Why the Floppy Disk Just Won’t Die #Floppy #History #VintageComputing @Wired

Floppy disks were a mainstay in computer storage for decades and were particularly popular in Japan, where they were used for official government procedures until last year. Even though the last major manufacturer of floppy disks stopped making them in 2010, the machines that rely on them—from embroidery machines to plastic molding, medical equipment to aircraft—live on, relying on a dwindling supply of disks that will one day run out.

“I personally think that the floppy disk should die,” says Florian Cramer, a writer and filmmaker who, in 2009, shrunk every Oscar-nominated film from that year into animated GIFs on two floppy disks, as a commentary on Hollywood’s digital piracy crackdown. “Objectively it’s a toxic medium. It’s basically plastic waste … It’s really something that should no longer exist.”

The 747-200 aircraft from the 1980s still uses floppy disks to transfer essential data each month. Fewer than 20 Boeing 747-200s remain in service worldwide, and only in cargo or military configurations. The US military employed the even-older 8-inch floppy disks in its nuclear arsenal until 2019.

The floppy disk may never truly die out. “There are people in the world who are still busy finding and fixing up and maintaining phonograph players from 1910, so it’s really hard for me to believe that the floppy disk is just going to utterly disappear,” says Lori Emerson, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and the founder of the Media Archaeology Lab.

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• Source: https://blog.adafruit.com/2023/03/07/why-the-floppy-disk-just-wont-die-floppy-history-vintagecomputing-wired/