"When SSDs hit the scene, you could migrate your existing installation to solid state storage." If by "installation" you mean the OS, I have not needed SSDs.

"When SSDs hit the scene, you could migrate your existing installation to solid state storage." If by "installation" you mean the OS, I have not needed SSDs. I migrated my installation to RAM. I stopped using disk for the OS and data I am working with. I can fit everything I need in RAM. I still use disks sometimes for long term storage of infrequently accessed data, but it surprises me how infrequently I need them. For me the recognition of "immediate gains" in speed was not with the advent of SSDs it was with the availability of >= 500MB RAM. Diskless became too easy. But I do understand what SSDs have done for other users with different requirements and I think that has been a great improvement.