Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#11

Post by geophile » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:03 PM UTC

Good riddance. They add weight, I rarely use them, and they are horribly unreliable. I've run into problems with discs not ejecting, sometimes not being readable, blanks sometimes not being writeable, often issuing loud crunching noises when discs are inserted.

My 2007 MBP is dying, and I'm holding out for the next rev, hoping that the new machines won't have optical drives. I'd much rather buy a USB peripheral if I ever need it, and discard it when it gets flaky.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#12

Post by codabrink » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:03 PM UTC

I can imagine that this makes the laptops much more sturdier. This is why my last 2 laptops have been without CD drives. I just bought a $50 external, and I've been having a hard time understanding why more manufacturers didn't make optical drive-less computers.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#13

Post by absconditus » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:06 PM UTC

This is just like the floppy drive situation all over again. In a few years no one will care.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#14

Post by kaffeinecoma » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:07 PM UTC

Yes, good riddance.

As a bonus, I'll be happy to reclaim the "eject" key for some other use. Right now on my Mac Pro (i.e. the tower- not the notebook) I hit it by mistake fairly often when reaching for delete. The drive tray then pops out loudly and scares my dog.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#15

Post by forgottenpaswrd » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:07 PM UTC

Last time I used a DVD was like two years ago. What a good memories: The acceleration and spinning noises, the vibrations, the spike on consume on the powermeter, the heat and the extra weight and extra volume for carrying something you don't use at all.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#16

Post by fpgeek » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:08 PM UTC

Even for Apple's hardware customers, Apple's opinion on whether or not to deprecate the optical drive isn't entirely trustworthy.

Given that CSS has been comprehensively cracked, ripped DVDs are the most widespread and reliable source of DRM-free commercial video in the world. Apple sells DRMed video that competes with (among other things) ripped DVDs. Beyond the financial incentive, Apple wants people to buy their DRMed video because it strengthens their ties to Apple's ecosystem. This all means that Apple has substantial ulterior motives for deprecating the optical drive.

Personally, I think that as technical speed bumps are worked out and available bandwidth increases ripped video is going to follow the path blazed by ripped music, so the optical drive still has some life left in it.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#17

Post by ropers » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:08 PM UTC

Did the author really just omit any mention of USB flash drives in that article? Or am I just slightly blind?

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#18

Post by jcromartie » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:21 PM UTC

jamesteow wrote: post #2

"Over the past few years, Apple's been slyly but deliberately severing ties with a piece of hardware that most rational humans still view as essential on a full-scale computer." I can count the number of times on one hand I've needed an optical drive in the last year. In the last five years? Probably twenty times or so. I backup on the internet and use external hard drives. I stream content or view it off of an exter…

Exactly. Optical drives are to computing today what floppy drives were in 2000. I'm pretty sure I haven't used an optical drive in a computer for over 2 years.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#19

Post by henrikschroder » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:25 PM UTC

dkokelley wrote: post #9

garyrichardson wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I found this article whiney. The last time I had to use a DVD was upgrading to Snow Leopard. When I went to do the upgrade I had to take my 1 year old laptop in to get fixed because the DVD drive wasn't working on it -- it in fact probably never worked. I remember when BluRay 'beat' HD-DVD. By the time HD-DVD was dropped by Toshiba I was already thinking "who cares? no one is going to buy bluray anyway." I susp…

I think you address an interesting market that will still need disks. The home-theater geek. It's not yet practical to stream the amounts of data necessary to play a full 1080p movie for 2+ hours without any noticeable degradation or stuttering. For now, if you want the best, you need a Blu-Ray drive.

Or a USB stick.

Re: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse

#20

Post by kragen » Wed, Jul 27, 2011, 6:32 PM UTC

My main machine for the last two years has also been optical-drive-free. Installing Ubuntu on it was kind of a pain (see http://lists.canonical.org/pipermail/kragen-journal/2009-Jan... and http://canonical.org/~kragen/unetbootin.html for details) but otherwise it's been pretty much fine.