Cool idea!

Is the terminology correct though?

Looking at the showcased disks, in my youth we called these “stiffy disks” - owing to their stiff plastic casing.

We also had “floppy disks” - but these were larger (in size, albeit with less storage capacity) and floppier (the plastic case would bend easily).

I treasured my burgundy Dysan stiffy disk boxes!

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tfvlrue an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I was under the impression that a floppy disk is referring to the substrate that holds the data, not the cartridge that contains it. So a 3.5" floppy disk would be "floppy" in contrast to a 3.5" hard disk drive that has rigid metal or glass platters.

This nomenclature could be a regional thing though (I'm from the US).

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krupan 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have never heard that term (for disks). Are you possibly from the UK or Australia?

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herodoturtle 9 hours ago | parent [-]

> I have never heard that term

Are you also from the US like the other commenter on this sub-thread?

	▲	mrighele 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Italian here, and I never heard of the term either. Everybody always used the term floppy also for the 3.5 disks I guess that since it was a foreign word the physical connotation of the term was simply lost, and "a floppy" was just the disk that your computer used.

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lobf 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

At least in the US, the "floppy" terminology carried over when the disks went from the actual floppy 5.5" disks to the hard-case 3.5" disks.

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herodoturtle 9 hours ago | parent [-]

thanks, that's an insightful comment.

so defs not a globally consistent usage of the term then?

judging by the article's authorship, i'm guessing denmark and US the same

so perhaps US and EU but not elsewhere?

	▲	lobf 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I only became aware of the use of a different term than "floppy" for the hard 3.5" disks when I opened this thread- you'd have to ask the person I was replying to where they're from.

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bryceacc 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

as a 31 year old, I only just last year learned that what I have thought were floppy disks and everyone calls a floppy disk are indeed a stiffy...

	▲	herodoturtle 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		i feel like you're onto something here... a marketing campaign for middle-aged men perhaps