Thread: 10 second Windows Boot!

See one of the advantages to that 5 second linux boot is you get to spend less time waiting for your computer to boot and more time trolling the windows threads :P

Lets be honest - linux requires a higher level of user knowhow when things go badly. You can't call tech support, press the magic restore button on your laptop or cry to your friends because most of them use windows or mac. Instead you need to spend hours digging through forums. At the same time, people who spend $$$ on every new version of a terrible front end just to get basic bug fixes are crazy!! There are much better ways to get a usable front end and not have to deal with a hours of configuration and hunting for missing pieces (insert plug for open mobile here

Boot times are going to constantly go back and forth between the two os's - hopefully we hit a point where we say who cares if its a half second or a full second but that may be a few years away. The real issue for carpc front ends is going to be ease-of-use. Does the front end take 30 hours to configure or is it point and click? Thats something a few of the FE's out there are going to have to work on.

i dont run mini-itx hardware. i run 35w cpu's and good onboard graphics, windows 7 doesnt take long to do anything. this isnt even about os's anyway, the point is with this technology there is no boot time wait, and that can help everyone- linux, windows or mac.

Originally Posted by justchat_1

See one of the advantages to that 5 second linux boot is you get to spend less time waiting for your computer to boot and more time trolling the windows threads :P

So true.

Lets be honest - linux requires a higher level of user knowhow when things go badly. You can't call tech support, press the magic restore button on your laptop or cry to your friends because most of them use windows or mac.

I would say requires a "different" level of user knowledge. But I would also throw in: Have you seen Nokia's new flag-ship smart phone!? The n900 looks bad-a... The user interface is awesome and best of all, it runs a free and open source operating system. They are advertising it as a "Computer in the palm of your hand". One that begs at the iphone's single-tasking approach by offering a "true multi-tasking operating system like you would run on your desktop".

In other words, Google, Intel, Nokia, IBM, HP, Oracle, and other technology leaders seem to think that an operating system that you can customize for specific functions (like vehicle infotainment) are superior to microsoft based solutions. Maybe they are wrong... Maybe they should have consulted with certain people in these forums and done a bit more research before they started throwing a bazzillion dollars into developing some hippie OS.

justchat_1: I bet if you had a desktop with Ubuntu 9.04 and developed your FE in Monodevelop's latest, you'd have to trouble learning the differences of the OS. You'd instead be impressed with the power that is available at your finger tips... especially as a developer.

Boot times are going to constantly go back and forth between the two os's - hopefully we hit a point where we say who cares if its a half second or a full second but that may be a few years away. The real issue for carpc front ends is going to be ease-of-use. Does the front end take 30 hours to configure or is it point and click? Thats something a few of the FE's out there are going to have to work on.

Well, when windows 7 is finally released, Linux will have been faster for quite some time. Moblin was booting in 5 seconds a long time ago. And I'm sure when windows 8 comes out in 3 years from now, Linux will have been faster than it for probably a year or more. Moblin's goal is a 2 second boot on netbooks.

this isnt even about os's anyway, the point is with this technology there is no boot time wait, and that can help everyone- linux, windows or mac.

You are right. What was the original thread about anyway?

I find Ubuntu VERY limiting - more like a mac then a windows pc.... For the record im not at all new to linux so i've tried quite a few distros....even have a slackware distro I use for penetration testing (/free wifi when I travel just still prefer windows for the day to day stuff.

Since I think we've covered the wow factor of a <1sec posting BIOS...i'll de-rail the thread a little further. Whats the fastest booting linux distro i could run mono on...and run mono on startup...no extra crap...no login...just boom -> loaded?

Too bad they cant all do that almost instant boot like the ASUS on the EEEPC.

Originally Posted by justchat_1

I find Ubuntu VERY limiting - more like a mac then a windows pc.... For the record im not at all new to linux so i've tried quite a few distros....even have a slackware distro I use for penetration testing (/free wifi when I travel just still prefer windows for the day to day stuff.

Since I think we've covered the wow factor of a <1sec posting BIOS...i'll de-rail the thread a little further. Whats the fastest booting linux distro i could run mono on...and run mono on startup...no extra crap...no login...just boom -> loaded?

Take a look at DSL or one of the other "mini" distro's. You could also check out moblin2, it already boots fast. You'll have to add mono though because I don't think it comes default. In LinuxICE2, you'd just replace the line that launches nghost and icepanel with "mono openmobile.exe" and your in business.

I'm surprised you find Ubuntu "VERY" limiting. In fact, I'm curious what you find limiting about an OS that is so scalable it runs on everything from smartphones to the fastest super computers on the planet. But I guess that depends on how you would use it. It's really limited to how much Microsoft software can run on it.

I did a VM test last night, out of the box Ubuntu boots in 45 seconds. That is not fast my penguin loving friends. XP and Win 7 boot faster than that out of the box with the same settings in a VM. I know there are faster booting builds of Linux but since Ubuntu has been mentioned several times I went that route.

Originally Posted by kev000

I'm surprised you find Ubuntu "VERY" limiting. In fact, I'm curious what you find limiting about an OS that is so scalable it runs on everything from smartphones to the fastest super computers on the planet. But I guess that depends on how you would use it. It's really limited to how much Microsoft software can run on it.

I'm surprised you don't already understand this. When compared to Windows, by a Windows user, Linux IS very limiting. You can't do everything you can do in Windows as simply as you can in Windows. It does require a significant amount more effort to do things in Linux but you can do MUCH more. I find Linux limiting in that way as well, but to me the extra bit of control is worth the extra effort required to do relatively simple operations. Anyone who thinks Linux is easier to use than Windows is delusional, so that in and of itself is a limit.

Machinehead: There is a boot profiler that shows you what is taking exactly what time. I'll try to find what it's called. You can run it and see where your slowdown is. I think the new Ubuntu loads boot processes in parallel, which should speed things up as well. Perhaps try the beta of that?


Edit: Just noticed how that came across. I am in no way trying to slam on justchat_1, or say he doesn't know his way around Linux. The above is my personal opinion on why "I" find Linux limiting, his may be different.

Originally Posted by malcom2073

Machinehead: There is a boot profiler that shows you what is taking exactly what time. I'll try to find what it's called. You can run it and see where your slowdown is. I think the new Ubuntu loads boot processes in parallel, which should speed things up as well. Perhaps try the beta of that?

I was having trouble tracking down a 9.10 beta last night, of course I was half asleep at the time. I will poke around this morning. If you find that boot profiler, I'd appreciate the info.