Software loading?

[Knitwit]

With no external DVD/CD drive, how do you load additional software like Office and such? Will I have to get an external drive or can I hook up the desktop via USB to USB?

[jhoff80]

Well, you could theoretically copy the contents of a CD over the network.

Or, copy the contents of the CD to a USB flash drive.

Or, you could create an image file and mount it using Daemon Tools or the like.

What you're describing though sounds more like Apple's network CD/DVD setup that they have for the Macbook Air, I don't know how possible that is on anything else, but you have a variety of options to do similar things.

[Composer]

An external USB dvd/cd drive of course.

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by Composer

An external USB dvd/cd drive of course.

Well there's that too, but that's too easy!

[Composer]

Yeah I usually like to make things overly complicated especially when there's a hidden simple solution. But that definitely is the best you could probably do Just have a nice external drive to use whenever you need to install/burn whatever.

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by Composer

Yeah I usually like to make things overly complicated especially when there's a hidden simple solution. But that definitely is the best you could probably do Just have a nice external drive to use whenever you need to install/burn whatever.

Eh, for me personally though its still just not worth it to buy a drive for the rare times I'd use it anyway.

[Composer]

Besides installing windows and a few other small things I really don't use an optical drive either. With being able to install and transfer things via a USB stick the need for an optical drive drops

[Zealot]

Don't forget SD cards as well.

[tyrian]

Originally Posted by jhoff80

Eh, for me personally though its still just not worth it to buy a drive for the rare times I'd use it anyway.

True but it's only a one time thing that you could use for all your future CD driveless computers. It's not like you'd have to upgrade the external anytime soon and I'm sure you could sell it for at least $20 when physical disks become truly obsolete. I guess saving time vs. saving money is a personal preference thing but sometimes I'm just that lazy. Plus I don't get that feeling of accomplishment from tinkering with flash drive installs that I would get from say building a computer.

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by tyrian

True but it's only a one time thing that you could use for all your future CD driveless computers. It's not like you'd have to upgrade the external anytime soon and I'm sure you could sell it for at least $20 when physical disks become truly obsolete. I guess saving time vs. saving money is a personal preference thing but sometimes I'm just that lazy. Plus I don't get that feeling of accomplishment from tinkering with flash drive installs that I would get from say building a computer.

See, I've installed a variety of different linux distros to a variety of different flash drives as liveCD type deals, just for the hell of it, so I guess I'm a little different on that one.

[Knitwit]

Well, external drives are about $50 US off the internet - so, not to expensive, but I would only need to load Office initially, so I think using the usb flash drive of which I have multiples would be the way to go. I guess it is a matter of preference, how much you need to load and how much time and money you want to invest (just like everything else).

[kentback]

I haven't purchased my MSI wind yet -- still waiting for the 6-cell option -- but it wasn't until now that I considered that I might have problems with an emulated drive. Personally, I think that anything physical and external is a big waste of space and resources when we live in a better age. However, since most of these netbooks are running a paired down version of windows xp, I'm not sure about the compatibility with programs like PowerISO or any other disc emulation drive. This is how I install my software and play dvds on most of my machines. So: question for those of you out there sitting on an Eee PC etc. Drive emulation? Yes? No? Problems?

[jhoff80]

As far as I know, the version of XP you'll get on the Wind will be a full version of XP Home.

[DavoMrMac]

Surely you only need to solve the software loading at set-up stage. So sit at your desk with CD/DVD drive or flash memory, install all your software, then get out and about with your super lightweight lappy and enjoy :-)

[staker]

The intial setup of the laptop can be quite hard, but with a network it really is easy. The only trial an error i had to do was getting Xp on it and even that didnt install properly, i know why now.