The floppy disk has several replacements, including writeable compact discs and keychain flash memory devices. Both can hold much more data and are less likely to break.
Even so, floppies have been around since the late 1970s. People are used to them. They were the oldest form of removable storage still around. —Mark Neisse —Floppy Disk Becoming Relic of the Past (AP|MyWay)
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Floppy disks? I thought those things were already extinct?
I bought a new desktop / laptop this summer and getting a floppy drive was an additional expense; computers come with CD-burners now as a given. I use one of those snazzy keychain flash drives (which cost the same amount as a floppy drive would have and holds twice as much info!) and burn important stuff onto CDs. If you watch for mail-in rebate offers on blank CDs, you can get them for practically nothing these days.
And, damnit, I need to go to bed! Your blog is addicting!
Josh, don't forget cassettes, paper tape and punch-cards.
While we're dreaming, how about the little plywood squares they used on Star Trek?
Personally, I'd love (3.5") floppy discs to disappear. Even though it will mean that I'll no longer be able to access all the accumulated junk I have stored in several hundred of the things. I'm resigned to the fact that I can no longer read the stuff I still have on 8", 5.25" and 3" discs, so losing the 3.5" ones as well is a natural step.
Compared to modern flash devices floppy discs are small, slow, and unreliable. After a few weeks of carrying to and from college they simply seem to stop working - however carefully and inconveniently I pack them.
Unfortunately, I can't see the need for floppy discs stopping any time soon where I work. A lot of the computers in the classrooms are so "locked down" that they won't auto-install a new USB flash device, and the network is so unreliable and paranoid that sharing over the wire is effectively impossible, too. Most of the computers in staff rooms are too old to even have USB ports, let alone built-in flash readers. Anyone remember the 386? There's one on my desk!
Floppy discs are, sadly, all we have.
I have long toyed with the idea of building a "disk box" for my computers at home - a box whose sole purpose is to contain one of every type of drive for the types of media in which I have information stored. I need an 8", a 5.25" a 3.5" a zip drive, a CD, a DVD, an 800 Meg Tape drive and a old Apple 2e driver for the 5.25"!!!! This is getting SILLY! It would never work, since drivers for these devices are incompatible with most operating systems, but it's a dream...
Joshua Sasmor
Personally, I will be very sorry to see the floppy disc disappear. As a writer, and with three computers plus access at school, I use the floppy constantly to update as I make changes to text. Its small format is ideal for carrying a story in progress (that is constantly being edited), a blog post or bit of information to use on the computer that's in the more comfortable, more convenient (with other necessary info, or simply timewise) computer to use.
One good thing that they've finally realized re the USB drive is that the ports should be more conveniently located on the front of the computer, just as are the DVD, CD and the floppy drive access.