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| Thread ID: 98727 | 2009-04-04 23:37:00 | Are optical drives obsolete? | jwil1 (65) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 762389 | 2009-04-04 23:37:00 | Just wondering. Since the Internet has been used to distribute software much more than physical media, do you think that optical drives and optical media are obsolete? Apologies for the typo in the poll question.... :p |
jwil1 (65) | ||
| 762390 | 2009-04-04 23:38:00 | No, it depends on WHAT you get. If you didnt have a burner, then how would you burn it, (if you dont keep copies etc on a spare partition) if you reformatted? I suppose, since software gets updated often, you wouldnt bother burning to cd or dvd. Because by the time you do, a new version may have come out (if its a program that is) |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 762391 | 2009-04-05 01:13:00 | There's a couple of things standing in the way of the likes of USB memory sticks replacing optical media. Lets take the PCWorld DVD for example. With NZ's crippling cost of online distribution (for both those sending and those receiving), PCW will probably not start offering their discs content online. All they need to do now is post a page of links to the original source they used... but folks find the disc to be more convenient, faster and cheaper than getting the content online themselves. Also, business seems to have shown a preference not to distribute stuff that has other uses. Eg distributing on a re-usable medium that can be used for other data if/when you're no longer interested in its original content. PCW would not be happy if they distributed re-writable media with their logo on it that allowed other malicious users to add malware and then share about still with the PCW logo on it. Personally, I'd love to see an end to the plastic waste that happens with optical media, but other storage and transfer options need to become cheaper and smaller still before this becomes viable. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 762392 | 2009-04-05 02:18:00 | And yet the net guide mag stopped giving disks away a long time ago and I don't think it has impacted on their sales. | gary67 (56) | ||
| 762393 | 2009-04-05 02:59:00 | And yet the net guide mag stopped giving disks away a long time ago and I don't think it has impacted on their sales. I reckon it did impact their sales but I haven't seen any figures. The Aussie mags still put DVD's on cover disks. I always buy two computer mags (PC World and PC User) whatever is on the cover disk, but the other two main ones I buy if there is something worthwhile on the cover disk, usually a Linux Distro. Use my optical drives a lot less than I use to but they're far from obsolete. |
Twelvevolts (5457) | ||
| 762394 | 2009-04-05 03:45:00 | It's much easier to simply burn an .iso file of an OS rather than go through the hassle of making a bootable flash drive. :p Plus, there are still several other ways of using optical discs - software is still available in a shop, for instance. | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 762395 | 2009-04-05 05:08:00 | It's much easier to simply burn an .iso file of an OS rather than go through the hassle of making a bootable flash drive. :p Plus, there are still several other ways of using optical discs - software is still available in a shop, for instance. Ever heard of virtual drives?:p and yes, it is possible to boot from virtual drives:D I do agree with the comments above though-CD/DVDs are starting to be replaced by other means of transporting data, but CD/DVDs are still the way to go when you need to distrubute something cheaply. |
Blam (54) | ||
| 762396 | 2009-04-05 05:09:00 | Yes, I have heard of virtual drives. :p | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 762397 | 2009-04-05 05:27:00 | Another form that no ones mentioned - what about media centers, you still need to have an optical drive to play Rental / purchased DVD's - Blueray. If you have to download a movie in BlueRay DL format it would take a huge chunk of your usage per month, not to mention time if the disc was almost/Full - 50GB per disc. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 762398 | 2009-04-05 06:11:00 | I hardly use optical drives, now well maybe when Blue Ray come out ... :D DVDs are just too small and to do a decent job it takes too many. These days I tend to use a HDD and a 2nd or even a 3rd HDD as a backup to sync files in a usable state (uncompressed or proprietary locked format). With the free utilities and info that can change over time, I seldom use optical disk for that now. Pretty much the only stuff I use are to install motherbaord drivers, windows and office, printer drivers and stuff .. cos for those I cannot be bothered installing the latest version and don't see a real need for it. We hardly us the PC to watch movies, just use the lounge. Hardly games, I got my first 3D accel card in Feb and have not played a game on it :p The last time we watched a proper movie was maybe 2 years ago. Just because the lounge tv was used by someone else and that was off a 12" Laptop Screen. I don't think I will use Blue Ray much either, prob just stick to multiple HDDs. Re: movies, I rather just hire the 2 for 1 special at Video Ezy and the likes or half price special ona Tuesday. I cannot be bothered downloading it, I have done it once when I first got broadband 2yrs ago, and man it was slow and man it was hard to find and it did take a chunk of my data, but for now I have downgraded it to 256k cos we only get 1.8Mbit speed if we go on the full speed plan at our place. |
Nomad (952) | ||
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