Ask HN: Why is there still a market for floppy disks?

amazon.com

2 points·behnamoh··12 comments

There's still a ton of equipment out there, from industrial CNC machines, to musical gear, to embroidery machines, that were built with floppy drives as the main, if not only, way of interchanging data. Replacing perfectly functional gear like that because the exchange medium is a bit old just doesn't make financial or logical sense in a lot of cases.

For old devices that use them. I saw an electronic piano the other day that had a 3.5 inch floppy drive.

Mainly older industrial equipment that can cost many thousands to replace.

Also nothing is wrong with floppies. The only thing is 1.44MB is a bit small for some things these days.

Legacy devices? Bureaucratic inertia?

I read they're still somewhat popular in Japan.

I still have a stack of 3.5" floppies. I don't have a drive for them though. One day my kid will find them and they can be amazed by this 'ancient' tech.

If I just want to give somebody a text file over sneakernet, USB sticks are overkill.

So are floppies given most people don't have the hardware to read it.

I give USB floppy drives to people as Xmas stocking stuffers.

I have one from an old laptop I haven't used for decades. I keep it with all my other dingles and dongles that may or may not ever be used again, because if it ever happens, there are no other devices that could replace them.

I keep the provided adapters, and sometimes purchased adapters, for nearly every adaptable tech thing I've ever owned. Occasionally they've saved me from a lot of headaches.

Interesting

True, but most people dont have floppy drives.

Most people don't have a lot of things, but you can still buy them and parts for them.

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