14 DAY TRIAL // Have you heard of OSs that run completely from RAM? If you haven't, do a Google Search for Puppy Linux and you will understand why this is a good idea - everything loads as fast as lightning and you'll soon forget what waiting is altogether (you could even give it a try to see for yourself what a fast loading time really means).
Now let's talk about a hypothetical situation. Could this be a viable solution for Vista? Can it run entirely from RAM? Considering the fact that the OSs that do this are 100 MB in size (or less) and Vista will eat up from 1 to 2 or 3 GB of HDD space, one will get a quick picture of how much RAM memory would a PC need to undergo such a task.
Think of it this way: your current system setup might already have the 3 GB of RAM Vista would need to feel comfortable but when adding up the RAM needed by the applications you will be running during each Vista session things don't quite add up the way they should. Hence you'll soon have to go buy yourself some more to satisfy each and every running piece of software you run in Vista, but at least you'll have an OS that others only dare to dream of.
If such a product is ever released by Microsoft I guess there will be some people that would put the money down and buy it straight away. I would certainly do that if I had the money!
Still not convinced that this could ever happen? Neither am I so let's make another supposition: what if Microsoft managed to make a virtual drive inside your system's RAM memory and store there at the beginning of each session and during it the most accessed files from the hard drive? That would certainly be a huge leap regarding the loading times of everything you launch and a dramatic increase in performance.
Vista is already the top resource needy OS out there as we speak: what would 1 or 2 GBs of RAM be next to the 2 or 3 your PC already has if you consider the increase in performance? I'll tell you what: almost nothing. I'd happily spend a few bucks if I were to know that this would mean the end of waiting when launching a program and I bet that most of you think exactly like me.
Now all that is left to do is to spread the word and hope for the best: if they expect us to buy new hardware to run their OS that's the least they could do to make us happy about it and feel we've spent our money with a purpose: an OS on steroids.