Gdetrailer wrote:
More and more Laptops are NOT being offered with optical drives. This is due to several factors..
One is COST, manufacturer cuts off $40 in materials and some time in labor. Helps keep the manufacturer in the black.. Consumer gets a laptop a few bucks cheaper and they feel they got a great deal.
Two is SIZE, everyone wants the smallest and most lightweight PCs so trimming a bit of weight and size helps.
Three, less software is being delivered via physical media, future holds less and less physical delivery and more "cloud" type stuff. This allows the software vendors to track and crack down on piracy issues..
An additional reason is because often the software on physical media is outdated by the time the media gets to the consumer and newer software is available from the mfr's website.
When I purchased a netbook 5 years ago that had no DVD drive, I went right out and bought an external USB drive. For most of the last 5 years it has sat in the cupboard unused.
I personally do not recommend purchasing an external optical drive. If the computers are networked than sharing an optical drive over the network will work or simply copy the install files to a USB thumb drive. The only install disks that aren't readily copied to a thumb drive are OS install disks since they have to be booted from in order to perform an install. Thumb drives can be made bootable but it takes a litte more effort than simply copying the files.
