this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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152
If you had to replace the floppy disk save symbol in software with a new symbol for saving what would you choose and why? (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 16 hours ago by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 12 points 1 hour ago

I reject the question. That's not a picture of a floppy disc, that is the glyph that means save

You literally called it the save symbol. And that's what it is...100 years from now, if we're still around and still have computers, the save icon will still be some stylized glyph based on the floppy disc

The existence of the floppy disc is already just a bit of trivia about the save icon

It's like asking what we should change the Bluetooth symbol to? Why do you yearn for the world to burn?

An icon can be any random glyph, but it has to stay recognizable and consistent in meaning, that's the entire concept here

[–] BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 hour ago

Bill Gates eventual tombstone.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 12 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

[–] vector42@programming.dev -1 points 1 hour ago

This is the correct answer.

[–] JordanZ@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

My vote is just a cylinder. It’s been used for the hard drive activity light for decades already so shouldn’t be too much of a leap. Doesn’t look like any piece of technology.

[–] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 1 points 23 minutes ago

Doesn’t look like any piece of technology.

It actually does, just not modern technology. It's a simplified drum memory unit, the predecessor to the hard disk drive.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That's already the symbol of a data store, so if you hit it I'd expect it to bring up the connection configuration

[–] TeddE@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

What if we coupled the cylinder symbol with a 'going to' arrow ⤵️ above it?

[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

What’s a hard drive? Is that like iCloud or something?

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 2 points 35 minutes ago

It's an ancient device that replicates the cloud on your computer

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

An arrow pointing up at a line. Preferably with each being a different colour.

The arrow indicates movement. The line is abstract. But with the colour coding it carries the idea of 'putting the thing into the other thing'.

The rest is learned pattern recognition. A download is a down arrow in a circle because you are taking the thing from the other thing. So saving is an arrow to a line because you are putting the thing in the other thing.

[–] planish@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 minutes ago

LibreOffice on Ubuntu has a down-arrow "save" icon, and every time I look at it I think "that's a download icon". Up arrow versions of that are upload icons. Neither really conveys "save".

[–] callyral@pawb.social 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Probably an arrow pointing down inside of a circle, like the download icon. Most of the software I use just has text saying "Save file" and no icon, and I usually press control + S anyways so I don't have much of an opinion regarding this

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

I think the download icons will become synonymous with saving. It's functionally the same, move thingy to a location on your computer.

[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

If the floppy disk was no longer the save symbol for software, and I had to chose one, I'd chose the floppy disk symbol.

But you worded your question wisely to avoid that loophole, so I'm not sure what to use instead for an otherwise unique and ubiquitous symbol, already known as "the save file icon" for two generations that have not seen it.

While we're at it, let's also replace the phone icons with a rectangle, as to not confuse anyone.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 1 points 52 minutes ago

Just change one pixel and call it new.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 16 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

A cassette tape.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 points 4 hours ago

Hahahaha, dammit you win

[–] HelloHotel@lemmy.world 13 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Probably an arrow pointing to a hard drive.

[–] invertedspear@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

Why a hard drive? Storage is moving to solid state. That icon would also be obsolete in a few years.

[–] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 22 points 8 hours ago

Let's be real, when some shitty company (MS) gets around to it, it will be: ☁️⬆️

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 24 points 9 hours ago

A CD image. Got to move with the times.

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