Until Tiger, I appreciated (but loathed the method for) being able to burn CDs and DVDs right in the operating system. The entire process of having to copy every file before burning the disc encouraged me to keep my license of Toast Titanium up to speed.

Even though it was a separate app that costs $$ to keep current, Toast saved me valuable time when preparing CDs and DVDs to deliver to my clients. I’d tell it what files to burn, and it burned them — no fooling around for 10 minutes before laying down the tracks.

But Tiger seems to be changing that, at least for me. I’ve started using the Burn Folder instead of launching Toast. I simply keep one on my Desktop and drag files to it as I work. The Burn Folder creates aliases of the files (so I can keep them where ever I want), and when I click the Burn button (in the upper right hand corner of the window), it goes right to work.

The discs play back equally well on Mac and Windows machines. In fact, I haven’t had any problems with the entire process, and it fits nicely into my workflow.

So the question is, do we still need Toast?