According to AppleInsider, Apple may be planning on nixing an optical drive in its next round of updates for the iMac and Mac Pro lines. Apple has clearly been heading towards this road, since it's already eliminated the optical drive from the MacBook Air Mac mini, and MacBook Pro with Retina display, and no longer doles out hard copies of its operating system.
Internal configuration files in Mountain Lion reveal that unreleased models of the iMac and Mac Pro will only have USB booting options available, which could mean that future generations will not include an optical drive. Boot Camp Assistant also includes a configuration file that allows users to create a partition by simply inserting a Flash drive.
The iMac and Mac Pro lines would be the last in the Mac family to finally begin the process of shifting away from optical drives. This slow evolution points towards a less complex future in internal computer design, following in the footsteps of Apple's simpler, easy-to-use mobile products.
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MaclifeUK
August 10, 2012 at 5:04pm
Going backwards, reminds me when I had to use an external DVD recorder with my old G3 iMac.
I backup to DVD & CD most days, mega backup every month or so.
Backups to my backup Time Machine.
DVD's I keep in a safe, and also off site !
