why do we still have cd/dvd drives?

[smoker]

just changed another faulty cd drive. why haven't they gone the way of the floppy yet?

there are far better, non-mechanical, ways to store and install applications, probably far more environmentally friendly also, why is the cd/dvd drive still so popular?

yes, i know there are blu-ray, et al, that hold vast amounts of data, but they are still mechanical, and subject to mechanical failure, they are expensive, and imo, little use for the majority of users.

why do we still have them?
:confused:

[UbuWu]

Because they are the standard? There might be better ways, but you can use a cd/dvd on virtually every computer out there. And they are cheap to produce. Btw. I just bought my first pc without a floppy drive! It took them a long time too to dissappear.

[bufsabre666]

i liked when i started seeing sd slots being put on dvd and blu ray players, i think thats what we should do with everything, considering sd cards are so much cheaper, think about it. i just got an 8gb sd card for 17$ if you use good compressing you can get an extremely high quality movie on there and then you can sell it at the same 30$ price ((or cheaper)) that they want for bluray discs. and the flash mem is only getting bigger and cheaper and arent a propreitary joke patented by sony, if sony wants bluray to catch on more they need to swallow their pride and start making things cheaper, theyre the reson why the bluray drives are so expensive cause its a patented system and they have to make the parts of it themselves and sell them to mfts. instead of having open docs saying how to do things so mfts can make it themselves. its the same reason vhs beat betamax, although that time they didnt have a really popular video game console using the format to give them the edge

maybe this is just a rant of a person who still says hd dvd is better

[jockson]

Because really cds and dvds are cheap and also of our own interest.

[Heinzelotto]

i don't use CD/DVDs myself anymore and don't miss them either.
Apple was the first company to quit building floppy-drives in their computers, and with the mac book air they stopped building cd/dvd-drives into their computers. A good move in my opinion.

[jespdj]

What real alternatives do we have to CDs and DVDs?

An empty CD or DVD costs maybe 50 cents. USB memory sticks or other flash memory cards become cheaper and cheaper, but an 1 GB stick or SD card is still far more expensive than 50 cents.

Eventually CDs and DVDs might disappear, but not before there's something that makes them really obsolete.

[mr.propre]

For installing games under windows and to hold your beverage.
I also have a virtual drive that I use allot to see my dvd's that I have backuped on my backup Hard-drive :-p

[earthpigg]

why do we still have them?
:confused:

im about 95% sure my secondary ~4 year old laptop doesn't have the option to boot from USB.

also, putting an ISO onto a CD is still a helluva lot easier than putting it onto a thumb drive.... or is it? only time i tried was with puppy, which has a built in utility on the live CD specifically for that purpose.

there are simple freeware apps for windows that will let you burn an ISO to CD. i do not think such a thing exists yet for thumb drives....

query: is there anything to easily copy an ISO image onto a USB drive in the ubuntu repositories?

[BGrigg]

Because they're cheap and disposable.

[smoker]

i suppose we are stuck with them for a while yet, though i think if the 'powers that be' got together and set a standard for some type of memory card, then if adopted, that, and the required reader would become just as cheap, or cheaper to produce as cd drives, plus no mechanical parts.

[Dr Small]

I use CDs and DVDs still, and floppies.

[Dragonbite]

Because it isn't easy to install Ubuntu without one?

So much software and stuff are available for download but then you need to have the OS running to install/use them. For system maintenance, setting up a system and/or repairing a system the CD/DVD is the easiest to use.

[Polygon]

how else do you propose stuff like drivers/software/linux installations get distributed and installed? flash drives?

[lukjad]

If you have a program or file you don't want to be changed, a CD-R is ideal. Same thing with a DVD-R.

[mintochris]

plus people like their old format purchases to be useable for more than a few years. This means any backwards-compatible format is much more likely to succeed

[hessiess]

so-long as ms windows lacks a package manager for installing applications, CD's will exist;)

[LaRoza]

@OP Technology doesn't get immediately replaced once something better comes out. It is simple to understand really. Floppies were around so long, in spite of superior technology because it doesn't no one any good to use something everyone can't use.

[jpittack]

The music industry, gaming industry and movie industry use them. Can not manipulate the data on them and come out with the same cd (as apposed to hard drives or sd cards).

Compression to an sd card wouldn't work. One of blu-ray's selling points is uncompressed audio.

[forrestcupp]

query: is there anything to easily copy an ISO image onto a USB drive in the ubuntu repositories?
I think you can just open an ISO image and copy the files to a blank USB drive.

[bobpur]

"When the last pen/flash/thumbdrive bites the dust, it'll be a live cd that gets the machine up and running again"

'nuff said. :)

If the truth be known; I still build machines with floppy drives in them. Women, mostly, appreciate the convenience of the old floppy. Pop it out and shove it in the purse and go.