On Thu, 12 Mar 2015 20:29:21 -0400, Cy Burnot wrote:

Stormin' Norman wrote on 3/12/2015 7:58 PM:

There is so little need for optical discs these days

Really? How about for troubleshooting/repair/etc.?

Like someone else said, a USB thumb drive is way more convenient and
durable.

The laptop that I'm typing on is coming up on 3 years old and I don't think
I have ever used the optical drive. I've pressed the button to pop open the
tray a few times, just out of boredom during a long meeting, but that
shouldn't count as using the drive.

My main desktop system and my file server both don't have internal optical
drives installed. I needed those bays for hard drives. I have an adapter
cable that should allow me to use an internal type of optical drive
externally via USB, but I've never had to use it.

On a related note, each of my vehicles has a CD player, but I can't remember
the last time I've played a CD in either of them. Both vehicles can play
music directly from a USB thumb drive, which again, is way more convenient
and durable.