Apple Thoughts: Is The Optical Drive Dead For You Too?

"I don't like it. Not one iota. But frankly, it doesn't much matter -- Apple's officially done with the optical drive, and there's no evidence more strikingly clear than the mid 2011 refresh of its Mac mini."

I've been pondering this since Jason sent me the link to this piece, and about how I feel about no more optical drives from Apple. To be honest, it doesn't bother me a bit. For example, I've slowly moved away from physical media for a few years now, selling off all my DVDs to go minimalist with what I have sitting around at my house. The clutter gets to me frankly. And I found that I usually only watched a movie once after buying it, even if I thought it was fantastic, so the thought of keeping a physical copy around just didn't make sense. I'll get it from the cloud if I need to watch it, either via Netflix or Hulu, or even rent it again from iTunes. The cost of rental, for me anyway, is less bothersome than having something sitting around gathering dust. Even with the potential for Internet down time, I haven't had that happen enough to be a factor in my decision. What are your thoughts on physical media and the demise of the optical drive? Does it give you cold sweats or make you say "meh" when you think about it?