Citing the increase in netbooks now on the market, most of which do not include optical drives, a source within Microsoft, speaking to CNET, says the software giant is considering offering the upcoming OS Windows 7 on USB flash drives.
It is unknown what kind of copy protection would be put on these drives, outside of the standard CD key, but it may not even matter.
Microsoft is also considering allowing Windows 7 to be a digital download, which users can then use to create bootable USB drives from the file.
The company has not officially stated what it will do, but has acknowledged the growing concern of netbooks.
If done, a USB drive release for Windows 7 would mark the first time a major OS would be available in that format. Notably, the drives would cost Microsoft more, as Windows 7 will need at minimum 10GB of space, and a flash drive with that kind of memory is significantly more expensive than a DVD that costs cents.
