Japan Bans Floppy Disks & The Last Floppy Seller Standing!

"Every floppy disk that ever will be made has been made" Wow

I stopped using floppy disks for my PC many years ago. However, there is still one application where I have to use them: Old organs and synthesizers. Back in the late 1980's up to early 2000's this was a common way to store presets, rhythms, and sequencer tracks on those instruments. Some of them even run an obscure formatting that no other device can read.

Windows still reserves the A: and B: drives for floppy disks

This is NOT a "BAN". But simply the requirement is being dropped.

Being a collector of 80's and 90's tech, I still use a ton of floppies and even Zip disks with some music synthesizers. They're the most convenient for small files like MIDI tracks. Every time I find an unopened box of floppies at a thrift store, I get it. Their longevity is pretty good. I was surprised to be able to read documents from 3-4 decades ago, still intact. CD and DVD's go through disk rot and delamination, but floppies seem to be way more resilient. I'm pretty sure my diskettes will outlive me.

I feel like floppy disks have been much more reliable than any other storage medium I've used.

Fun video. Often, it's said if you like retro computers and legacy systems, work in the aviation industry. With aircraft you want tried and true reliable over cutting edge and not fully tested. Unlike a bus, a Jetliner can't just pull over to the side of the road when a fault occurs.

Some CNC machines used floppy disks 💾 If they still make cassette tape, they might still be able to make a few more floppy disks. A diskette is essentially iron on a plastic platter.

For anybody curious enough: The floppy diskette that he is holding in his hand at the begining, is DISK 6 of SIERRA's: "Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist".

We are still using floppy disc on Airbus A330 to load software, these aircraft were built 2012. Other media types were around then. They have stayed with the 3.5 floppy

Its shocking how many million/billion dollar companies still use floppies world wide. its a testament to their endurance and engineering, but still they are indeed bottle necking things. They'll probably still need floppy compatable options just in case

Who knew floppy disks could be so interesting. I could've happily listened to Tom speaking for a lot longer

I really enjoyed the interview. Admittedly I have a soft spot for floppy disks, particularly the 5¼" variety that were the lifeblood of '80s microcomputers. Tom is full of great anecdotes. It's nice to know that the supply of floppies is assured as long as Tom is with us! Thanks Lon!

German navy is looking for people who can implement a replacement for 8 inch floppies that their ships use to store measurements. There‘s also the interface between old embedded systems and the drive to consider.

Fantastic interview! When Tom said "at a reasonable temperature," I went "oh crap," paused this video, then moved my Fellowes container of floppy disks from the 90s to a cooler air conditioned room! I used to format free AOL diskettes and use them for myself.

The home computing scene in the UK back in the 80s mainly ran on cassette tapes rather than floppies. So many games were sold on cassette tape as it was a cheap format to both sell them by the truckload as well as to use. You could easily get them from the corner shop newsagent through specialist computer and video games shops all the way up to supermarkets, mostly at pocket money prices. Floppy disks and drives didn't come down in price enough to start becoming commonplace until around the 90s, as we switched from the likes of Commodores, Spectrums and Amstrads to Atari STs, Amigas & PCs.

I just heard something on the radio this morning about the German navy is now going to start upgrading their ships from an old system that still uses 8” floppy’s. It’s funny how after I heard that on the radio that I happen upon this video

"Is there a lifespan to a floppy disk?" Of course, Lon. Everything based on mortality has a finite lifespan.

Still have a few industrial machines at work in a food factory that use floppy drives to update the software.

I remember how exciting it was, as a kid, simply to buy a new box of floppies.