Will Microsoft move away from CDs for thier future Windows 9

[ThinkPad560X]

Will Microsoft move away from CDs (DVD) for thier future Windows 9 - X? Lots of software mostly PC games now are download or stream only now. I own all the versions of Windows from 3.11-95 on floppy to 95-8 on disc. Im guessing if they do ditch the CD their maybe a small bios that can connect to microsoft "New motherboards for custom builders" and can install Windows that way. I also heard a long time ago they were going to use Windows preoload flash drives. I think the CDs are getting closer to the end.

[Temetka]

I don't think they will for Windows 9, but who knows?

I haven't loaded an OS from DVD in ages and this includes Server 2012 and 2008 R2 Enterprise. I load everything from bootable USB flash drive. It's soooooooooo much quicker.

[rkawakami]

From a financial standpoint, flash drives don't make sense for individual distribution. Assuming we're talking about millions of copies, I think it's much cheaper to master a CD/DVD set and press optical disks at pennies per, than it is to procure, program and distribute the same number of 8 or 16GB flash drives. Now if the storage medium of the OS install is via mask ROM (read-only memory), then the costs could be less than flash memory but I doubt that it would approach the cost-per-byte advantage that optical storage has over semiconductor memory. Mask ROM stores data that has been pre-programmed during wafer fabrication; you can't change or re-write over it.

Online distribution is already taking place as you can get Windows ISO files from Digital River. That will not work for everybody but for the people who have access to both a broadband connection and an optical writer, downloading an OS and burning it onto your own CD/DVD set is quite feasible. As far as active downloading by a BIOS without the benefit of an already running OS, that might be a stretch. Most of today's BIOSes can boot from a network connection, but correct me if I'm wrong, it can only do so from an ethernet connection, not a wireless one. That means one would have to be physically tied into a LAN to install an OS. And that LAN would then also have to have internet access.

My guess is that we'll continue to see distribution of an OS via optical disks for some time. First it was CDs being used when the dozen of so floppies made it bothersome. Software bloat and the introduction of cheap DVD media and hardware made it possible to transition from CDs to DVDs. Now Blu-ray is on the scene. If and when three DVDs can't store the contents of the entire installation routine, and probably when market penetration of Blu-ray drives gets high enough, then it might make sense to issue Blu-ray disks.

@Temetka: Okay, that's about the same way the IT guy at work installs his stuff, but how did the OS get onto the USB flash drive in the first place?

[dr_st]

Normally, you download the online image, and either burn it to DVD, deploy to a bootable Flash drive, or a bootable network share (for remote installations).

[jdk]

My first MacBook Air (2010) came with the operating system on a restore USB drive. The second MacBook Air (2012) came without the restore USB; the reasoning is that you can make one yourself, and if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need it and didn't make one, Apple could sell one to you.

I can see Microsoft going down this path. Many systems already come without an optical drive. Microsoft has already used DigitalRiver for ISOs for about five years. The need to install vanilla Windows on blank hard drive without OEM support is dwindling as we enter a locked-in "Secure Boot" future.

I can't remember the last time I installed Windows from a DVD. I can remember the last time I tried, about six months ago on a rack-mount server, where we ended up discovering the DVD drive was dead and having to install over PXE.