An optical drive is not necessarily a burner. A burner is capable of writing as well as reading. However, this is borderline irrelevant. Users still know what a CD-ROM drive is. They know what a thumb drive is. Knowing one term (usb stick) doesn't mean they don't know the other (thumb drive). People didn't forget the term "automobile" just because "car" became more popular.
As for laptops, the loss of the optical drive on thin ones is very recent, dating basically to the MacBook Air. iPads are utterly irrelevant. Have people also forgotten what keyboards and mice are since iPads started selling?
You might be right that people will eventually stop using the term drive as its currently used, but right now it's a term with plenty of recognition. And over a longer period of time, rather than the term disappearing, I see no reason why the definition wouldn't simply adapt to refer to online "drives" if physical drives truly died out.
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An optical drive is not necessarily a burner. A burner is capable of writing as well as reading. However, this is borderline irrelevant. Users still know what a CD-ROM drive is. They know what a thumb drive is. Knowing one term (usb stick) doesn't mean they don't know the other (thumb drive). People didn't forget the term "automobile" just because "car" became more popular.
As for laptops, the loss of the optical drive on thin ones is very recent, dating basically to the MacBook Air. iPads are utterly irrelevant. Have people also forgotten what keyboards and mice are since iPads started selling?
You might be right that people will eventually stop using the term drive as its currently used, but right now it's a term with plenty of recognition. And over a longer period of time, rather than the term disappearing, I see no reason why the definition wouldn't simply adapt to refer to online "drives" if physical drives truly died out.