Submission + - The people who won't give up floppy disks (bbc.com)
quonset writes: The last floppy disk was manufactured in 2011. Despite no new supplies being available for over a decade, there are still people, and organizations, who rely on floppy disks. Each has their own story as to why they rely on what is essentially 1970s technology.
When an idea for a new piece of music begins swirling in Espen Kraft's mind, he turns to one of his many boxes of floppy disks. Flipping open the lid, the musician and YouTuber from Norway stares down at rows of colourful plastic squares inside. His fingers browse across them, as fast as lightning.
"Bass sound from Moog" reads one label. Just what Kraft was looking for. He plucks the disk out and slams it into his synthesizer. As the machine embraces it, there are clunky yet reassuring noises. This part, Kraft says, is where the magic happens.
The sample is almost ready to play but not quite – it's the anticipation as it loads that sparks a certain nostalgia, what Kraft calls, "a nice, warm, cosy place". The idea is flowing now. He presses a key. His ears fill with sound.
. . .
But it is well-known that some Boeing 747s, for example, use floppy disks to load critical software updates into their navigation and avionics computers. While these older aircraft might not be so common in Europe or the US these days, you might find one in the developing world, for instance, Persky hints. There are also pieces of factory equipment, government systems – or even animatronic figures – that still rely on floppy disks.
And in San Francisco, the Muni Metro light railway, which launched in 1980, won't start up each morning unless the staff in charge pick up a floppy disk and slip it into the computer that controls the railway's Automatic Train Control System, or ATCS. "The computer has to be told what it's supposed to do every day," explains a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA). "Without a hard drive, there is nowhere to install software on a permanent basis."
This computer has to be restarted in such a way repeatedly, he adds – it can't simply be left on, for fear of its memory degrading.
In some sectors, the legacy use of floppy disks is being phased out. In 2022, a Japanese politician "declared war" on the ongoing use of older media. Subsequently, earlier this year, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that the government would no longer require businesses to submit official forms and applications on floppy disk. The US military was still using 8in (20cm) floppy disks for its nuclear weapons control system as recently as 2019. That summer, however, the military switched to a "highly secure solid state digital storage solution" instead.
There are other reasons why some organisations have been reluctant to move away from using floppy disks. While there can be security risks when it comes to relying on old computer systems in the 21st Century, because antiquated and unpatched systems are in principle easier to hack, the physical nature of floppy disks also offers some protection. "If floppy was the only interface, the only way to get malware on to [the computer] would be via said floppy disk," says Ken Munro, a cyber-security expert at Pen Test Partners. "That's quite a limiting factor for the attacker," he says.
When an idea for a new piece of music begins swirling in Espen Kraft's mind, he turns to one of his many boxes of floppy disks. Flipping open the lid, the musician and YouTuber from Norway stares down at rows of colourful plastic squares inside. His fingers browse across them, as fast as lightning.
"Bass sound from Moog" reads one label. Just what Kraft was looking for. He plucks the disk out and slams it into his synthesizer. As the machine embraces it, there are clunky yet reassuring noises. This part, Kraft says, is where the magic happens.
The sample is almost ready to play but not quite – it's the anticipation as it loads that sparks a certain nostalgia, what Kraft calls, "a nice, warm, cosy place". The idea is flowing now. He presses a key. His ears fill with sound.
. . .
But it is well-known that some Boeing 747s, for example, use floppy disks to load critical software updates into their navigation and avionics computers. While these older aircraft might not be so common in Europe or the US these days, you might find one in the developing world, for instance, Persky hints. There are also pieces of factory equipment, government systems – or even animatronic figures – that still rely on floppy disks.
And in San Francisco, the Muni Metro light railway, which launched in 1980, won't start up each morning unless the staff in charge pick up a floppy disk and slip it into the computer that controls the railway's Automatic Train Control System, or ATCS. "The computer has to be told what it's supposed to do every day," explains a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA). "Without a hard drive, there is nowhere to install software on a permanent basis."
This computer has to be restarted in such a way repeatedly, he adds – it can't simply be left on, for fear of its memory degrading.
In some sectors, the legacy use of floppy disks is being phased out. In 2022, a Japanese politician "declared war" on the ongoing use of older media. Subsequently, earlier this year, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that the government would no longer require businesses to submit official forms and applications on floppy disk. The US military was still using 8in (20cm) floppy disks for its nuclear weapons control system as recently as 2019. That summer, however, the military switched to a "highly secure solid state digital storage solution" instead.
There are other reasons why some organisations have been reluctant to move away from using floppy disks. While there can be security risks when it comes to relying on old computer systems in the 21st Century, because antiquated and unpatched systems are in principle easier to hack, the physical nature of floppy disks also offers some protection. "If floppy was the only interface, the only way to get malware on to [the computer] would be via said floppy disk," says Ken Munro, a cyber-security expert at Pen Test Partners. "That's quite a limiting factor for the attacker," he says.
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