I doubt there will ever be a Microsoft OS that will operate off of a flash card, unless Bill Gates steals some Linux platform. There's also DSL (Damn Small Linux)
What is Damn Small Linux, a.k.a. DSL?
DSL is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution.
Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:
* Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
* Boot from a USB pen drive
* Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
* Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
* Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
* Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
* Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
* Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize
DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. It was at first just a personal tool/toy. But over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with hundreds of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a hard drive, a floppy drive, or a USB device.
DSL has a nearly complete desktop, and many command line tools. All applications are chosen with the best balance of functionality, size and speed. Damn Small also has the ability to act as an SSH/FTP/HTTPD server right off of a live CD. In our quest to save space and have a fully functional desktop we've made many GUI administration tools which are fast yet still easy to use. What does DSL have?
XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, Netrik web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor (Ted), three editors (Beaver, Vim, and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox and JWM window managers, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, some wireless support.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
It's being done, I understand.
I doubt there will ever be a Microsoft OS that will operate off of a flash card, unless Bill Gates steals some Linux platform.
How to Install and Boot Windows XP Off a Compact Flash Card
http://www.addonics.com/support/faqs/faq-bootcf.asp
I think I'm going to order one of the CF Hard Drive Adapters and give it a try.
So, all you Linux guys, have you played with the concept yet? I could see a very small, quiet, and energy-efficient solid-state computer running basically anywhere, immune to hard drive crashes.
How many ya want? $143 a pop for Linux, $350 ish for Windows XP. Only moving part is a single fan, which costs $10 to replace. Only problem is it's a thin client.
It'll be some time before solid state storage catches up to magnetic platter storage for mass storage. RAID really is the way to go. Lots of cheap HD's, mirrored for redundancy. Solid state is only more efficient for small storage at this point. MP3 players, routers, etc.
Solid-state, as in no moving parts, save for perhaps the electrons.
I thought all computers were solid. I have yet to see one in a liquid or gaseous state.
Spinning hard drives, spinning power supply fans, etc. It appears both need not be present to have a decent running small computer.
I have yet to see one in a liquid or gaseous state.
Well, I HAVE seen colloid computers, and thats sorta liquid like. VERY powerful and sophisticated, able to handle all kinds of data and able to perform 100 million MIPS (Million computer Instructions Per Second). Unfortunately they are rather fragile and tend to stop working if you don't open the case VERY carefully or bang them around too much. And on occasion they will give really strange results even with perfect programing and data input.