• Shikadi@wirebase.org
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    1 year ago

    I’m just telling you where the word comes from. It’s like floppy disks, the 3.5mm ones weren’t floppy but that’s still what we called them because they once were. Firmware used to be something you couldn’t easily change. It sits between the hardware and the software. What exactly would you call it if you think the term is bad?

      • 9point6@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Honestly, I think you’re wrong here, they were colloquially called floppy disks because at the time the whole thing was floppy. If the first floppy disks came in hard casings, they would never have been called floppy disks

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Take apart a 3.25" floppy disk, you’ll find the magnetic platter (disc shaped thing) is floppy.

          Take apart a hard disk drive, you’ll find the magnetic platter(s) inside are metal.

          If a floppy disk wasn’t named after the thing inside the casing, why wasn’t it called a floppy square or floppy rectangle?

          • Shikadi@wirebase.org
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            1 year ago

            It actually was originally a floppy diskette, but eventually shortened to disk because people are lazy

      • Shikadi@wirebase.org
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        1 year ago

        Nope it came from the housing, it was originally called a diskette. The disk itself isn’t really floppy tbh, more bendy. But the old diskettes were floppy af

    • tabular@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Device functionality software, which is low-level? Probably won’t win any minds.

      Besides, if we (and others reading) know what concepts each other is referring to then it really doesn’t matter what word we use.

      • Shikadi@wirebase.org
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        1 year ago

        Firmware is easier to say, at a company I worked at we also called FPGAs gateware which was both interesting and convenient