Message-ID: <3BF18A58.9080804@zytor.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 13:02:16 -0800
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Organization: Zytor Communications
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To: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro@ds2.pg.gda.pl>
CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: fdutils.
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.1011113214448.11222E-100000@delta.ds2.pg.gda.pl>
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Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:

> 
>>> Hmm, Sun used to have a software-controlled standard floppy drives years
>>>ago... 
>>>
>>I'm not talking about Suns.
> 
>  I'm just pointing out there used to be no problem with making a
> software-controlled eject for a legacy floppy device even long ago if one
> wanted to. 
> 


Macs have had them since, what, 1984?  It's never been a question of it
being a problem, but it hasn't caught on on the PC.


> 
>>> Based on local obervations hardly anyone uses floppies anymore...  They
>>>are mostly used for system rescue purposes, where the kind of a device
>>>doesn't really matter.
>>>
>>... except that you no longer can fit a reasonable system rescue/install
>>setup on a floppy, so it *defintitely* matters.  Also, the floppy device
>>is like a rash all over the hardware; it maintains a highly undesirable
>>legacy.
>>
> 
>  You only confirm what I wrote -- hardly anyone uses floppies, so there is
> no need to keep mechanical compatibility in devices -- a complete dump of
> 1.44" FD support would be almost harmless.  Hence whether a Zip or a
> LS-120 -- it doesn't really matter.  You need new media anyway. 
> 


Unfortunately other people don't seem to see it that way, and so it
doesn't happen.  People ship USB floppies with new laptops, so there is
clearly a demand for them.  I believe that if LS-120 had been where the
Zip drive was for a brief while, it would have stuck, just because of the
compatibility issue.

	-hpa

 
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