Solid state disks are kind of the next big thing, right? They have no moving parts, like hard drives, and are both more durable and offer potentially faster read and write speeds than hard drives. Sure, they’re far more expensive at the moment, but prices are coming down. And as Asus, Acer, and others have shown, if you’re marketing a laptop as cheap, ultraportable, and durable, you can get away with using low capacity flash disks.

But what if you want the best of both worlds: a fast, durable solid state disk with a high storage capacity? Then it looks like you’d better stick with Windows XP or Linux for your operating system. CNet reports that SanDisk officials are saying that Vista isn’t optimized for solid state disks — and the current generation of solid state disks aren’t optimized for Vista.

SanDisk is working on higher capacity, faster solid state disks. But because Microsoft has effectively told PC makers to stop installing Windows XP (with an exception for low end laptops like the Asus Eee PC the MSI Wind), SanDisk expects that most next generation computers will be running Windows Vista. And Vista doesn’t perform well with SSDs, so SanDisk has to design workarounds to cater to Vista’s demands instead of vice versa. For that reason, SanDisk is behind schedule in developing 128GB and 256GB solid state disks.

[via Small-Laptops]

We already knew that it was possible to install Windows Vista on an MSI Wind. But why would anyone choose to load an operating system that takes up significantly more system resources on a tiny laptop with a relatively low powered CPU? Because you might just get more battery life and a more responsive PC, that’s why.

While Trusted Reviews found a MSI Wind running Vista to be a bit on the sluggish side, Notebook Review discovered that the notebook can handle Windows Vista quite well.

The trick is to find working LAN, WLAN, card reader, and Intel GMA 950 drivers. For the most part, it looks like the XP drivers MSI supplies will work. You also have to disable Vista features like Windows Update, System Restore, UAC, and scheduled hard drive defragmenting tasks in order to get a speed boost. But the upshot is that the reviewer found that the Wind scored higher on every benchmark when running Windows Vista than it had when running Windows XP.

The battery also lasted 2.5 hours instead of the 2 hours he was getting with Windows XP. This doesn’t surprise me. Windows Vista has significantly better power management than Windows XP, and the power settings are far more customizable. With CPU-intensive features disabled, I’d be surprised of the battery didn’t last longer under Vista.

So what do you think? Should MSI offer the option to order a Wind notebook running Windows Vista? Or should the brave few souls who want to install the OS just do it themselves?

[via Electric Pig]

Trusted Reviews has a handy tutorial for any masochists looking to install Windows Vista on an MSI Wind. The laptop is designed to run Windows XP or Linux, but with 1GB of RAM and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU it’s (just barely) capable of running Vista.

Gigabyte has gone out of its way to make sure the company’s first low cost ultraportable stands out from the crowd. Not only will the Gigabyte M912 feature a swiveling tablet-style touch screen, but Engadget Chinese reports that it also runs Windows Vista instead of Windows XP.