'Last man standing' for floppy disks reckons it's four years 'till bust

pcgamer.com:

Way back in ancient times, i.e. the '70s and '80s, the floppy disk was a major player in the world of digital storage. And you might be surprised to learn just how prominent the format still is in this age of lightning fast NVMe SSDs(opens in new tab). While there are no longer manufacturers churning out floppys, there's still one hero preaching the superiority of the format. 

The founder of Floppydisk.com(opens in new tab) and self proclaimed «last man standing in the floppy disk business,» Tom Persky, has been keeping the generally defunct format alive. Featured in the recently released book, Floppy Disk Fever: The Curious Afterlives of a Flexible Medium(opens in new tab) alongside artists and other obsolete media likers, Persky celebrates the format he's made a living off for over two decades (via The Register(opens in new tab)).

«20 years ago I was actually in the floppy disk duplication business,» he remembers. «Not in a million years did I think I would ever sell blank floppy disks.» That's because duplicating floppys in the 1990s, he says, was «as good as printing money.» His journey into selling blank disks happened organically over time, and when the last floppy disk fell from the production line, Persky was there to catch it, investing in just «a couple of million disks,» to keep his passion going.

«When people ask me 'why are you into floppy disks today?' the answer is simple: 'because I forgot to get out of the business,'» he jokes.

In his musings over the magical magnetic disk format he holds so dear, Persky reveals (much to my astonishment) that the floppy disk is still going strong today. Not only do countless computing devices in the world's healthcare system still utilise them, but users of embroidery