Will Windows 7 be offered on USB drives?

TechOutsider said:

Took me hours to figure out how to install XP to a netbook using a flash drive. Maybe I'm just slow?

Anyways, that is going to take a big flash drive. Maybe 4 GB?

XP installation via USB is a PITA. Vista and 7 are dead easy. It's a controller driver issue. But 4gb isn't that big anymore. It would only cost a few bucks.

jw12345 said:

XP installation via USB is a PITA. Vista and 7 are dead easy. It's a controller driver issue. But 4gb isn't that big anymore. It would only cost a few bucks.

installing win xp using pendrive

its long but simple process!!!

Install win xp via USB

It may just be me, but I don't really see installing stuff from flashdrives any more exciting than installing from a cd-dvd. Even if its in ISO form, I just mount the ISO in powerIso and install from there.

grouchpunk08 said:

It may just be me, but I don't really see installing stuff from flashdrives any more exciting than installing from a cd-dvd. Even if its in ISO form, I just mount the ISO in powerIso and install from there.

It's not meant to be exciting. It's meant for those who don't have DVD drives.

jw12345 said:

It's not meant to be exciting. It's meant for those who don't have DVD drives.

Ripping an ISO is much less work than making a bootable flashdrive and then setting it up for being able to install an operating system. Which is why I think for netbook users, MS will tell them to download the 7 ISO and mount it. Thats why I think they are letting people buy it and then download it from their servers.

DrWho said:

After looking at the various offerings available at the local stores, and comparing features vs. price, I settled on the Acer Aspire ONE, Netbook.
The Cobalt Blue one. It matches my car.
...
Back to my Acer Aspire ONE, Netbook, it does everything that my main PC (desktop tower) does, but in a smaller package.
I even watch streaming videos of sports events, movies, etc. with no problem at all. In 29 years, this is the first PC that I've ever allowed into my bedroom.

Cheers Mates,
The Doctor

We are going down the same road with netbooks as we did with computers. People insist on more power from netbooks; from a Celeron M (90nm, 630 MHz) in the original netbook to Atoms (45nm, 1.66GHz, HT) in current netbooks. I have no issues with my Celeron M (@ 630 MHz from eeectl); it runs everything fine. 20 or so tabs open in Firefox with memory usage over 600 MB - no crashes, freezes, slow-downs, etc. Netbooks are limited by the screen size. Why so much processing power paired with such a screen? Don't get me wrong, the 8.9 inch LED backlight screen is beautiful, however I think ultimately the extra CPU cycles will be wasted. My desktop actually experiences more crashes, freeze-ups, and hard reboots.

BTW, my EEE 900 (burgundy) matches my car!

jw12345 said:

XP installation via USB is a PITA. Vista and 7 are dead easy. It's a controller driver issue. But 4gb isn't that big anymore. It would only cost a few bucks.

A quick check reveals 4 gb drives cost ~$10. MS can easily buy them for less (wholesale).

grouchpunk08 said:

Ripping an ISO is much less work than making a bootable flashdrive and then setting it up for being able to install an operating system. Which is why I think for netbook users, MS will tell them to download the 7 ISO and mount it. Thats why I think they are letting people buy it and then download it from their servers.

I don't see how that argues against flash drives.

Option 1: Consumer sees Win7 read-only flash drive in store. Plugs it in.

Option 2: Consumer, who better hope he or she has a high speed internet connection, has to actively seek out the download url, waits hours to download windows then has to figure out how to mount an iso using third party tools, and then launch the setup file from the mounted image.

Yeah, I'm sure Grandma has a copy of Daemon Tools around.

jw12345 said:

I don't see how that argues against flash drives.

Option 1: Consumer sees Win7 read-only flash drive in store. Plugs it in.

Option 2: Consumer, who better hope he or she has a high speed internet connection, has to actively seek out the download url, waits hours to download windows then has to figure out how to mount an iso using third party tools, and then launch the setup file from the mounted image.

Yeah, I'm sure Grandma has a copy of Daemon Tools around.

No, the argument against flash drives is it would cost way too much to mass produce win7 flashdrive media. Flashing data to flashdrives is way more expensive than burning a DVD. Even if MS could get the actual flashdrives at cheap wholesale prices, its still way more expensive to flash the media rather than spending about 3 pennies burning a DVD. There are ample sites around the internet that talk about how flashing data to flashdrives is way more expensive.

EDIT- and by the way, I wasn't making an argument against it. I was giving my point of view on the subject. and try to hold back on comments like ("yeah grandma has daemon tools"), some people could find it kinda rude

I get it, flash is more expensive. Charge $3 extra for the flash version. Otherwise MS loses money by locking out customers.

jw12345 said:

I get it, flash is more expensive.

But for those without media drives and aren't techies, upgrading is difficult. I'm sure Microsoft will gladly sell the flash version for $5 extra, or even at no extra charge, because otherwise MS would be losing the entire price of their software.

Also, small packaging could give higher pallet and display density, which offsets the couple bucks.

Yeah. If they do happen to offer on flashdrives, I think it would only be bundled with netbooks, or have to be requested by someone who wanted it. I'm not so sure theyd go as far as producing it on the same scale as their DVD media and stuff like that