apple was in the midst of transitioning to the kLine of consumer and pro hardware / software. During this time neither the iMac nor the powermacs came with floppy drives. More than likely Steve decided that since floppies were obsolete already. That being the case floppy support was more than likely never setup in the forts place. There is no reason for their new ultra modern operating system to support such obviously ancient technology. We all know hoe how his Steveness hates old tech.

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There's a huge downside to that, though, as you risk alienating your old customers who may have a lot invested in things like software on floppies, serial modems, parallel printers, ADB mouse and keyboard, etc then suddenly Apple decides one day to stop including floppy drives in their products then ditches serial, parallel and ADB for USB and Firewire and the old Mac monitor port for video cards with ADC and VGA so now you have to shell out money for new everything else to go along with your shiny new Mac. With a single stroke Apple manages to obsolete not just your old Mac, but every other piece of computer related paraphernalia you own. I'd be very upset with Apple and probably buy a PC instead. Think about it, you've been holding on to your old 9600 or G3 minitower for a while but now it's time to buy a new Mac. you bring home your shiny new MDD G4 Powermac and nothing from your old setup works with it! Not your monitor, not your printer, nothing! I'd be jumping mad.