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Comment by webwielder2 | Hacker News Reader

The floppy disk icon never took off in the Apple ecosystem, so every time I see it in Windows world it seems like a bizarre anachronism. Which it is. Emblematic really of Apple’s ethos of plunging forward and Wintel’s backwards compatibility at all costs approach.

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It's been a long time since I used classic Mac OS seriously, but I don't think Mac apps really even used toolbars for actions like save, undo, paste, etc. Usually toolbars were for selecting tools (e.g. pencil, eraser, etc in paint) or tuning settings (e.g. font and color), with actions stowed away in menus and lacking iconographic representation.

Thinking about it further, this is true of OS X too. Even though it made toolbars more ubiquitous, it was still unusual for "standard" actions to be placed there.

I would think that a longtime Mac user probably associates "save" with the key shortcut ⌘-S more strongly than any kind of icon.

However, floppy disk icons also survive in Linux, android and web apps, at least in those which save is an explicit GUI action, so it's really only Apple thats the outlier here

The floppy disk icon was introduced by the Macintosh in 01984.

And it only ever meant "floppy disk."

you are making an interesting point that is shadowed by the extra comment. the floppy disk image as "save" icon is rare in most native mac apps.

GP's point is quite interesting because there is a generation or two that hasn't seen a real floppy disk beside on those icons. they probably have no clue what it is.

i wonder what other icon images are like that.

the rounded symbols for 'database' icons are based on some ancient storage medium used in early mainframes - magnetic drum memory I think

Stack of hard disk platters (what's inside a disk drive), I've always thought. Bit more modern than drum (where AIUI the storage surface is the outer circumference, like a phonograph roll); bit less abstract than "a barrel of data".

Oracle used to have logos for some products that looked like that (or, come to think of it, like a stack of button-cell batteries):

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvtcholdin...

And I've always wondered if they based their HQ building on those logos, or if it was the other way around:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.stat...

I've always thought of those as more like barrels of data (as opposed to oil).

Not really. Apple taught the world the word "skeuomorphic", making fake paper and leather and metal for their apps.

Also, Apple famously used the OP's bomb icon whenever Mac OS plunged forward into a crash.

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