For a long while (a long while in technology time) the floppy disk had no mortal enemies. Yeah sure it morphed from something the size of a record, to the 5 1/4 inch, to the diskette. But it seemed to keep trudging along despite other forms of file saving such as the tapes, zip disks, and CD-R.

I am not saying the disk dominated file saving. As times changed the diskette lost some power in its bid for global computing domination. With the advent of CDs and then CD-Rs gone were the days of installing a program using 6-10 diskettes. Tapes while used on with servers, never seemed to catch on with general population as a backup method. Zip disks at first seemed to be a the replacement to diskette. It stored way more information than a traditional diskette and it was somewhat more sturdy than a diskette and it was easily portable. However, none of these things really caught on as an easy, portable, inexpensive, storage device. A CD-R wasn't as small and portable. Plus you had to rely on using a computer that had a CD writer, which depending on your organization's capital equipment budget and policy could be problematic. Zip disk were smaller than CD-Rs but they too required your pc to have a zip drive.
"So what," you say, "My organization buys all the latest computers and replaces them every two years. We have all of these latest features on our machines." After I ask you what organization you work for, I am going to ask you if you have a lap top. "Of course, I have to do presentations when I am on the road." Since you have a lap top, how do you like lugging around all those various drives for your lap top. Your CD drive, zip drive, oh and that little ol' floppy drive, can make for a bulky lap top bag.

Along came the USB flash drive. Call it a pen drive, memory stick, thumb drives, jump drives, keychain drives, etc. These little guys are small, portable, and can come in various data storage sizes, 16 Mbyte to more than 4 Gbytes. A true advesary to the diskette. It is about 3 inches long and an inch wide and thick. Truely a portable storage devices, with enough memory to blow away the puny diskette.

The USB flash drive can be used with almost any older computer that has a USB port. Almost all new computers come with USB ports right in the front of the computer. No more crawling on the floor, pulling out the computer, and groping around for the USB port in the back of the box. One would think these little guys are pricey. Nooooo. You can get one with 128M for about $30 bucks. Heck I filled out a survey last year and was thrilled to receive (free upon completion of the survey) a 64M drive. You can pretty much call it a portable hard drive. For more information check out Fred Langa's article,"What's Behind The USB Drive Revolution.

These USB flash drives are not without controversy. There are IT departments around many companies world wide decrying their use due to security reasons. For the most part the security fears seem to be centered around corporate theft, viruses and malicious software. To read more about possible security issues with USB drives check out LabMice.net.

Natural selection will cause the diskette to become extinct like Dodo bird.