Do you miss DVD drive on MacBook Air?

[jorge66]

Do you miss DVD drive? That is my question. I personally think that CD and DVD format is pretty much dead. CD's and DVD's are static media- you have to insert them in a drive in order to access them. They take tons of space, have little capacity compared to space they take. Compare space more than 100 double layer DVD's takes to one single 1 TB hard drive. In cars we begin to use mp3 player instead CD's too.

I still like CD and DVD quality however. I think low quality iTunes music or any other mp3's are inferior to CD quality. I can live with lower quality video if I see that on small screen however. But on bigger screen video quality really matter.

 

[Heavenkittykat]

In response to your question title, No i don't miss my dvd/cd drive at all. I barely use it on my last computer. I used it mainly to burn pictures on a disk. But USB drive can do the same job and takes up less space. In addition, I don't really use my computer to watch dvd. I have a 32 inch widescreen HDTV to perform that job. Also, I have an Iphone and an Ipod so I don't really use CD's to play my music anymore.

 

[Mhaddy]

Definitely don't miss it. For the very few times that I actually use it on my desktop/other laptops, the thinness, sexiness, and everything else that goes along with lack of a drive more than make up for its absence. Either Wifi, Ethernet, or USB are very suitable alternatives.

 

[krye]

I don't watch DVDs on the computer. I do however do religious backups to DVD. I use that in conjunction with Time Machine. Time Machine is great and easy, but hard drives die, and that always makes me nervous. DVDs don't die. So I make it a habit to burn all my music, photos and documents to DVD at least once a month. I have at least 30 Gigs worth of family pictures and another 30+ gigs of music. To tell you the truth, I'd rather back up my .mp3s to a few DVDs than have to re-rip over 700 CDs!

I also do a lot of home movies of my 3 kids. I use iMovie and iDVD to make nice DVDs to give to my relatives.

They are soooo cheap! If I have to cart data back and forth from one place to the other, DVDs are awesome for that. How much does a 4G thumb drive cost? $30 bucks? A 4+ Gig DVD is like 50 cents. So I sometimes treat them like disposable thumb drives.

I have a Mac Pro, and I couldn't like without a DVD burner. The one in my MacBook however is never used. I have no, if not little use for a burner on a laptop. Other than the occasional software install, it's never used.

So, when I can finally afford the luxury of an Air, I won't be missing the DVD drive.

 

[desenso]

Nope. I bought the superdrive but have yet to even plug it in.

The only thing I really miss so far is the ethernet port. There have been three separate times when not having it has burnt me, mostly because of issues with wireless internet.

 

[joegomolski]

I don't miss it. I have a SuperDrive when I install or copy large files.

If I want to travel and watch a movie, I have enough space on my SSD to take 2 movies with me.

I think the trade off of smaller, lighter is beyond obvious.

 

[MRU]

Nope. I bought the superdrive but have yet to even plug it in.

The only thing I really miss so far is the ethernet port. There have been three separate times when not having it has burnt me, mostly because of issues with wireless internet.

Almost identical opinion on both fronts here.

 

[jlbrown23]

Nope. I bought the superdrive but have yet to even plug it in.

The only thing I really miss so far is the ethernet port. There have been three separate times when not having it has burnt me, mostly because of issues with wireless internet.

I don't miss the DVD drive at all on my Air. I almost never use the drive on my old MacBook, and have had a work computer(IBM X40) without a drive for several years. I find that there are very few times when I need a drive at all, and for those times using remote disk would probably do the trick(are slower speeds really a big deal if you use someting once or twice a year?).

As far as the ethernet, I had no intention of buying the USB adapter. But I was in Best Buy the other day, and saw one as an "open item" for $12.99, so I couldn't resist even though I'll probably never use it.

 

[ceehjayem]

Honestly...I don't really use the DVD drive too much. It's on pretty rare occasions that I do use it. And if that's the case I could just use the drive on my desktop to install something on my computer. I take my laptop on the run a lot so the weight and size of the laptop is ideal in a situation such as mine.

 

[alpinadvl]

+1

Don't miss it at all - have it sitting in my car ready to go back to Apple - will get an airport express instead.

I really think that if one "needs" a superdrive - get a macbook or macbook pro. I do understand that some feel more secure having a backup device just in case - it is a shame this superdrive doesnt have a usb port on it or the ability to plug into another computer - because then, it would have some "Added value" - but as a standalone DVD drive - kind of silly.

 

[mcvaughan]

Not one bit. I used it once to rip a CD in iTunes, but aside from that, I never use mine. It is good to have though, just in case. $99 is cheap insurance.

 

[bananas]

It took 3 hours before I needed a DVD drive for the first time
I was installing MacPorts on my MBA when I realized there was no Xcode installed. (I know there are other ways to install Xcode, but DVD would have been the fastest way to do it)

I think I'm also going to try and install Ubuntu in bootcamp so I'm gonna need DVD drive for that too. (It's probably possible to install Ubuntu without a DVD drive, but I'm taking the easier route here and btw I have a USB DVD drive at work that I can use)

Mostly I think I'm gonna survive without a DVD drive.

 

[w00tini]

I dont miss a DVD drive one bit. i have the super drive and have used it on occasion to burn ROM's for clients of mine, but otherwise it sits in my messenger bag growing old.

 

[spacecadet610]

not at all

 

[kyleen66]

Nope. I bought the superdrive but have yet to even plug it in.

The only thing I really miss so far is the ethernet port. There have been three separate times when not having it has burnt me, mostly because of issues with wireless internet.

I purchased the USB/Ethernet dongle thing and it worked beautifully when I needed to plug in.

I'd recommend that to anyone that travels a lot. You never know for certain you'll have a wireless or wired connection.

 

[theinjuryexpert]

Nope

Don't miss it at all. My old MacBook had it's drive die on me a couple months before replacement and I realized that I very seldom used it anyway. The only place I miss it is when I make an impulse to burn a mix CD for the road or a friend. That process is a bit less impulse-friendly.

 

[happyslayer]

I have not had a built-in DVD drive on any of my Ultra-Portables (3 Sony's & 2 Dells) and i never missed them. I always used external/USB drives for the few times I needed to do a software install or burn something.

As I write this, I am using my Superdrive for only the 3rd time ever to burn a backup copy of my VMware XP image.

Prior to that, I used it to install MS Office 07 into the XP load, and after that I used it to install MS Office 08 into my OSX.

So, it is nice to have one occasionally, but in no way do I "miss" having it built-in.

As always... just my opinion.

 

[clayj]

I don't miss it at all. I have used my SuperDrive exactly two times:

1. Reinstalling OS X.
2. Installing Office 2008. (OK, three times. Before Office 2008, I installed Office 2004.)

For Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, I tried using the Remote Disc option with my Mac Pro's DVD drive. Worked like a charm. I'm not sorry I bought the SuperDrive, but I can say that I have not once needed it while I was away from my desk.

 

[dthree36]

Don't Miss it, hardly used it when I had it built in.

 

[bob-innox]

Don't miss it for one second. Well done Apple for putting common sense first.

A friend gloated over the fact that my MBA didn't have a replaceable battery either, but two pints later we'd concluded that between us we've owned 20+ laptops/portables and never once bought a replacement battery.

if I could take the DVI socket out and make it another usb though, I would.

 

[Clix Pix]

Nope, don't miss the internal DVD drive at all. I use my external Superdrive when I need to do something with a DVD, otherwise my MBA gets along just fine without that extra internal bit. I DO wish, though, that Apple had given us at least a Firewire port in addition to that lone USB port.....

 

[raremage]

Almost identical opinion on both fronts here.

Same here. I use my Superdrive on rare occasions. It's nice to have when I need it, but generally I don't use it or miss having one built in.

 

[AoWolf]

Week one with my MBA (love it!), and until I read this thread I haven't even thought lack of a dvd drive.

 

[houstonray]

I too rarely used my DVD drive on my Dell Win XP system, and even though I did get the drive with my Air, I've only used it once to install Keynote, Pages and Numbers. It certainly made it easier, but since I haven't used the Remote Disc option yet, I can't speak to which was easier.

The drive IS very pretty too, I'll have to give them credit for making something that could have been clunky and ugly look like it belongs anyway.

As was suggested above, I may use it more to back up my files as a backup to the time capsule.

 

[ayeying]

Everything's going wireless now. I'm just waiting for a wireless power source then i'm good =]. Even my USB drives are connected wirelessly to my router.