on the little keychains instead of cd's. That'll kill the floppies real fast.

what does AOL's cd's have to do with floppies?

plus, if they give little keychains, do you know what the price would be?! they'd need to be handing out 256 MB keychain things!! i'd pick up 10 and use them for my personal use.

 

[scorpmatt]

IMHO, I think floppies will always be useful, whether or not manufactuers build them into computers. they may be slow, but i have found several uses for them, flashing the bios comes to mind at the moment. and for those who dont know (or are afraid to), flashing the bios is a good thing.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

I'm pretty sure they're considered legacy devices (like PS2 and parallel and serial ports) by some manufacturers specifications, so later generations of hardware will likely omit them the same way that 5 1/4" drives were obsoleted. It may take a decade before they're nonstandard, but they'll likely be replaced by the bootable CD.

 

[bmacd]

i'm sure they'll stick around as long as cassettes.

-=bmacd=-

 

[zimu]

Originally posted by: bmacd
i'm sure they'll stick around as long as cassettes.

-=bmacd=-

as long as what?

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: zimu

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Maybe when they start giving out little 16mb keychains and then in a few years when everyone has tons of them and use them for stuff liek target practice like I did with floppies.

EDIT: Oh yea, AOL should start sending stuff out on the little keychains instead of cd's. That'll kill the floppies real fast.

what does AOL's cd's have to do with floppies?

plus, if they give little keychains, do you know what the price would be?! they'd need to be handing out 256 MB keychain things!! i'd pick up 10 and use them for my personal use.

AOL used to send out their program on floppies. Were you one of the few who didn't horde them and just use them for other purposes? Same thing with the keychains. They flood the market, just giving them to everyone. 16 megs is great for people who want to move documents, big enough for powerpoints and such too.

 

[NL5]

Uhhhhhh, I thought they were already gone?

 

[Kemosabe1447]

As of now, no way. They are too simple, you don't have to take the time to write them, as on cd's. When you have something short and simple to save, then a floppy is the way to go.

 

[beer]

Do you really think AOL's software fits on a 16 MB keychain? Isn't it like 50+ MB now?

 

[KhoiFather]

No way, the floppy will never die out and let me tell you why. First of course, many public school depends on floppy to save documents on. Schools aren't going to go out and buy uhhhh USB flash drives, CDRW for every computer in the school. That would cost them alot of money and that is why the floppy will live on forever! Muahahahha =D

 

[zimu]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: zimu

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Maybe when they start giving out little 16mb keychains and then in a few years when everyone has tons of them and use them for stuff liek target practice like I did with floppies.

EDIT: Oh yea, AOL should start sending stuff out on the little keychains instead of cd's. That'll kill the floppies real fast.

what does AOL's cd's have to do with floppies?

plus, if they give little keychains, do you know what the price would be?! they'd need to be handing out 256 MB keychain things!! i'd pick up 10 and use them for my personal use.

AOL used to send out their program on floppies. Were you one of the few who didn't horde them and just use them for other purposes? Same thing with the keychains. They flood the market, just giving them to everyone. 16 megs is great for people who want to move documents, big enough for powerpoints and such too.

gasp... you want AOL to take us to the next level of technology?

 

[WHipLAsh13]

Originally posted by: NL5
Uhhhhhh, I thought they were already gone?

Yep haven't put one in a computer in a while.

 

[kermalou]

i think one computer out of 15 in my office has a floppy

 

[TheNinja]

long live the floppy!!!!

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: zimu

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: zimu

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Maybe when they start giving out little 16mb keychains and then in a few years when everyone has tons of them and use them for stuff liek target practice like I did with floppies.

EDIT: Oh yea, AOL should start sending stuff out on the little keychains instead of cd's. That'll kill the floppies real fast.

what does AOL's cd's have to do with floppies?

plus, if they give little keychains, do you know what the price would be?! they'd need to be handing out 256 MB keychain things!! i'd pick up 10 and use them for my personal use.

AOL used to send out their program on floppies. Were you one of the few who didn't horde them and just use them for other purposes? Same thing with the keychains. They flood the market, just giving them to everyone. 16 megs is great for people who want to move documents, big enough for powerpoints and such too.

gasp... you want AOL to take us to the next level of technology?

Thats the brilliance of the plan. They go bankrupt paying for all these keychains, move us to the next level of technology, and then split into many smaller quality isps with good customer service and good service in general hereby creating more jobs and helping the economy.

 

[zimu]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: zimu

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: zimu

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Maybe when they start giving out little 16mb keychains and then in a few years when everyone has tons of them and use them for stuff liek target practice like I did with floppies.

EDIT: Oh yea, AOL should start sending stuff out on the little keychains instead of cd's. That'll kill the floppies real fast.

what does AOL's cd's have to do with floppies?

plus, if they give little keychains, do you know what the price would be?! they'd need to be handing out 256 MB keychain things!! i'd pick up 10 and use them for my personal use.

AOL used to send out their program on floppies. Were you one of the few who didn't horde them and just use them for other purposes? Same thing with the keychains. They flood the market, just giving them to everyone. 16 megs is great for people who want to move documents, big enough for powerpoints and such too.

gasp... you want AOL to take us to the next level of technology?

Thats the brilliance of the plan. They go bankrupt paying for all these keychains, move us to the next level of technology, and then split into many smaller quality isps with good customer service and good service in general hereby creating more jobs and helping the economy.

ahh, nice idea. i like the part that AOL goes bankrupt and breaks up.
i'm in. who can i talk to to suggest the plan?

 

[TitanDiddly]

In a very, very long time. Years and years and years.

 

[zimu]

i'm going to start a new thread on this...

i think the question should be "WHEN will the floppy die out" not WILL IT EVER die out. cause i think inevitably it will die out... the question is when.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: KhoiFather
No way, the floppy will never die out and let me tell you why. First of course, many public school depends on floppy to save documents on. Schools aren't going to go out and buy uhhhh USB flash drives, CDRW for every computer in the school. That would cost them alot of money and that is why the floppy will live on forever! Muahahahha =D

Uh, my high school and college had cd-rw's on every single computer. My little sister has cd-rw drives on her computers in junior high now.

You guys are focusing on the wrong floppy killer though. Sure flash and cd-r drives are quick and easy, but as more and more computers are hooked up to fast internet connections, people will just upload files to a server (and then download them from another location) or email it to themselves. I figured out that one a while back.