h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Floppy disks will probably be useful for the forseeable future. Lets say I want to give my neighbour a copy of my latest Quake skin. We aren't networked. We both have modems, I could email it to him, or post it to the web and let him download it - or I could use the simple method putting into a floppy disk and knocking on his door, handing it over and letting him copy it.

Some have pointed towards CD-ROMs for transporting data. They are fast. They can be rewriteable. A CD-Rewriter will cost me about 300 quid, a CD about 5. A floppy disk is less than a quid, my floppy drive was with my machine when I bought it. I think 99% of home computers still have floppy drives

I wont lament the passing of disks, but I hope something replaces them which is cheap, functional and as easy to use.

Where are you getting your blank CDs?
You can get them for less than a quid each if you shop around.
CD-ROM writers are about 150 quid. If you burn multi-session CDs then you can easily stick 10 sessions per disk at about 20 Megs of data a session. That's 10 times as much as a floppy, so a lot cheaper in real terms.
The floppy disk is ancient history and is far too slow and clunky to cut it these days. And dead CDs can be used as oversized earrings, neat mobiles to hang on the ceiling or coasters for your coffee table.

Not amongst Mac users

No machines being produced with Floppy drives any more or hadn't you heard? I don't miss mine (The one I haven't got, that is.)

It just shows how good Macs are that they have not needed the floppy for the last 5 years. Poor little decrepid PCs still need a disc to boot from.
Interestingly, The Silicon Graphics Indigo machine went without floppy ages ago.

The clever Pc people decided it was a good idea to give people maximum choice and not dictate the way they have to use their computers, and besides, the clever people like to build their own PCs....with the disk drives so they can just copy a few files to take to work or something instead of having to go on the net to go fetch them...

Now, now! Let's not start the Mac vs. PC debate again. If your respective computers are so good, then why not shut up and use them rather than constantly poke fun at anybody with something different. Sounds like paranoia to me...

What about Zip drives, eh? Anyone got one? Anyone experienced one suffering from the Click of Death?

Speaking as a long-time Mac fan, I am quite annoyed with Apple for dictating the death of floppies to its customers. I work in publishing, and if someone can point out a cheaper, easier and more universally accepted method of transferring text files than the humble, old-fashioned floppy, I'd like to hear it. And don't say the internet, because not everyone has a link, and besides, it seems a bit over the top when you have to use the net to send something to the fellow in the cubicle ten feet away from yours. So there, take that Steve Jobs.

Love that cute little iMac, though.

The thing that makes me laugh about floppy discs is that they aren't. Unless you break them and pull the little floppy bit out, and then they take a sudden dislike to you and decide to stop working. The old 5.25" discs, now they were really floppy! But they were boring and black, whereas you can get lots of pretty pictures all over the 3.5" ones.

5.25"! Ye Gods! I can remember 8" disks, which make the 5.25" ones look as stiff as a board! (Don't ask how old I am, cos I won't tell you!)

OK, speaking (well typing) as a spring chicken of 21, I cannot even imagine an 8" - how on earth did they fit in a drive? When I was a kid we used cassettes and I found some a few months ago - don't they make a nice noise when you try to play them in your stereo!

Just to get my two bits worth in here. I was a bit confused when a mac salesman trying to push the Imac (Technologically good but lets face it software obselete) computer unwittingly thinking that I was any other idiot and not a computing student. The problem I have is, who are they aiming the machine at? If it was designed as an office machine then the missing floppy drive is sensible. They have a network. Biut if it is intended for offices why make it multicoloured with a horribel mouse and keyboard? But for the home system it assumes that everyone can afford (or wants to) be connected to the internet. Of course you can beg macintosh for an external one (Not available in shops) but it'll cost you and don't think about setting up your own drive because macs have never liked that sort of thing.

So, for the unnetted home users floppys are the only cheap feasable reusable portable storage.

oh for old discs, anyone remember teh old 3" ones for teh Amstrad and Spectrum machines?

Well, I like 5.25" and 8" floppy disks, 'cos in Math class (which happens to be, for me, in a room of old computers and stuff), you can cover them in Tippex (no, not White-out, Tippex) and do all kinds of funs thing with them. 3.5" ones are too small for that.

I remember seeing an 8" disk at school, though 5.25" were still in use. In fact if you had a 386SX, you were had top of the line.

And what ever happened to fitting a game on one or 2 5.25" disks? Now you are lucky if they fit on 2 CDs. Ah the good old days. Don't mind me folks, I am just reminiscing.

As for 3.5" disks. They are quite good for booting up machines (not computers) that don't have a large amount of software. That is not to say their Boot PROMs aren't good enough, but a simple upgrade of software is easier.

Well back to think of the good old days....

No kidding but you're forgetting about one size ; 2.8 inch. Honestly ! Had to use them in my old AKAI sampler back in the 80-ies. Cost about 6(yes six) dollars, they held only 2 samples/sounds(one on each side) and after a short while you couldn't get them from the store anymore...great pioneering times they were. Does anyone know where else that format was used ?

Before we start - Just wanted to say that all Macies, and iMACies in particular, must be exequted.
Now- I live in a hot place - so floppies, if take out of the house, or left w/out air condisionig in the summer for about 10 minutes, suffer from a side affect
of being magnetic - the heat renders all magnetic things non-magnetic. There for, they can't be tranferd - argo, useless.

I'm sorry. I'm just a simple dutchman. Could you say that in English ?

OK, I'll try.
IN SOME PLACES IN THE WORLD IT IS VERY HOT.
MAGNETS GET RUINED IN HEAT.
FLOPPIES, LIKE MOST MEDIA, ARE BASED ON MAGNETIC FORCE.
THEREFORE, THEY ARE USELESS IN SUCH PLACES.
If you live in Europe, you don't know what heat is.

You can also use dead CDs to make clocks. I'm doing this as a fundraiser for my local BB company.

What's a BB company, Stoo?