Many years ago did you Ever think a PC without a CD-ROM disc drive or Floppy drive would be Popular?

[froggyboy604]

I never thought computer with no floppy drive, or CD-ROM disc drive like cheap Windows netbooks, Apple Macbook Air and Apple iMacs would be popular in the 1990 to 2006 because external storage like USB flash drives and hard drives were very expensive, and the internet was too slow, and expensive if you want faster speeds like 5 Mbps for downloading big games like Call of Duty for PC, and programs like Microsoft 0ffice.

Most of the old PCs like netbooks and nettops without CD were not very good in the past because they were cheaply made, and used cheap CPUs like Intel Atoms which sometimes overheated when used heavily. They also had under 1GB of RAM, and run Windows XP, so they suffered from low RAM problems.

I also used my computer disc drive to listen to Audio Disc CD, and rip music from Audio CDs which I bought from a store. In 2007, I used my DVD-ROM burner drive to watch DVD movies, and backup files to dvd-r disc.

I was still using Floppy drives until 2006 because USB Flash drives were still expensive, and I only needed a little bit of space to carry my document files to and from school. CD-ROM disc are not overwriteable where you can save changes to the file to a CD since CD were one-use storage drive.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I always knew that the floppy, much like the VHS, would go out of use. Though I figured CD remain a staple much longer.

 

[froggyboy604]

I always knew that the floppy, much like the VHS, would go out of use. Though I figured CD remain a staple much longer.

I agree, I knew Floppy would become less popular when the prices of USB flash drives and hard drives were dropping in price.

I think DVD and Blu-Ray are now more popular than CD. But, CD is still useful for installing Linux on older computers with just a CD drive, buying unpopular music which is not sold online, or to use as a startup CD to fix a computer without bootable USB ports or a DVD drive. People who own older car stereos may still use CD since replacing a car stereo with an auxiliary input or wireless Bluetooth can be expensive.

 

[2045]

Other than writing and drawing, there was not much you could do on an old PC that didn't have a floppy or a CD ROM disk drive and ran Windows XP, so of course I did not think that they would become more popular in the future because I couldn't anticipate the future.

 

[froggyboy604]

Other than writing and drawing, there was not much you could do on an old PC that didn't have a floppy or a CD ROM disk drive and ran Windows XP, so of course I did not think that they would become more popular in the future because I couldn't anticipate the future.

I agree those old PCs without CD-ROM or floppy drives were very basic. Some of those PCs without CD-drives were too slow to run the regular version of Windows XP Home, so they used a lightweight version of Windows XP called XP Starter and Home Edition ULCPC (ultra low cost personal computer) which only came with the basic programs like Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and Windows updates, so the PC ran more smoothly and used less hard drive space on slower computers.

Some of these old Windows XP PC without CD-ROMs are too slow to run most software like Photoshop, MS Office Professional and Games like Call of Duty which people used to buy on Disc from a PC store.

 

[Danielx64]

Well back in 2006/2007 I seen some decent computers that had no CD drives in then and they ran office just fine. They were at a school though.

 

[IntoxNitram]

Yeah my new laptop doesn't have a disk drive - I figured this was quite unusual but it seems to be the norm nowadays. Makes sense I guess because the PC software and gaming market is heavily digitally based.

 

[Danielx64]

Well my current computer has 2 drives (one DVD burner and the other one for watching blueray movies). A computer that I just built for my uncle had a DVD burner put in (it only cost $20AUD) and I think I will continue to put drives in for years to come.

 

[froggyboy604]

Well back in 2006/2007 I seen some decent computers that had no CD drives in then and they ran office just fine. They were at a school though.

I think some schools did not put CD drives on computers to save money, prevent people from installing, and using third-party software and games on their computers, and using the computer for personal entertainment like watching disc movies, and listening to audio CDs.

USB drives were still somewhat expensive in 2006 where most people only owned 1GB and smaller USB drives which can hold much movies, and video files, so schools did not worry about many people watching long movies from a USB drive in 2006.

 

[Danielx64]

I think some schools did not put CD drives on computers to save money, prevent people from installing, and using third-party software and games on their computers, and using the computer for personal entertainment like watching disc movies, and listening to audio CDs.

USB drives were still somewhat expensive in 2006 where most people only owned 1GB and smaller USB drives which can hold much movies, and video files, so schools did not worry about many people watching long movies from a USB drive in 2006.

Yeah back then I think I only had several 512MB flash drives, and I think I paid like $20 (each) or so for it. Not having CD drives in the computers didn't help with playing games and such, many students at this school were downloading then and putting then on flash drives. Some of then even used a portable version of firefox to get around the local school proxy.

 

[froggyboy604]

Yeah back then I think I only had several 512MB flash drives, and I think I paid like $20 (each) or so for it. Not having CD drives in the computers didn't help with playing games and such, many students at this school were downloading then and putting then on flash drives. Some of then even used a portable version of firefox to get around the local school proxy.

In 2008, I was using a 256MB USB flash drive which I got for free from a family member.

Some cheaper computer cases which I seen did not have USB ports at the front of the PC. The case just had an on/off button and a few lights. In many cases, the USB port at the back was used by the keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner, and other accessories.

USB flash drives also used to be thicker where they need the USB ports beside a USB port needs to be empty, so the USB flash drive can be plugged into the USB port unless you used an extension USB cable, or hub.