Beyond The Floppy: The Evolution Of Portable Storage
from the floppy?--what's-that? dept
I honestly can't remember the last time I went anywhere near a floppy drive. My old laptop had a removable one, which was good, because it remained removed. When I bought a new laptop recently, I didn't even think about whether or not it had a floppy drive (it didn't) and so I simply don't have one any more. The new laptop has a CD-R drive and an internet connection. Why would I ever need a floppy? Of course, I tried to run some program that required a floppy - and wouldn't let me fake it, leading to angry (but useless) complaints. However, it seems that for most people, like me, the floppy is dead and gone (yes, a note to the Apple fans in the crowd who are already patting themselves on the back, you were the first to realize this). The SJ Merc has a look at the evolution of portable storage, which is now focused on these keychain hard drives. Soon, those hard drives will start to include more and more applications as well - and I could see a point where people actually have keychain computers. All you need is a "docking station" where you pop your keychain into a port that connects to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard.
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Still need floppy
More seriously, I do my best to keep older (PC) hardware functional and useful. Much of this hardware/BIOS pre-dates installing from CD -- so I also keep a collection of boot/root/install floppies as needed.
I do find myself wishing the 2.88MB diskette has become more widespread than just on my microchannel machines.
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