Re: Not the USB kind
What has word size got to do with it?
Old hardware is predominantly 32-bit and distros are phasing out 32-bit support. This, coupled with drivers for non-USB floppy drives which are now being orphaned means that one day you'll only be able to use an out-of-date distro on older hardware.
VMs won't help with reading a real floppy drive on real hardware.