[Discuss] Hybrid drives and Linux?

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

So the recent discussion of SSDs and Linux has made me wonder about
Seagate's hybrid drives.   I.e. Disk drives with a small amount of
flash memory (typically 8gig).   In a desktop system, my tendency
would be install both a traditional magnetic media disk and an SSD.
However, in a laptop that may not be possible.   Does anyone have any
experience with these devices in laptops?   My concern is that they
might Seage may have "optimized" them for Microsoft Window's access
patterns.   I tried a little web searching and didn't find anything
that I would consider definitive on the subject.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill Bogstad