Re:The floppy disk orphaned by Linux
by tracker1 on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:43PM
(#20538611)
They didn't license the technology under reasonable terms, for the most part is what killed them. Even up against CD/DVD, most would rather have a zip100 or zip250 disc that was more reusable. IIRC, there was some licensing for disc mfg, but there were price/licensing restrictions in place.
If they'd licensed disks at say $1, and the drives at $10, and let other companies build compatible products, it would have lived a lot longer and they may have even influenced the transition to USB thumb drives.
I worked in 2nd level phone support at one time, but had no insight into anything the company did. Aside: the Jazz drive was effectively a detachable internal drive, where the disks came out. A damaged drive could damage the disks, and damaged disks could damage the drive. When an RMA happened, I'd usually do both.
In the end they had some really good engineering, and a lot of missed opportunities.
If they'd licensed disks at say $1, and the drives at $10, and let other companies build compatible products, it would have lived a lot longer and they may have even influenced the transition to USB thumb drives.
I worked in 2nd level phone support at one time, but had no insight into anything the company did. Aside: the Jazz drive was effectively a detachable internal drive, where the disks came out. A damaged drive could damage the disks, and damaged disks could damage the drive. When an RMA happened, I'd usually do both.
In the end they had some really good engineering, and a lot of missed opportunities.