Farewell to Floppies?

As the is manager for a 32-member IT department, Scott Taylor is responsible for data spread throughout the IT infrastructure at furniture manufacturer Smed International Inc. There is one place Taylor doesn't want data stored - on floppy-disk drives in the Calgary, Alberta, company's 800 desktop and 400 laptop PCs.

"I would prefer not to see them anymore," Taylor said. "We do still have some use for them on the plant floor. [But] when we buy new stuff, it's rewritable [CD drives]."

The world's top computer makers seem to be listening to Taylor and others like him. Officials at Dell Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. said they intend to eliminate the floppy drive from new desktop computers as soon as possible. The $7 it costs to include a floppy drive is better spent on other technologies or could be cut to help reduce manufacturing costs and list prices, they said. But for corporate desktops, the transition hinges on giving administrators and users a better replacement.

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