Virtues of the Floppyless iMac
By Tim Cimbura
The more I think about the lack of a floppy drive in the
iMac, the more it makes sense. Floppy drives truly are old
technology. The size of the media severely limits its
usefulness in today's world. Backing up a 4 GB hard drive on
1.4 MB floppies is very impractical.
The beauty of having an external storage unit comes in
when you may want to transfer files with someone who does
not have the same external storage unit. Since USB is
hot-swappable, you can just unplug the unit and bring it
with you. Then plug it into your friend's iMac and you're
set to go. If you want to save money, share the cost of
purchasing a drive with a friend. Since you may only need it
occasionally, this may be a good option. In houses that have
more than one iMac (Apple would really love that!), you only
need to buy one unit and move it from iMac to iMac as
needed.
You might argue about the extra cost of an external
drive. Remember, most PC users need to buy some form of
external storage unit for backing up their system anyway.
In the coming months there will be continued competition
between Imation's 120 MB SuperDisk, Iomega's 100 MB Zip
disk, and soon Sony's 200 MB SuperFloppy. Until a standard
emerges, it makes sense to keep the unit outside the box
where it can be easily changed.
We will see more and more network solutions to the
problem of transferring files that will be better than
"sneaker net" transfer via a floppy disk. Sending a file via
e-mail or putting it on an internet "disk drive" will get
easier and more common. Already, web sites are popping up to
make this happen.
In summary, an external storage unit is easier to share,
potentially less expensive, and easier to upgrade in the
future. It's also not the only solution available. All in
all, it's simply a paradigm shift. People will always
complain whenever something changes. I think that after
looking at the various options, we should come to an
agreement (as did the Apple engineers) that it's time to
change. Why not embrace it?
Tim Cimbura is a computer consultant in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. For some fun, check out his web site
at http://members.aol.com/cimbura.
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