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Dell Dropping The Floppy

adambwells writes "Dell wants to stop including floppy drives as standard hardware on its Dimension line of desktops, and will start this practice later this quarter, as reported in this Yahoo article. Says Dell's product marketing: We would like to see customers migrate away from floppies as quickly as possible, because there are better alternative technologies out there ... it's an antique technology. At some point, you've got to draw the line. You wouldn't think of using a processor from 15 years ago." They plan to educate their customers about recordable CDs and USB pen drives as replacements."

14 of 1,198 comments (clear)

  1. Well that takes me back by TerryAtWork · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember when they ADDED the new-fangled 3 1/4 inch floppy drive to machines.

    Back before there was dirt, and a computer weighed 6,000 tons!

    And we programmed with ones and with zeros - and sometimes we ran out of ones!

    --
    It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
  2. -1; Redundant by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 4, Funny

    The "back in the day" jokes are older than an 8088.

    --
    Forget the whales - save the babies.
  3. Re:Woo - Hoo by alaric187 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hopefully they get rid of all of the "extra" stupid buttons on the mouse too...

  4. dropping? by Lxy · · Score: 4, Funny

    usually dropping floppies isn't something that's desired. I remember the days before CDs, carrying all 27 floppies needed to install WIndows 95, you drop the stack, and, well, you'll never install off that set again.

    Oh, you mean... I see.

    --

    There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
    :wq
  5. "At some point, you've got to draw the line." by Aronymous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
  6. Re:About Time. by jo.cool · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually I made it my business to get a 5 1/4" installed in my Athlon, just in case, you know, I want to run WordStar.

  7. Re:My Reasons for Wanting Those Ports by Twirlip+of+the+Mists · · Score: 4, Funny

    Will the 0.02% of the population using dumb-terminals on their home PCs please stand up?

    Two hundredths of a percent of the population is 60,000 people in the USA alone. I think you're overestimating by a few orders of magnitude. If you can find me six people in the USA who are using dumb terminals on their home PC's, I'll give you a cookie.

    --

    I write in my journal
  8. Re:About Time. by Gehenna_Gehenna · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's nothing. Why, when I was a young lad my parents used to make me wear floppy disks as clothing!

    My old man would wake me up at 2:00 in the morning and make me format floppy disks untill 5:00 the following morning and I liked it! I loved it! I used to store the entire ecyclopedia britannica on only 245,037,072 disks and it suited me just fine!

    Tell that to them kids today and they won't believe ya.

    --

  9. HP to discontinue printers by phr2 · · Score: 4, Funny
    In other news, HP will follow Dell's lead--it wants to stop including printers in its product line, and will start this practice later this quarter, as reported in this Yahoo article. Says HP's product marketing: We would like to see customers migrate away from paper as quickly as possible, because there are better alternative technologies out there ... it's an antique technology. At some point, you've got to draw the line. You wouldn't think of using a table or chair from 15 years ago." They plan to educate their customers about DRM-equipped e-books with floating licenses as replacements.

    There seems to be some industry rule, that anything that works must be improved til it doesn't work any more!

  10. Re:My Reasons for Wanting Those Ports by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 5, Funny
    CD-RW drives can be had brand-new for about $75CDN and can burn 900MB worth of data to a disc in approximately 1 minute 30 seconds. 900MB discs can be had for about $0.50CDN, 800MB CD-RW discs can be had for about $3CDN or less.


    Is that 900MB Canadian or 900MB U.S.? If it's Canadian then that comes out to about 700MB U.S. right? I wasn't aware they sold 900MB Canadian discs.. must be a perk of paying that music industry tax on recordable media. :-)

  11. Re:Blasphemy! by Enrico+Pulatzo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, you were the one storming out of the Apple Store ;)

  12. What will become of the BSA? by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Funny


    If this goes down, the Business Software Alliance will have to change their catch-phrase!

    I have to admit, "Don't Copy That USB Keychain Flash Media Device" doesn't have the same ring as "Don't Copy That Floppy"...

  13. Re:About Time. by Scratch-O-Matic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Luxury! When I was a kid kid we used to DREAM of floppies! We had to store the encyclopaedia same as you, only we did it on perforated computer paper. That's right, paper! But it wasn't in plain text, as you might expect. No sir, it was done in huge ASCII poster print, one letter per page. Now and then the old man would wake from his drunken nap and holler for us to fetch him some obscure reference, and we younger ones had to run out back and haul in a wheel barrow full of paper. But that was only the index!

    --


    Evil is the money of root.
  14. Re:About Time. by wheany · · Score: 4, Funny

    You had fingers and a cupboard?

    We had to write on crushed glass, with our eyeballs! And we liked it!

    Pfft, fingers...