How many days left do you have till your 2 year ‘mark my words’ bet is up?  :wink:

Erik

Closer than I want to admit, but my previous post edit should cover that… :D

[quote author=“FrodoID”][quote author=“tmkt”]Flashdrives will takeover the world..
Perhaps it will take a new OS, or something to take advantage of this.

Not necessarily, they can pretty well behave as plain IDE drives (as an example). And virtually all OSes that come into my mind right now also supports a wide variety of other storage interfaces.

I just was refering to the bloat of windows…not incompatibility..
Someone could come out with this flashdrive laptop today, if windows wasn’t such a pig…

I was just saying that if you were to create this laptop based on flash drives… You’d probably have a 8-10gb flash drive, so you’d want a lighter OS on it so it wouldn’t be consuming the majority of the space.

And this would be the opportunity for a not so maintstream OS to take some market share by being able to run a laptop that would have many
more advantages over a windows laptop.(speed/battery life/weight/size)

[quote author=“tmkt”]I just was refering to the bloat of windows…not incompatibility..
Someone could come out with this flashdrive laptop today, if windows wasn’t such a pig…

I was just saying that if you were to create this laptop based on flash drives… You’d probably have a 8-10gb flash drive, so you’d want a lighter OS on it so it wouldn’t be consuming the majority of the space.

You were saying something before about me sounding like a /.er?

I don’t know about you, but most people I know have more than 10 GB of MP3s, pictures, programs, games and other crap on their laptops.

[quote author=“Drachen”][quote author=“tmkt”]I just was refering to the bloat of windows…not incompatibility..
Someone could come out with this flashdrive laptop today, if windows wasn’t such a pig…

I was just saying that if you were to create this laptop based on flash drives… You’d probably have a 8-10gb flash drive, so you’d want a lighter OS on it so it wouldn’t be consuming the majority of the space.

You were saying something before about me sounding like a /.er?

I don’t know about you, but most people I know have more than 10 GB of MP3s, pictures, programs, games and other crap on their laptops.

Thats what external hard drives are for…
Dont see the need to have 5 years worth of images/videos/mp3s on my laptop..
What I want my laptop to do, is let me do my work quickly.. Let me browse the web, read my email, write my code, ssh to the machines i work on.  I dont need it to be an archive of all digital files.. When I need access to my photos, I either get them off my external drive, or right now i’m in the process of backing them all up on my y! photo account since they provide unlimited space for images.

5 years? How about less than 1 year of photos/videos/mp3 files?

In a single weekend, I can easily take up to 1GB of pictures. On my last short trip to Japan, I came home with nearly 6GB of pictures/videos. So, a 10GB HDD still won’t cut it.

External drives are nice but how many people want to carry around an external drive with them all the time? Also, many people use their laptops as their primary systems so they do want access to a majority of their stuff if they can.

The OS is one thing but what about applications? Let’s assume some flavor of Linux since it’s the only real thing out there. Mac OS X needs at least 3GB to start so that’s out of the picture with Windows.

So, OpenOffice (assuming you’re going alternative) takes up at least 200MB alone. Now start adding your GIMP and other necessary applications like browsers, mail programs, etc. and you’re probably looking at 1.5GB before you add any of your data. If you’re someone who’s on the go you most likely have a decent selection of music files and video files to keep you occupied on the plane/train so have to vigilantly know how much space is left and constantly moves things on and off the system. Most people won’t want to do that.

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]5 years? How about less than 1 year of photos/videos/mp3 files?

In a single weekend, I can easily take up to 1GB of pictures. On my last short trip to Japan, I came home with nearly 6GB of pictures/videos. So, a 10GB HDD still won’t cut it.

External drives are nice but how many people want to carry around an external drive with them all the time? Also, many people use their laptops as their primary systems so they do want access to a majority of their stuff if they can.

The OS is one thing but what about applications? OpenOffice (assuming you’re going alternative) takes up at least 200MB alone. Now start adding your GIMP and other necessary applications like browsers, mail programs, etc. and you’re probably looking at 1.5GB before you add any of your data. If you’re someone who’s on the go you most likely have a decent selection of music files and video files to keep you occupied on the plane/train so have to vigilantly know how much space is left and constantly moves things on and off the system. Most people won’t want
to do that.

To each their own… I just think its time that a lightweight/fast/long lasting flashdrive based laptops has come..
10Gig drive was plenty of room for people using laptops 4 years ago.

I’m not talking about flashdrives replacing hard drives…I think they should be a alternative.
I’d jump at a 10gb flashdrive laptop, alot quicker then i would a 100gb hard drive based laptop..
Since the 10gb would fill my needs better(longer battery life,lighter,smaller,quicker) then the 100gb hard drive one would.

Yes, but we’re geeks. We use multiple computers. Most people keep tons of crap on their laptops, many even use them as their primary computer and even if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have much of a clue how to access anything at home. It’s nice to say that they should get an external drive (and I agree with you), but I don’t see a lot of people buying another (expensive in their eyes) piece of equipment that they have to lug around if they want access to and (for the most part) requires external power to operate. Given the choice between a longer-lasting 10 GB laptop plus an external drive and a 60-80 GB laptop (that will store all of their crap) at the same price, most people would go for the latter.

[quote author=“tmkt”]To each their own… I just think its time that a lightweight/fast/long lasting flashdrive based laptops has come..
10Gig drive was plenty of room for people using laptops 4 years ago.

I’m not talking about flashdrives replacing hard drives…I think they should be a alternative.
I’d jump at a 10gb flashdrive laptop, alot quicker then i would a 100gb hard drive based laptop..
Since the 10gb would fill my needs better(longer battery life,lighter,smaller,quicker) then the 100gb hard drive one would.

4 years ago we didn’t have 5-10 megapixel cameras and accessibility to the types of media that are available today.

An all flash drive based laptop would be nice but I don’t see it having commercial viability for at least the next 5 years unless it can provide competitive sizes/speeds/price to what’s available now. It will likely remain a niche item where it will be cost prohibitive and have a high entry barrier for most consumers.

Moreover, hybrid hard drives, which seem to give the best of both worlds, are likely to become a very popular attraction. If the devices Samsung are touting do work as suggested with the new Windows Vista operating system, then many people will be satisfied. Most people want instant on/off/sleep modes and having NV Flash RAM built into the hard disk can make that happen. If hybrids solve the problem while being cost effective the delay for all flash HDDs will likely be greater since demand will still be less.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to go all flash but I know it’s not going to happen soon. I myself find that the hybrid idea will more than satisfy many of original reasons for having a flash HDD. Given Samsung’s timetable for next gen parts, I don’t see them having a consumer priced 64GB model for at least 3-4 years. By then, will that be enough? Also, don’t rule out the advancements of 1.8” and 0.85” HDDs from Toshiba. These are providing good capacities at far lower power levels. I actually see these sizes as the best candidates for hybrids since their small form factors still allow for unique thin/light designs. The addition of faster flash ram to these devices could help to alleviate concerns about performance.

Like Drachen said, the HDD is the least of your worries. It’s the LCD screens that need to be addressed the most. Those are the #1 battery suckers in a notebook. I’m hoping some form OLED screen comes out as that will help tremedously and give truer colors and blacker blacks.

On average, the breakdown is the following:

CPU: 10%
CPU fan: 2%
Chipset/Memory: 15%
LCD: 33%
HDD + DVD: 10%
Graphics: 8%
USB, External Devices, PCMCIA: 8-10%
PSU/Battery: 10-15% (fluctuates due to dirty contacts, etc.)

Yeah, it doesn’t exactly add up to 100% since there are a variety of other factors but you get the point. The HDD is not the problem in terms of power. Heck, the system memory itself uses more power (although this will start to change with the move to DDR2).

[quote author=“tmkt”]

To each their own… I just think its time that a lightweight/fast/long lasting flashdrive based laptops has come..
10Gig drive was plenty of room for people using laptops 4 years ago.

I’m not talking about flashdrives replacing hard drives…I think they should be a alternative.
I’d jump at a 10gb flashdrive laptop, alot quicker then i would a 100gb hard drive based laptop..
Since the 10gb would fill my needs better(longer battery life,lighter,smaller,quicker) then the 100gb hard drive one would.

Well said.  The external HD is an excellent idea.  I can access all that bloated archived stuff (movies, photos, and all the heavy programs that go with it) at home.  I absolutely do not need it at my fingertips while on the road every day.  You guys can have your all-in-one machine.  Like Drachen said, we’re geeks.  And as such, I want my flash laptop / tablet to go…...

“Biggie Size” not necessary…....  :wink:

Sounds like you’d be happy anough with a PDA. :wink:

Believe me I have considered everything PDA.  Three red flags are: too small, low battery times, and skimpy XP support.  I dislike synching psuedo-incompatible data.  What an inconvenience.

I came so close to pulling the trigger on a U70, but the sickly battery kept me at bay.  I would miss the keyboard every now and then, too.  I can live without an optical drive.  The extended battery times on the new TX are killer!  The new screen obviously helps here.  Sooooo tempting, but I am patient. :D

RAM Drive for your PC:

Too bad a 4GB drive would cost about $500.

Erik

[quote author=“TruthSeeker”]Thanks gr00vy0ne.  You sure are up on the numbers.  It looks as if consumer DV is at least within sight.  I’ll take what I can get.  Consumer DV is more than enough for my petty family memories. :D

I am in awe thinking about how God made the human brain.  We can capture above the highest quality HD and a whole lot more than a few hours worth!

1Co 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

I am truely amazed why more do not believe.  Just look at the stars….we did not put them there, and neither did Darwin.

Sorry I got a little off topic.  Just rambling.

What’s with the God talk? If it’s unlikely that we could randomly evolve into such a complex creature, then it follows that it’s infinitely more unlikely that God, an infinitely complex creature, can ever come into existence. And don’t bring in the “it’s more perfect to exist than to not exist” argument, because existence is not a predicate.