Microsoft To Offer Windows 7 On USB Thumb Drives?

Barence writes "Microsoft is reportedly considering offering Windows 7 on USB thumb drives to allow netbook owners to upgrade their machines. Windows has, until now, only been distributed on DVDs or via download. However, netbooks don't have optical drives and the Windows 7 ISO weighs in at 2.3GB, which would take several hours to download on an average broadband connection and potentially do serious damage to a customer's broadband data cap."

I guess that's nice

[Reality Master 201]

At least you could wipe the thing and get a thumb drive out of it.

Re:Windows Live Live Distro finally means somethin

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ [nu2.nu]

BartPE?

Re:It's Amazing

[Jurily]

Virus or not, Windows must be getting pretty good if this "data cap" shit is all they can come up with. The last Linux distro I downloaded weighed in at 4,3 Gb and it was nowhere near complete.

Yes, I know, there's Geexbox with its 20 Mb, but that's not a full OS.

Somebody is thinking at Microsoft?

[bignetbuy]

Who hired them and how long do you think they will last at Microsoft? hohoho

Ok, being serious. It makes sense. With Time Warner slapping draconian download caps on those poor people in Texas, a USB flash drive for OS distribution in a growing netbook market shows some...slight...thinking ahead of the curve. Can you imagine the ire of not only having to download a 3.5GB OS onto a netbook but if you actually run over your cap and get charged EXTRA for it? Oh man. I would shoot my netbook.

Kudos to whomever pulled this rabbit out of the hat.

Re:It's Amazing

[FrankieBaby1986]

The last Linux distro I downloaded weighed in at 4,3 Gb

Installed size? Or disk size? Because many distros include hundreds (thousands?) of software packages that are not part of the default install.
Often, software types that MS would get into deep trouble for bundling with windows.

Easy solution to this problem: Bribe fw nazi

[scottv67]

the Windows 7 ISO weighs in at 2.3GB, which would take several hours to download on an average broadband connection and potentially do serious damage to a customer's broadband data cap.

There is an easy solution to this problem: if you don't have a decent connection at home, download the ISO at work. Check with your company's firewall nazi (that's one of the hats I wear during the day). See if he/she objects to you downloading that ISO or if company policy prohibits this type of download. If you ask nicely, the firewall nazi will probably find a way to download that ISO image rather quickly and you won't have to worry about burning up your bandwidth cap at home or waiting five days for the download at home to finish. If you mention something like, "Hey, I heard you like Five Guys. Can I buy you a burger and fries sometime?" as you hand the USB drive to the fw nazi, he/she will be much more receptive to your request. It's all in how you ask. Am I going to download a copy of the latest Star Trek movie for you (even if some free F.G. is on the line)? *No.* Would I download an ISO from Microsoft for you if you ask in a pleasant tone? Probably. Also, the chances are good that I have already downloaded that ISO for my own testing or someone who sits near me at work has a copy of that ISO.

Re:It's Amazing

[clang_jangle]

The last Linux distro I downloaded weighed in at 4,3 Gb and it was nowhere near complete.

No version of Windows I've ever seen is "anywhere near complete". You have to download 3rd-party drivers and software, unless you don't plan to do anything but play minesweeper.

Re:Windows Live Live Distro finally means somethin

[smoker2]

You forgot to say "among windows users". Moving from 1 windows version to another is not equivalent to moving from windows to linux. So what was your point again ?

Re:It's Amazing

[aztracker1]

Well, if they added any of that stuff, they'd be in court again... There's a free (beer) security suite MS recently announced, though I'll keep nod32. MS would probably love to include a "Lite" version of Word. Then again, OOo is available for win too. CD burning (images too) are in Win7. Nothing built in for file xfer, but there's always Filezilla. IE8 on Win7 is sandboxed, which is better than other browsers on any OS currently, which run in full user context. IIRC messenger is included as well. I'd prefer a functional gui base OS that lets me easily add what apps I want. PC-BSD is really nice in hat regard. Win7 is really nice in that regard. Also, downloading Win7, OOo, an av-suite, Filezilla, and six months of updates probably still takes less bandwidth than a typical gui linux distro and six months of updates. Not to mention you're still downloading all those apps for 8nix, they're just attached, and many installed even if you don't want them. The fact is, this is simply a flawed argument to begin with, given that MS is very restricted in terms of adding applications with windows. I don't use most of the default apps as it is in windows and in my linux distro of choice (Ubuntu), so I have to download a bunch of crap anyhow. A single month of updates to most linux distros for a usable gui desktop are bandwidth killers as it is.

Re:It's Amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

Like third party security programs, office software, communication software, anti-spyware, cd image burning, dvd playback, file transfer software, secure web browser...the list goes on and on.

Linux distros like debian and ubuntu come with everything windows does and more in terms of role.

Wouldn't that be because Microsoft gets sued every time they add a program to Windows?

Re:I encourage this trend

[theeddie55]

A USB host controller can support 127 devices.

Re:It's Amazing

[walterbyrd]

The last Linux distro I downloaded weighed in at 4,3 Gb and it was nowhere near complete.

Try Ubuntu.

BTW: the 4.3 GB distro was not "Linux" but Linux with a lot of applications.