It can be said, that the era of the floppy disk is over. Developments on magnetic diskette technology have stopped, whereas developments on optical technology continue. Magnetic technology is writing and reading data through physically touching the disk surface with a needle, whereas optical technology is using a laser. According to Richard Shim, the blu-ray Disc is going to be the “next-generation recordable DVD [digital versatile disc] format using blue-violet lasers,” whereas the current DVD format is using red lasers.

Floppy disks are not so widely, but still used today. Many people nowadays switch to the compact disc (CD) to store their documents, movies, photos and music because the capacity of a floppy disk can not withstand the requirements of today’s data. According to Linda Musthaler, “Dell says that this move is customer driven.” To accelerate the switch, Dell will discontinue integrating floppy disk drives on their higher end computers, such as the Dimension 8250 models, first.

In short, many computer users would like to see the old floppy going. The reasons are very different. Some users do not use their floppy drives anymore. Others do not even buy a floppy drive when shopping for a new PC. Graphic designers, web developers and programmers started to store their files on CDs six years ago. Corporations nowadays store their data on large, high-speed local area networks. Students use a USB keychain to share music, pictures and videos with their friends. All this is because the disadvantages of a floppy disk. Floppies are relatively large in physical size but small in capacity. Moreover, they have a short life expectancy and durability, and should not be used as primary data storage. Computer manufacturers realize this and will discontinue integrating floppy drives into their desktops and portables. Yet, according to Russell Kay’s article “35 Technologies That Shaped the Industry”, the floppy is the ancestor and incentive to the compact disk, digital versatile disk, flash memory card, and universal serial bus drive.

According to computer retailer’s GNT pricelist, the price of a floppy disk drive has more or less remained the same during last three years. The price of a USB memory stick is twice as much as a floppy drive. With USB memory sticks on the market, CBC predicts that those “keychain-sized USB drives will cost the same as floppy drives” in the

Some topics in this essay:
Richard Shim, Sandi Price, , Linda Musthaler, CDs Verbatim, Students USB, CD-R USB, Windows XP, PC Graphic, Shaped Industry”, floppy disk, integrating floppy, floppy drive, disk surface, floppy disks, physical size, usb memory, short life expectancy, according richard, floppy drives, physical size capacity, richard shim, universal serial bus, usb memory sticks, according richard shim,