http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/27/edito...or-better/
That is, Apple is now phasing out DVD drives from its machines. Of course, this started a few years ago with the Macbook Air, but it's now continuing with their cheap line of desktops. I'm not surprised that Apple is continuing with this, it's the kind of thing they'd do; as the article's speculation says, and I agree, it's quite unlikely Apple will stop there and not move on to removing disc drives from more of their computers. Sure, you can get an external drive, but that's not exactly the best solution compared to internal.
On the other hand, of course, this was quite obviously coming. As if Apple'd stick with physical media, when instead they can push people towards using Apple's web store more, and can get rid of that ugly disk drive in their console too? Hah!
... I think everyone can guess what my opinion of this is. Of course I'm not exactly fond of Apple, but this kind of thing shows exactly why that is. Function matters more than form, darnit, Apple! And despite what Apple fans and the DD-only-future faithful may say, there are lots of reasons to want physical media. You have clearer ownership of something physical; you get more for your money (physical product and packaging too), lots of things aren't available as digital downloads; things can be removed from DD stores and vanish from legal access, because there's no way to buy a used copy of a DD product; bandwidth limits are getting worse, not better; and more...
But Apple cares for form above all and Steve Jobs hates things like buttons and media drives messing up the clean styling of his systems, so disc drives are out.
(And yes, I thought that iMacs dropping floppy drives in 1998 was stupid. Basically anyone wanting to actually use one needed an external drive of some kind (floppy and/or zip, usually), that was before flashdrives after all, and that internal CD drive wasn't a burner...)
I'm loathe to ever back Apple in an argument, but I stopped and thought about how often I ever used my optical drives, and the answer was 'hardly ever'.
I guess they still have their uses, but not having a drive would not bother me to any particular degree. I would just get an external for the dozen or so times every year I'd actually use it for something.
I build my own machines. Problem solved.
The only thing I've used the DVD drive in my computer for is to emulate some PS2 games. All my other games? Steam, baby.
For me it depends. If the game in the store comes with some big booklet full of story details, I get the store copy. Steam's copies very often fail to include such a thing in any way. When it comes to Valve, I just get the Steam copies of their games. The only "manuals" those games come with is a little card with key assignments anyway.
Beyond that, there's all sorts of matters to consider. Around Christmas I stop buying games for a while for two obvious reasons, and let's face it, gifts are still "solid", not a single family member would buy a "virtual" Steam store gift even if they knew what that was, so when I get PC games from some family, they're going to be the disk based ones. There's also the matter of copyright protection. Some games have restrictive copyright on the disk version, but not on the non-disk ones. Some have restrictive copyright protection on the disk that is STILL in the Steam version, on top of needing Steam. Some have nothing on the disk. All else aside, the superior version varies depending on how they handle it.
There's also other matters. There's the choice of online services. There are a handful of games where the online network the game links into depends on whether you get the disk or Steam version (Windows Live vs Steam). There's the ridiculous nature of pre-order "exclusive" content, which has reached such a point that a person has to buy 6 different copies of the same game, at launch, from different stores, just to be sure it's complete. That sort of thing is death to a gaming perfectionist. At any rate, if someone even cares a little about pre-order bonuses, then they have to decide what store, and thus what bonus, they'll get.
There's also other considerations. ABF's point about having a permanent copy for a much quicker reinstall, even during times where the net connection is down, or if the online store you bought it from fails, is a good one. More stores are popping up now. There's no way to say which ones will stick around and which ones will fold like MySpace, but one thing's for sure. During a company collapse, the last thing they concern themselves with are maintaining promises to former customers. No matter what Valve claims, does anyone honestly believe they'll be capable of dedicating who knows how many man-hours releasing patch after patch for every last game on their network to remove copyright protection? What about EA and their service? What about Microsoft and their's? What about Apple and their's? No company is indestructible. Now, some may not care what the future brings. Maybe they play a game for a few months and figure "eh, who cares what happens now? I got my fun, all things are fleeting". Others however like to build collections, like myself, and so a single player game that's not going to be around but for a few years gets important (especially considering that my game library is so large at this point that it'll take as many years just to get around to those games, heck I'm not even caught up with my PS1 game collection).
I think all these considerations are worth... considering... and as a result an optical drive is still useful. There's also the matter of a number of old games I have that require the disk to be in the drive.
That's just for games. How are you watching movies? Sure there's some online services like Netflix, but on a laptop, as in, portable? That's just not going to cut it, unless you have the money to spend on the ridiculous data plans for tethering a webernet phone on top of the Netflix fee. Mostly, we're watching DVDs and Blurays. For that, you gotta have a disk drive. The only alternative is using a home computer with a drive to rip the video and stuff as many as can fit on the limited space of the average laptop hard disk as you can, opting out of games considering the space a DVD can take up.
Then there's music. Now granted, space songs take up is so small that CDs get treated like DRM-less games and basically just leave the case one time to get ripped before being put on a shelf for all eternity thereafter. There's also the matter of music sold on online stores. That's great, but CDs, as I said, are DRM-less, so it's a lot easier to work with them making them still pretty appealing. I know that's what I do. Anyway, all that said, when on the go with a laptop, what happens when you pick up that one CD either at the store or sold after a concert or put together by some game remixer at a convention? Do you wait until you get home, do you ask someone else who hopefully has a piece of outdated technology? Or, do you NOT buy a Mac and have an optical drive to use yourself?
The fact is, physical media is always going to be around, because software has to exist on something. There's no singularity coming to save us. Heck, things are about to get more physical with 3D printing. Considering just how long it took just to get floppy drives off of things, it'll take a while. It'll never go completely direct download, though it'll play a big part.
A Black Falcon Wrote:Steam is so overrated...
Only if you don't like convenience.
I wouldn't say Steam is overrated. Oh there are the fanboys who think Valve can do no wrong (in spite of how annoying the online store in Team Fortress 2 is, I think going "free to play for everyone" is a bad thing, not to mention Valve is as guilty as all the other western developers in submitting us to that pre-order exclusive nonsense.), but all in all it's a very solid service, the best online game store run with a MOSTLY "do no evil" attitude. Much like Blizzard, they've kept supporting their oldest games with patches right up to today. The store itself is about the best DRM scheme out there if one has to have it (short of Valve's proposed individual data stamping of copies of a game so the person who distributes it becomes the target, that one is indistinguishable from no DRM at all from a user perspective). The updates are done fast and almost seamlessly (even better now that they have "difference downloading" like MS does), and their online gaming network is slowly catching up to the best game in town, XBox Live. I could mention they've got achievements, but I don't care about those.
In something of an ironic counterpoint,
500GB discs are on their way.
I do believe that ditching optical drives in portable computers is a good idea--reduces weight, cost, and power consumption for a device many people probably don't use all that often. External drives should suffice for those who need both that particular functionality with portability.
Eliminating them from desktops, on the other hand, is probably a bit premature. Streamlining the physical product doesn't make much sense for a desktop form factor, and cutting cost makes no sense for Apple because the whole point of owning an Apple is so you can look down on the unwashed hordes who didn't spend $1,700 on a $1,000 computer.
That and the Apple OS. That's a big deal there. Because... Final Cut Pro. Admittedly it's a nice video editing suite, if you're an internet video reviewer that's gold right there. How else do you get the buffalo to poo through a window on cue?
No really it's a nice OS, and dang cheap without the ridiculous "tiers" of Windows (and DRM free, considering Apple makes most of it's money by designing it to only work on their expensive underpowered machines). Fortunately I can hackintosh it into my PC these days, though it's a complicated process. Why don't I? Eh, as nice as it is, I get everything I need out of Windows 7 at the moment, which is also a very nice OS. Just have yet to get to any tipping point that'd make me want to do it. It's the same reason that now that I have Libre Office, I see no motivation to pay hundreds for Microsoft Office, for what, a ribbon interface? I can set up spread sheets and type documents. What else do I need an office program for? "Presentations?" What a joke.
Of course Apple is currently doing extremely well in the "phone sized" market, soon to be supplanted when Apple powers up a Nano with 4G and sticks a wrist strap on it, totally destroying pocket phones forever. Pierce Brosnan will wear one while taking down a diabolical house of lords member planning on putting a 2 pound tax increase on... blood pudding or something (seriously modern James Bond villains suck).
That was, more or less, my motivation for installing Ubuntu on my desktop after a hard drive failure made me lose Vista. I didn't have the original documentation so I had no idea how to obtain a replacement copy, and I really didn't feel like spending money to upgrade it to Windows 7, so I tried Ubuntu, it being free and all.
And, you know, I actually rather love it. Getting Windows programs to run can sometimes be a pain in the ass, but I discovered that most of the programs I used in Windows have native debian alternatives, most of which work every bit as well and some which even work a little better. I'm not really sure I can justify paying for an OS anymore after discovering that some Linux distributions, if not quite so user-friendly as Windows or OSX, are still plenty easy enough for me.
I have a massive collection of PC games, so I basically need Windows. I have a friend with a MSDN account who had an extra Windows 7 Pro license. Sweet. Anyway, after getting it set up, it's working fine and I have a burned DVD in case I ever need to reinstall it. Better yet, it's a complete license, not just an upgrade. Actually, thanks to connections, I've never had to pay for or steal a single copy of Windows dating all the way back to 3.1. Prices on them are ridiculous compared to Mac though.