CallMeAl (like Alan)

Free Software Enthusiast

  • 4 Posts
  • 139 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
cake
Cake day: December 14th, 2025

help-circle





  • It’s always funny to me to read a history of something I lived through written by someone who didn’t. I don’t think anyone who was in the industry at the time would say the Zip drive dominated the 1990s.

    To set the scene, most people in the 90s didn’t own a computer at all and the majority of people who did own a computer never owned a zip drive. While Zip was the most successful of the Superfloppies, it was never ubiquitous. By the sales numbers, 10-15% of computer owners bought zip drives. Compare to a floppy or CDROM which is close to 100%.

    The reason it vanished quickly was simple: Zip was never that good and CDRW was much better. As soon as the prices dropped for CDRW, Zip was a goner.