The other day I was out looking for dual-layer DVD discs. (These are useful for backing up large amounts of data, because they hold 8.5GB each.) They are hard to find, and pricey -- about 5x the cost of regular blank DVDs.
You know what else was hard to find? Blank CDs. There's stacks and stacks of DVD spindles in the stores, but not too many CDs.
Which leads into Steve Jobs' keynote this morning. He showed off the new Mac Air notebook computer. One of its compromises is no CD/DVD drive. Mr Jobs says its no longer necessary, what with music, movies, software installations -- all being downloaded.
Or, it can "borrow" the CD drive on a networked computer, if you need it.
(In many ways that's true: for the most part, I use my DVD drive for burning backups. And re-installing Logitech mouse drivers.)
Flashback1
But here's the flashback. After Mr Jobs was pushed out of Apple, he launched the NeXT computer. Like the Lisa, it was over-priced and under-compatible with the rest of the market. One of its flaws at the time was that it had only a CD drive -- no floppy drive, which was the standard at the time.
Today he announces his first computer with no drive at all.
Flashback 2
In that way, Mitac Computers beat him to the punch. About a decade ago, I bought my first notebook computer with a color display. (Monochrome was the budget preference in those days.) It was a cute little sub-portable that even my wife liked. Being so small, it had no floppy or CD drive built in.
But then it also had no built-in modem, networking, etc. So, by the time I added all those devices to make this ultra-portable computer complete, it wasn't so portable anymore.
My Mitac still runs (Windows 95) but the screen sometimes goes weird. Also, it's not 0.17" thick.
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