Linux Format forums

Re: End of an era?

wyliecoyoteuk — Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:34 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:34 pm

Quote:

It would be a good idea of companies supplied their own sticks, which were clearly branded ie easy to spot someone using a non standard stick. And the company stick would be 64-128MB. Thats large enough to be useful, but not so large that you can rip office, vista, the customer database etc.

Actually, in zipped format, quite a large customer database will fit on a 128Mb stick.
And now that 1Gb stick are around £10 or less....

Re: End of an era?

shifty_ben — Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:32 pm

Author: shifty_ben

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:32 pm

I very rarely use my floppy drive anymore, but it certainly won't be getting thrown out and any new boxes I move to will ahve the drive transferred. Well assuming that they are nice enough to keep providing a slot for it that is, if not I'll have to make my own.

When I got my laptop there was no OS on the HD, not floppy drive and you couldn't boot off the DVD drive. In order to alter said setting in the BIOS you needed to boot into DOS and use the supplied software (much like the Thinkpads) in the ned I had to rip the HD out, put it in my external HD enclosure and then put DOS on it before putting it back.

We need floppy drives!

Re: End of an era?

nordle — Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:19 pm

Author: nordle

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:19 pm

Marrea wrote:

nordle wrote:

Creates a bit of a mare for network security though.

Too true, which is why we are barred from using them at work (same applies to all USB connected devices - even a mouse, unless an administrator connects it.)

wow, thats annoying. How else are you supposed to rip corporate, key free, software? How on earth do they expect you to get those mp3's and p0rn home from the network where you spent all day downloading?

Honestly I think its a bit OTT to only allow usb keyboards to be plugged in my an admin, not exactly flexible. I also think that usb sticks should be used and encouraged where in the right situation.

It would be a good idea of companies supplied their own sticks, which were clearly branded ie easy to spot someone using a non standard stick. And the company stick would be 64-128MB. Thats large enough to be useful, but not so large that you can rip office, vista, the customer database etc.

Re: End of an era?

Marrea — Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:29 pm

Author: Marrea

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:29 pm

nordle wrote:

It's crazy that such a piece of crap lasted so long.

What, just like Windows?

nordle wrote:

Creates a bit of a mare for network security though.

Too true, which is why we are barred from using them at work (same applies to all USB connected devices - even a mouse, unless an administrator connects it.)

Re: End of an era?

jjmac — Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:22 pm

Author: jjmac

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:22 pm

Everything has its' uses, including floppies. Next thing they will be trying to tell people that no one drives a 'gogo mobile' as well.

I haven't used mine for a long time but i certainly wont be throwing out my 2.4 rescue floppies. Just in case the cd/dvd drive packes it at an inapproprate time.

>>
RIP Floppy Disc
>>

St Trynians will never die !

jm

Re: End of an era?

M-Saunders — Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:46 am

Author: M-Saunders

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:46 am

How can they stop selling floppies, when they still sell cassette tapes? My Speccy +2A will never die!

M

Re: End of an era?

wyliecoyoteuk — Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:34 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:34 pm

I remember help load an Alcatel Systems drive unit into the skip about 15 years ago, it had four 12" floppy drives and 2 Winchester (removable hard disk units about 20" across) slots.

Re: End of an era?

nordle — Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:27 pm

Author: nordle

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:27 pm

It's crazy that such a piece of crap lasted so long. I built a machine at the start of 2004 without a floppy drive, no problems (PATA drives). Then I built a machine towards the end of 2006 and I needed a floppy drive! Stupid winxp SATA drivers.... (although I undersand that winxp SP2 SB2 9/10 does not require any floppy drivers).

Over two years down the line and a floppy drive was needed. I'd forgotten that winxp has been around since 2001.

Flash memory sticks are far far better, Amazon were flogging 1GB units for £8! Crazy price, everyone should have one
Creates a bit of a mare for network security though.

Re: End of an era?

risc_user — Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:56 pm

Author: risc_user

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:56 pm

I don't care that much about them being discontinued. The shop down the road will still sell them for another ten years.
They still had 5 1/4" discs until last November when I went in and cleaned them out.
I think in the past few years they've become more unreliable. The production quality must have gone downhill, because all my Acorn discs from the early nineties are still working whereas a box I bought from Currys all corrupted within a month or so.
Who needs PC World anyway.

Re: End of an era?

MartyBartfast — Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:45 pm

Author: MartyBartfast

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:45 pm

SootynSweep wrote:

8 1/2 inches?

Where did you use those?

Largest I can find here is 8 inches, probably from a S/36 or S/38 (double sided, double density a whole 1MB - wow)

You're right, they were 8 inches, it's been a long time & being a bloke I always tend to exagerate when it comes to size

Re: End of an era?

towy71 — Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:18 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:18 pm

http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/Creative_Computing/Large_Disk.htm

Re: End of an era?

SootynSweep — Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:05 pm

Author: SootynSweep

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:05 pm

8 1/2 inches?

Where did you use those?

Largest I can find here is 8 inches, probably from a S/36 or S/38 (double sided, double density a whole 1MB - wow)

Re: End of an era?

nelz — Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:58 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:58 pm

I haven't used a floppy disk in about three years, they became so unreliable that I wouldn't dare trust anything to them. My partner's computer still has a floppy drive, because she gets given work documents on floppy, but then they still send out memos on stone tablets

Re: End of an era?

Marrea — Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:23 pm

Author: Marrea

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:23 pm

I still find them incredibly useful for backing up documents.

I suppose PC World will also withdraw their external floppy disk drives as well. It always amuses me when something which used to be integral is removed because "there's no demand for this any more" and the next thing you know they are being sold as add-ons, which surely must prove there is a demand.

RE: End of an era?

GMorgan — Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:39 pm

Author: GMorgan

Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:39 pm

Really they were doomed the moment you needed 25 of them just to hold the Linux kernel source.