Floppy Drives Soon to Be Extinct

The first major Windows PC manufacturer has announced that by the end of 2003, none of its computers will come equipped with floppy drives. Dell Computer announced that it would begin in March to discontinue floppy drives on its high-end PCs, and by the end of the year, none of its desktop or laptop models will include floppy drives. (They will still be available as an option, however.)

Instead of a floppy, Dell officials say that they expect users to burn files onto CD and DVD disks, or save them onto reusable flash memory units—about the size and shape of a saltine cracker—that can store hundreds of megabytes of images, songs, and document files.

The end of the Dell standard floppy drive means that other Windows PC manufacturers will probably soon follow suit. Apple, on the other hand, stopped putting standard floppy drives in its iMacs in 1998.