@cliffwade No, I took the optical drive out of my laptop and replaced it with a second HDD. That said I do have (and already had) a portable usb dvd drive just in case... I used to have a client who would contractualise financial models by burning two copies to CD, then both parties would sign both CDs with a marker pen, and each party would get one each. That went on for a long time after it became hard to find CD drives.
@cliffwade The optical drive in my laptop eventually died. I did not bother replacing it. So if the purpose of the question is whether people are still using gear that included a drive, then my answer would be yes.
For desktops, I never buy them. I pull them out of dumpsters. So I’m indeed only using old hardware and so far every PC I’ve inherited from the dumpster has included an optical drive.
@cliffwade I said other because mine is external. There are 4 laptops, 3 desktops, and 1 server in my home and none of them can handle an internal optical drive. But I definitely need one.
@cliffwade one of my machines still does. I also have a USB external one that I used for a project to save a bunch of art files from CD-R deterioration.
Sadly optical media standards don't grow with the need for more storage and whilst #TapeDrive|s do, modern versions of #LTO#Ultrium are absurdly expensive so unless one needs to backup Petabytes offline it doesn't make financial sense...
Personally I prefer the form factor of 3,5" #FDD|s but their abysmal capacity makes them rather useless these days.
@cliffwade Late for the poll but: It doesn't, however, I bought an external DVD drive as I started getting more into movies this year and collecting them is nice. I hope to get a Bluray/4K one some day. Wish it was just a part of the PC but the case isn't built for it.
@cliffwade No, but I bought an external drive when I got the computer. Why? It's complicated, but the short version is I still buy discs because I don't trust streaming services.
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