Dell ditches floppy disks
By Linda Musthaler
Network World Technology Executive Newsletter, 03/03/03

A few weeks ago, my colleague Wayland Hancock wrote that it's time to switch 
to a CD-RW drive instead of a floppy drive when shopping for new computers.  
Turns out that some manufacturers are accelerating that switch for you.

In February, Dell announced that floppy disk drives would be phased out of 
its high-end desktop computers beginning this March.  They will continue to 
be offered as an option, however.  In place of the familiar old 3.5 inch 
floppy drive will be portable hard drives and rewriteable CDs.

Dell says the move is customer-driven.  It seems that we computer buyers aren't 
much interested in removable storage that can hold only 1.44M bytes of information.  
Heck, I've got Word files that are bigger than that!  And don't even think of 
storing music, photos or any snippet of video on a floppy.

Remember the days when floppy disks were the medium for installing new software on PCs?  
That era passed long ago, as CDs and then direct downloads surpassed the use of floppies 
for installing software.  And can you even remember the last time you used a floppy 
diskette for moving a file from one place to another?  My child's teacher sent his 
schoolwork home on a floppy last May.  That might be the last time I actually handled 
a floppy disk.  (I didn't actually use the disk to view any of his work, though.)

Dell is doing us a favor by removing a component that we rarely use or need.  
Why pay for something that's so totally obsolete?  Instead, give us those cool 
USB drives or a CD-RW drive.  They are far more practical for today's large files.

Of course, Macintosh users are laughing their heads off right now.  As early as 1997, 
articles in Macworld magazine predicted the imminent demise of the floppy drive.  
Indeed, Apple discontinued shipping floppy drives in Macintosh computers five years 
ago.  The "Wintel" world is just catching up.

I haven't seen any reports that indicate Gateway, HP or other manufacturers will be 
following Dell's move any time soon, but it's inevitable.  Once one manufacturer 
successfully transitions to a new configuration, all others will follow.

I remember a few years ago when Compaq announced it would build a "legacy-free" PC.  
That is, the company would no longer provide backward compatibility to old hardware 
technologies that people rarely used anymore.  A radical notion at the time, the 
legacy-free PC caught on and helped to phase out hardware and firmware elements 
that were tied to the original PC architecture.  (Does anyone rally miss having a 
serial port?)

Even Microsoft advocates getting rid of the old legacy elements in PCs.  
Windows XP and Windows 2000 were designed to run on "legacy-reduced" 
hardware platforms such as those that ditched the ISA architecture in 
favor of a USB internal bus.

While Dell is not known for innovation in manufacturing PCs, it sure is 
known for saving the buyer a buck.  If dumping the old 3.5 inch floppy 
disk drive saves me a dollar or two, I'm all for it.

Linda Musthaler is vice president of Currid & Company.  
You can write to her at mailto:Linda.Musthaler@currid.com