I don't see W& killing SSD based notebooks, if anything we might see price cuts on larger drives from manufactures wanting to stay in the market. Bancroft also suggested that Windows 7 isn't a viable option for netbooks in general due to the possible increase in pricing, a view I share.

Personally I don't see anyone being willing to pay the premium for the new OS. Part of what draws people to netbooks is the lower price. To add W7 you are likely looking at an additional $75-100 in cost.

7.5 times or 750% that figure (just a typo). The thing that concerns me about the SSDs is the lifespan of the disks and how good they are being utilized by the OS.

I guess that if for a netbook of the same price I could get 28GBs I would get a SSD based netbook but 8GBs could not even carry my favorite songs. Prices should fall to expect more sales

nice link Richeemxx, and a very good point.

I am noticing that companies are trying also to squeeze more profits by releasing "premium" netbooks. If they don't understand that netbooks sell for their prices they will lose a lot of money in the end. Plz just stay to the original niche guys...

Let's get the math straight. 8 cents vs 6 bucks is 75 times or 7500%, not 75% nor 750%.

"only eight of the current ten best-selling netbooks"

Umm ... "only" eight of ten? Isn't that the most? Why say only? Saying "Only two out of ten were hard drive based."

Maybe I'm reading it wrong...

"Umm ... "only" eight of ten? Isn't that the most? Why say only? Saying "Only two out of ten were hard drive based."

Maybe I'm reading it wrong..."

I would have to agree with SirAnonymousnesser there. What Tom needs to do is hire writers that aren't high school dropouts.

After reading that, with all the figures and back asswards 8 out 10 75%, I think Tom's is trying to sell me something...I'm going to go out, buy one of the top 10 netbooks, then put windows 7 and my music collections and see what happens.

I am confused. I thought netbooks are the cheap piece of crap laptops which are meant for the masses .... why would you get an SSD if it is supposed to be cheap and for the masses???????? Clearly I am missing something or I am just plain wrong. If so just vote my dumba ss down.

$.08 per gigabyte? I can't find any cheaper than $.15/gigabyte.

Hey all! Author here. Those are indeed two typos: two out of 10 Netbooks run SSDs, according to Pricegrabber's list. Also, the cost-per-gigabyte ratio for SSDs is 75 times that of hard drives.

As soon as I can modify the article, I'll append these changes. Apologies for the fark-up!

Correct. But at those small capacity sizes (6-8GB), it's actually cheaper to produce Flash-based storage than a larger magnetic hard drive. Since Netbooks' strength partially comes from their low price points, an argument can be made for using inexpensive, solid-state storage even at the expense of capacity.

I suppose. In which case I would not bother loading a Windows based O/S. Keep it small and efficient .. go linux.

There are 30 HDDs (500-2000GB) on NewEgg that are all under $.15/GB. With the cheapest being ~$.086/GB.

The reasons behind getting SSDs are because they are faster, more efficient, no working parts also means a little more rugged and AFIK slightly cooler. If prices on larger drives move down as they have been and will continue to it would make more sense to buy portables with SSDs. Right now with the sizes and prices we are seeing it wouldn't be cost effective.

Interesting enough Tom's just posted some rumored W7 prices. OEM pricing will be cheaper however looking at that you are looking at relatively the same cost as Vista and still a pretty heavy premium to add any of those versions to a netbook.

Why bother with Windows 7 when Linux is small, efficient and free?

Doh, beat me to it. I see no reason to have Windows on a Netbook. The main reason I run Windows is because I can't run certain programs on Linux. Since most people just use these for blogging, surfing, and networking and other light applications, why pay for the OS?

And yes I'm aware you can do more than that with Linux so don't bother.

Most small netbooks seem to run XP anyway. Will XP become unavailable when W7 comes out?

I thought the best projection was for W7 to be out 8-12 months from now. We might have low priced 32GB SSD's by then, although I don't see a problem with a small hard drive either.

This is not even a question. Looks like an excuse to write an article to me. SSD prices are just going to go down and will be even cheaper by the time 7 is on the market. The current extra install is less than the extra amount you will be getting for the same price by the time its available for sale. DUUU

I've installed the beta version successfully on a 6GB HD, and have 945MB of freespace (despite Windows advised a 10GB disk.

I'm sure some pruning can be done,like nlite did on XP.

plus, hibernation can be turned off, and swapfile can be lowered to 256MB.
That'd free up at least an additional 1-1,5GB I think.
XP was able to install it on 4GB, like Win7 will be on 8GB.
Netbooks never where made to install a lot of stuff on.
Though if I'd want to install a lot of programs on it like office, compression and anti virus, I'd probably be better off with a 12-16GB SSD.

Well,if we look at Asus,which tries to create true small notebooks, (S101) which aren't that cheap; there seems to be an audience for even that!
It wouldn't surprise me if one of these days an 11" netbook with an Intel 80GB SSD, and Windows 7 would appear, for something like $1.200 .

haha, no working parts... im fairly sure they work. just dont move

pfft. Windows 7 is a joke. Windows Vista is a joke. Windows XP has potential but it is clear that Microsoft needs to sell more disks at $200 a pop to keep their investors happy. Get Linux. Period. Windows is trash.

If you convince adobe and digidesign - avid to go for linux versions of their products, i'm at your side.

Who needs a bloated 6gb OS? Linux will take up far less space, do everything you need it to, and it's free. Seriously, how do Microsoft manage to get the size of the install so high?

I don't think SSD would be murdered by Microsoft. It's one thing they can't commit murder to. SSD just has too much potential. I ran hard drive tests on both Vista and Windows 7 and THERE WAS LITTLE TO NO DIFFERENCE on my standard magnetic drives in terms of read and burst speed.

deltatux

OMG I've rarely seen such a useless article on toms! The topic is fine, but what's the point if you don't know if they mean 8 of 10, or 2 of 10 netbooks, and when you have to guess that 75 procent means 75 times, and whatever else isn't right .... It's actually worse than the article on tv calibrations pictures being broken - which arguably were the most important part of the article.

I think it's time the publisher guys at toms actually read the articles they get sent in by the authors. Newspapers do have people employed to read stuff before it's printed, in an effort to lower the mistake count....

SSD has great potential, and is the futuer of HD. But come on 8gb HD are so 1990's. That they're even rolled out is more just companies trying to pay off at least some r&d debt. Of course they're going to be fazed out because only the uniformed or fanboi's are excited about them. They'll push up to real HD size at a decent price fast enough, after they've milked the gullible.

1990s ? I didn't even have an 8gb mechanical drive until the second half when ibm came along with one at a decent price! Anyway, no those 8gb ssd's aren't for enthusiasts.

6 GB for an O/S?
Ridiculous!!!

I agree with going Linux but the majority of people going to buy netbooks are the average customer and cry all you want linux is still not ment for the average customer. people want to use these for listening to music,e-mail, and internet. in some cases people want to use media websites but most of the media websites require activeX or windows media player and there is no way around them (and beleve me i have tried) around playing content on those websites. with windows you know everything you want to do with it is going to work

Are those of you saying "Go Linux! Go Linux!" willing to:

1) Teach Grandma and the average Joe to install a device driver not included in their current Linux distro (probably Ubuntu, as it's the closest thing to "user friendly") and/or teach them how to recompile the kernel if things don't go well?

2) Explain to Grandma or the average Joe that iTunes won't work? Yes, I know that there are substitutions for almost every Windows-only program out there (GIMP instead of Photoshop, OpenOffice instead of MS Office, etc.), but still...public opinion is public. It's like convincing a grade schooler that a no-name brand of shoes is better than a pair of Nike or Reebok shoes.

3) Explain to them that they have to type in commands to mount their flash drive o stuff that normally "just works" in Windows and Mac?

Linux is for computer geeks like us that want total control over the OS. Granted it IS possible for the average Joe to be happy with Linux, but only under the ideal scenario that everything "just works" for them out of the box. Linux is by geeks for geeks, as the community doesn't believe in "You can't fix stupid, so you have to cater to it." Instead it's "You can't fix stupid, so we'll just ignore it."