The research org where I was interning bought OS/2 1.2 for a project and I loved it. When 2.0 came out I called the local IBM site (this was in Stuttgart Germany) and they told me "we have a new beta program, just bring 20 3.5" floppies and you can copy it, no questions asked". I went there, did the deed and the guy told me. You want the SDK and C compiler as well? Come back with 20 more floppies. You can bet I was back the next day.
In middle school I was taught that 5.25" diskettes were "floppies", and 3.5" diskettes were "hard disks", because of the hard plastic case. It was awesome.
Many teachers tried to convince me that the computer chassis was called the CPU.
It's been so long since I've seen the word "diskette" that upon seeing it, I just had a crazy a-ha moment: could it be that the convention of "disk=magnetic, disc=optical" is based on the fact that they were all originally discs but the c was changed to k for magnetic media in order to facilitate the spelling of diskette (since discette with a c doesn't really work)? Or put another way, disk is just an abbreviated version of diskette which is a small disc, and therefore a tiny optical disc might also be rightfully called a disk?
Re:Windows 96
by floatingatoll on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @12:45AM
(#27980326)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Disc_Record
I prefer your explanation, but I suspect it's also a chain of events from "Edison Disc Record" to "Compact Disc". The link is "Audio", absent from both product names.
Maybe it will just be called an "audio" someday! "Hey, I have an audio of that new band Named!" Hooray, it works in a sentence. Sold.
I think it's much simpler:
Diskettes, floppy disks etc were invented in the USA, where the standard spelling is "disk".
Compact discs were invented by Philips, who probably preferred the British spelling "disc", and Sony, who probably didn't care.
You can find the spelling "hard disc" in RISC OS, a 1990s British operating system: https://www.riscos.info/index.php/Introduction_to_RISC_OS#Us...
in South Africa they were known as stiffies, which has a different meaning in some cultures
I was just about to reply with the same comment, but I see you beat me to it.
Re:Windows 96
by Synaesthesia on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @01:36AM
(#27980551)
Surely not just here, right?
3.5" disks were floppy, but they were placed in a hard shell casing. Still floppy, though, unlike a hard drive platter.
I raise your floppy disk install one OS/2 Warp install: https://twitter.com/jhegarty/status/1162326199445655552/phot...
I still feel that OS/2 Warp feels more valuable in ones hands, just because of the sheer weight of it… (compared to modern OSes that have no weight because I download them…)