# When will computers stop having CD/DVD drives ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2018, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422 "2018-02-08T11:03:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/21 "2018-02-08T17:50:13Z")
It’s already here. Windows 10 no longer comes with DVD media player software. Even if you have DVD hardware on your computer and you run Win10, you need third party software, like VLC. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/22 "2018-02-08T18:30:24Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Nope, Blurays are the last optical storage disk. Everything is going solid state. I doubt it. Ever-higher resolution video is still coming and will take orders of magnitude more data, and distributing tons of data at scale is way _way_ cheaper with mostly-plastic discs you can stamp into shape. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/23 "2018-02-08T19:06:28Z")
For the computers I buy for my users at work, I’ve stopped buying CD/DVD drives, and instead, get the options for card readers (photo cards, micro cards, etc.). Most folks, for work purposes, take photos on a camera, then insert the camera card into the card reader slots (we still use cameras for some major features). Otherwise, photos are downloaded from IPhones. Otherwise, we get maybe, MAYBE one or two CD’s a year with information on them, usually from governmental agencies that don’t allow USB drives or Dropbox. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/24 "2018-02-08T19:15:50Z")
My computer will have an optical drive until I die, so hopefully they’ll be around longer than ten years. Now, I admit that I don’t _use_ it all that often anymore, but it’s still there. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/25 "2018-02-08T19:27:55Z")
I use my computer’s optical drive regularly, for watching DVDs and for ripping CDs. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/26 "2018-02-08T19:29:35Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > I have a not-huge-but-still-sizable CD collection that I’ve planned on ripping to FLAC for months. Minor hijack. There are services that will rip your collection for you at reasonable rates. A friend of mine just had his collection done by [MusicShifter](http://musicshifter.com/) They send you a box with all the packing materials you need to ship them your collection and then they ship everything back with the ripped media when they’re done. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/27 "2018-02-08T21:25:29Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I doubt it. > Ever-higher resolution video is still coming and will take orders of magnitude more data, and distributing tons of data at scale is way _way_ cheaper with mostly-plastic discs you can stamp into shape. I see no reason for that. As soon as you get to “Retina” resolutions, i.e. higher than the eye can distinguish at normal viewing distances, there’s no real reason for increased resolution. I think we might make it to “8k”, but that’s about where I think it will stop. And, that’s at most 4x more data than before, less than half an order of magnitude. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/28 "2018-02-08T21:34:46Z")
Neither of the last two laptops we bought had internal drives. Not including them makes the machine lighter and thinner. We have a very inexpensive USB drive which is fine for ripping my CDs to my computer or for the few software packages that come on CD, or for legacy software. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/29 "2018-02-08T22:16:20Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > For a first approximation: > > Windows 95 was the first Microsoft OS primarily installed from CD. In Windows 10 (2014) they dropped native support for USB floppy drives. > > Windows Vista (2006) was the first version to be primarily installed from network resources. Extrapolating this we get 2025 as the year where it could become difficult to read a CD with computers commonly running at your home. > > However, there still seems to be demand for read-only external storage media, and no suitable successor to CD/DVD is on the horizon. Maybe with industrial-size databases storable on a pound of plastic, we’ve already reached optimal cost/benefit-ratio for digital archives. Don’t forget that since windows 8 Microsoft dropped native support for DVD movies. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/30 "2018-02-08T22:18:50Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I see no reason for that. As soon as you get to “Retina” resolutions, i.e. higher than the eye can distinguish at normal viewing distances, there’s no real reason for increased resolution. I think we might make it to “8k”, but that’s about where I think it will stop. And, that’s at most 4x more data than before, less than half an order of magnitude. 8k will definitely 100% happen. And it might be the high water mark for the resolution of a rectangular screen in a room that everyone looks at. But that’s not the end-game of video. The end game of video is a thing you put on your head that drops you into a scene that you can’t distinguish (by sight) from reality. According to [this page](https://curiosity.com/topics/your-eye-is-576-megapixels-but-youre-asking-the-wrong-question-curiosity/), the human eye can distinguish over 500 megapixels. “Retina” resolution VR video “on a rail” (that is, without being able to move your head around to see different angles) is going to require two streams (one for each eye) and more frames per second than current video formats as well. There are still a few orders of magnitude on their way. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/31 "2018-02-08T22:24:38Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Maybe, 20 years in the future, when no computers offer internal optical drives, there will be a revival, just like vinyl LPs. There will be disk-nuts who claim that all data is better if it comes from a CD or DVD! Except there is no difference between different ways of storing digital media. The reason that records are different is that it is recorded analog and thus doesn’t have the missing data inherent in digital recordings. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2018, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/32 "2018-02-08T22:48:02Z")
I voted that the end is nigh. I remember when the computer labs at my grad school discontinued 3.5 floppies (around 2003). There was shock, horror…and then a lot of files emailed to oneself. Within a few months, thumb drives were ubiquitous and life went on. Frankly, I’m surprised that CD/DVD drives are still standard. I use them from time to time, but I’ve never been cutting-edge in my tech. I imagine they’ll just be gone one day. There will be a great gnashing of teeth from some quarters, and then folks will adjust rather quickly - if they haven’t already. A few people will drop an extra $30 or so on an external drive “just in case,” then use it maybe three times in two years before consigning it to the storage bin with a penny whistle they picked up on vaction once and a couple of spare microphones. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/33 "2018-02-09T02:45:47Z")
computers still come with CD drives? I haven’t seen any such machine for 10+ years. If you need a drive, an external USB/firewire drive is $40 or so. As far as I know all the OS’s support them natively. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/34 "2018-02-09T03:21:09Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > computers still come with CD drives? > I haven’t seen any such machine for 10+ years. Are you from the future? Optical drives were only just barely starting to be phased out ten years ago (with the 2008 Macbook Air being among the first wave of computers not to come with them standard.) Or are you making some distinction between CD and DVD? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/35 "2018-02-09T05:04:28Z")
I’m thinking 5 years. But then again I still watch VHS and have a couple working 8-track players handy. So I may not be the best judge of these things. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/36 "2018-02-09T05:05:06Z")
If and when I finally get an SSD, I am considering just disconnecting the DVD drive on my computer so I’ll have the SATA port. If I find that not having a DVD drive is a pain, I may buy a SATA expansion card for the one 1x PCIe port I have left. But, if not, I may just leave it. But I know I can get by without it. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/37 "2018-02-09T07:24:00Z")
I got a laptop with no optical drive about five years ago, and never once missed it. But then I replaced it last year, and was fine with not having one, but I couldn’t find any at the same price point (the higher end of medium, I guess) that DIDN’T have one. > [@suranyi](#): > > Turbotax bought at, e.g., Costco comes on CD. So there must be plenty of people who still have a CD drive on their computer. Yes, but I suspect there’s a correlation between buying software on discs at the store and not having the newest and shiniest computer. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/38 "2018-02-09T17:01:36Z")
But if you’ve got a device strapped to your head, you’re not going to want to have a spinning disk media in that device. The VR headset has to be solid state. And you’re not going to want cables tethering you to some station. So it doesn’t matter how much data you want in the future, you’re going to want solid state media even if it’s more expensive per terabyte than optical media. And it won’t stay more expensive forever. I mean, if we kept on advancing optical media then it wouldn’t. But we aren’t. There isn’t going to be another mass market optical format, even if it would mean you could archive terabytes for a couple of bucks. The market just isn’t there. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/39 "2018-02-09T17:54:42Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Minor hijack. > > There are services that will rip your collection for you at reasonable rates. A friend of mine just had his collection done by [MusicShifter](http://musicshifter.com/) > > They send you a box with all the packing materials you need to ship them your collection and then they ship everything back with the ripped media when they’re done. Well, that was my follow-up question 😉 . Frankly, I’d rather do it myself (free and more secure than sending all my CDs… somewhere) but I’ll sure consider it if push comes to shove, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422/40 "2018-02-09T18:39:04Z")
It may be hard for y’all tech-savvy dudes (get off my lawn) to understand, but a significant part of the world is still operating in the last century and for some, won’t change until they die or worse. Example. If you want to see the government videos I produce regularly – and many do – you can see it on YouTube. But many interested parties can’t go online, since they don’t have a computer. (Even if they do, can you imagine how many calls I get asking how to watch U-Toob?) So they can go to the library and use one of the computers there. Too complicated. How do you turn a computer on?[sup]\*[/sup] So they can watch it on cable TV. 60% of the local geographic area doesn’t have cable TV. So they can check out a DVD from the library, if they have a DVD player and their grandson or granddaughter hooked it up for them last Christmas or Thanksgiving. Yes, disks are a thriving, state-of-the-art technology in some parts of the country. Whenever I record a government meeting, I make 3 disk copies – one for each of the library branches. Disks are not going away anytime soon. * * * - say, “I love U, Computer!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-computers-stop-having-cd-dvd-drives/808422.md?page=3)