CNET / News.com is running an article by Brooke Crothers that addresses several issues with Solid State Drives (SSDs) and even provides another reason why Microsoft was willing to extend Windows XP’s lifespan for netbooks and other ultraportable devices.
Basically it boils down to Windows Vista was not developed with SSDs in mind, and there needs to be some optimization on both ends to compensate for that. This goes beyond things like tuning Vista’s graphics options that can really slow down an ultraportable device.
This from the CEO of SanDisk during their second-quarter earnings call:
Speaking during SanDisk’s second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid state drive makers. “As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk,” he said.
This is due to Vista’s design. “The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls,” he said.
“Unfortunately, (SSDs) performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we’ll start sampling end of this year, early next year,” Harari said.
It’s been said on some forums (Acer Aspire One User Forums and here) that Windows XP on the Aspire’s SSD is not a pleasant experience either.
Read: CNET / News.com
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