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Operating Systems Software Hardware

Startup Offers Instant-Boot Windows Alternative 286

Posted by Zonk from the o-hai-dere dept.
Lucas123 writes "A Silicon Valley startup named Device VM has a product that circumvents the boot-up process, according to a story in MIT's Technology Review. Device VM recently released a tiny piece of software that gives users the option to boot either Windows or a faster, less-complex operating system called Splashtop. The company is partnering with PC OEMs and consumer electronics companies to integrate its core technology into desktops, notebooks, ultra-mobile PCs, and other devices."
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Startup Offers Instant-Boot Windows Alternative More

Startup Offers Instant-Boot Windows Alternative

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  • Hey, anybody knows (Score:4, Insightful)

    by microbee ( 682094 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:07PM (#22072244)
    How to get slashdot coverage if I have a startup?

    • Mod parent up (Score:5, Funny)

      by Malevolent Tester ( 1201209 ) * on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:19PM (#22072410) Journal
      I think you just have to submit a press release as a story.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Corwn of Amber ( 802933 )
        Yeah, but you get to re-invent "HIBERNATE" first.

        HOW THE FUCK IS THAT NEWS?

        • It's not Hybernate... (Score:2, Informative)

          by hummassa ( 157160 )
          It's LinuxBios
          • An OS in ROM? Well, they invented the Amiga. Good idea, that.

            Sarcasm aside, it's a good idea. Such a shame that the product is ready to ship since year 2000, or before, and (check...) They don't support shit. No, really. Now they have the OLPC (it uses LinuxBios, right? Please don't tell me The Perfect Laptop takes a minute to boot!) showing, "hey it works, our obvious to self-evidence idea, so when will you replace that old legacy useless crap BIOS?"

            A real kernel in ROM and boot times reduced to few second

    • Simple... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AlecLyons ( 767385 )
      1>Submit a story And that's about it. If it has enough geek appeal, it will get posted. Hell, you could even try submitting it again a couple days later ;)

  • Splashtop? (Score:2, Funny)

    by boristdog ( 133725 )
    You sure you heard that right?
  • I'm sure this story was reported some months back?

    Ahh, wait, I forgot - this is slashdot! ;)

  • Taking all bets here! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pojut ( 1027544 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:09PM (#22072276) Homepage
    Taking all bets here, folks! How long before Microsoft tries to do something to try to get PC companies to not have this in their systems? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Um, this is from ASUS. The company that shipped Linux on 350000 mini-laptops in the last few months. Whatever Microsoft tried must not have been very convincing.
    • I don't think they care that much. Windows already supports hibernation, and if your hardware + drivers do as well and the BIOS is configured right, even their OS from 2003 can start up in less than 2 seconds on everyday hardware. Sure, it's not a "boot" up since you don't start from a reset state, but that's actually a disadvantage in many peoples eyes. I always hibernate my computer unless I for some reason need a full reboot, and there's rarely a problem. The few times I need to reboot completely (like o
    • I have a MacBook pro 2.2Ghz. Booting into OSX to check movie times is extremely quick, especially if one doesn't enable user login (has autologin.) It's under 10 seconds.

      It also can bootcamp into XP. If I make that the default OS, it takes much longer to boot, and that's with a slimmed down install. It's under 30 seconds with me keeping it tuned and slim.

      My wife's on the other hand has iTunes with Quicktime and Apple Update (on XP), which slows down boot time as all the services and startup processes

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by slartibart ( 669913 )
        You can disable all that stuff. It's not easy though, you have to find the "start when windows starts" checkbox, or take it out of the startup folder or the registry if all else fails. I am not sure I blame Microsoft for this. There's nothing stopping idiotic software companies from producing this kind of crap for OSX or linux. Each installer could add its program to rc.d or an init script or whatever.

        Then again, since most of these systray programs are auto-updaters, what would be nice is an OS serv
    • 1998 called, it wants it's complaint back. It's 2008 now and nobody's afraid of Microsoft anymore.*

      * That doesn't mean Linux won, just that you can get it, unfortunately it turns out the people who already want it rarely cared if it was preinstalled anyway.

  • and then what? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gambit3 ( 463693 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:11PM (#22072316) Homepage Journal
    Umm... ok, so I booted instantly into this thing... now what?

    Don't get me wrong, the long boot times of XP annoy me (except when it's freshly installed), but I don't see how this helps, unless it provides for an instant boot INTO XP, I don't see how you'd get regular people interested or how it will help them.

    • Re:and then what? (Score:5, Funny)

      by The Ultimate Fartkno ( 756456 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:18PM (#22072394)
      No, no, you're looking at this all wrong! This is SPLASHTOP, man! It's instant, it's hip, it's cool, it's edgy! This isn't your father's bootup, man! This is the future! It's Web 2.0 on RUBY RAILS! Don't believe me? Here's our commercial - would FALLOUT FUCKING BOY be in our commercial if this wasn't the way of tomorrow? For shizzle.

      Now, about that startup money we were mentioned earlier...

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by tolan-b ( 230077 )
        Actually it's just a Linux distro.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by jddj ( 1085169 )
        Highly futuristic - just like my Atari 400 and my Timex-Sinclair 1000. And my Palm T|X, for that matter.

      • No, no, you're looking at this all wrong! This is SPLASHTOP, man! It's instant, it's hip, it's cool, it's edgy! This isn't your father's bootup, man! This is the future! It's Web 2.0 on RUBY RAILS! Don't believe me? Here's our commercial - would FALLOUT FUCKING BOY be in our commercial if this wasn't the way of tomorrow? For shizzle.
        But does it go to eleven?

      • This isn't your father's bootup, man!

        Um, my zx spectrum booted up quite fast, as did my BBC model B.

        OK, less capable systems perhaps, but lets not get confused here, PCs take waaay longer to boot up then any of that old technology.

        Plus I don't recall being any less productive on the BBC model B, the things I can do have changed is all. I have documents that I began on the BBC which I am still using now.

        The first time I booted a 'proper' pc up (I used my old BBC right up until 1995) I was shocked by the long

    • Re:and then what? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by merreborn ( 853723 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:23PM (#22072464) Journal

      I don't see how you'd get regular people interested or how it will help them.
      If your PC is off, and you want to check movie times on your way out the door, being able to rapidly boot into an environment with a web browser would be appealing.

      For the type of user that leaves their PC off most of the time, the ability to accomplish a single task rapidly could be appealing.

      • Re:and then what? (Score:5, Funny)

        by no1nose ( 993082 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:40PM (#22072642)
        If your PC is "off"? I don't understand.

      • Re:and then what? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by misleb ( 129952 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:50PM (#22072782)

        If your PC is off, and you want to check movie times on your way out the door, being able to rapidly boot into an environment with a web browser would be appealing.


        Try using a (web enabled) phone and you can literally do it on your way out the door. Making a PC instantly available is an increasingly disminishing benefit.

        For the type of user that leaves their PC off most of the time, the ability to accomplish a single task rapidly could be appealing.


        Or they could just try hibernating their existing OS and get the same effect. Seriously, marketing a new OS based on boot time is just stupid.

        -matthew

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by justinlindh ( 1016121 )

          Try using a (web enabled) phone and you can literally do it on your way out the door. Making a PC instantly available is an increasingly disminishing benefit.

          To expand specifically on this example, you can even send a text message to GOOGL (46645) with the text "showtimes " and you'll get a response text message with movie listings for free. I use this a lot, as I loathe the web interface on my phone.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by justinlindh ( 1016121 )
            Argh... butchered my example above (that'll learn me to use preview!). The text message body needs to contain "showtimes <zip_code>".

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by More_Cowbell ( 957742 ) *

          Or they could just try hibernating their existing OS and get the same effect.

          I 100% agree.

          Except that waking my (brand new 2.0 Centrino core 2 duo w/2GB ram Vista Premium Vaio) laptop - or even just unlocking the keyboard causes the wireless connection to go apeshit. It takes up to a minute or even two to re-establish connection on my home network. And yes it is set to auto connect.

          I do blame most of this on Vista, because my girlfriends Mac takes less than 10 seconds (same router).


        • If your PC is off, and you want to check movie times on your way out the door, being able to rapidly boot into an environment with a web browser would be appealing.

          Try using a (web enabled) phone and you can literally do it on your way out the door. Making a PC instantly available is an increasingly disminishing benefit.

          Or, you could do something even more outrageous. Try opening a newspaper. Made from recyclable paper, and the only energy expenditure is you getting out of the
        • My XP laptop takes longer to bring back from hibernation than it does to boot.

          Sure, this might not be The Wave of The Future®, but managed correctly, this sort of thing could carve a nontrivial niche in the market.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by jdogalt ( 961241 )
        In other words, it's called dual booting into a non-bloated linux installation.

      • Re:and then what? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by peragrin ( 659227 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @06:19PM (#22073164)
        how about using an OS that has decent hibernate and sleep functions? I know MSFT keeps breaking them so windows users rarely know that joy, but damn. I know Linux can do it, Windows can too.

        My two Macs take 10 seconds to load up and are network ready and 5 seconds of that is me typing in my password. REboots should only be used when you need to update the system. If you have so many memory problems that you need to reboot more often than that , then i suggest you upgrade your OS to something that isn't a fisherprice toy.

        I can pull out my laptop raise the cover log in, check movie times, and put it back faster than a fresh XP install or hell even a fresh OS X install can boot.

        All MSFT has to do is stop screwing around with the ACPI specs and not care if Linux or anyone else can use them. that won't happen so windows users will always get shafted.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rueger ( 210566 )
          REboots should only be used when you need to update the system.

          I'm still trying to figure out why I need to reboot after every update to iTunes - which seems to happen at least weekly.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kihaji ( 612640 )
        If you are already out the door, you already have plans, and will be out. So you can either:

        A) Walk your happy ass by the movie theater and look at the times on the board, picking the most convenient time.
        B) Use the cellphone that is invariably melded to the side of your face and call said theater.
        C) Pick up that ancient thing called, I think it's Newspaper, and look at the times.

        Seriously, wasting money to speed up boot times, are we sure this isn't a Gentoo project? Seems like some stupid miniscule optimi

      • If your PC is off, and you want to check movie times on your way out the door, being able to rapidly boot into an environment with a web browser would be appealing.

        For the type of user that leaves their PC off most of the time, the ability to accomplish a single task rapidly could be appealing.

        Have you tried the hibernation feature of Windows? Just remember to ensure the BIOS is set to the "Suspend to RAM (S3)" mode -- this was not the default for me, and necessary to make it fully power off. I understand that some users still have trouble with the feature on Windows as well as on Linux due to it sometimes being picky about the drivers being of high quality, but if that is in order, it has worked fairly reliably for me, and I think from what I've seen on Vista, actually even moreso.

        "Boot" times

    • If you just wanted to boot up to do some quick web surfing (check /., email, blogs etc) then having a quick boot + web browser etc is great. If you want to run full blown apps like Office etc then you do a full boot.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zebra_X ( 13249 )
      Long boot times?

      I benched my system at 14 seconds from end of BIOS init to login...

  • Warning to readers (Score:5, Informative)

    by idontgno ( 624372 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:12PM (#22072328) Journal
    TFA is infected with "Vibrant Media IntelliTxt" advertising hotlinks. Mouse carefully or browse with NoScript or something.

  • My desktop machine has been up 700hrs (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gelfling ( 6534 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:12PM (#22072330) Homepage Journal
    Since I turned off automatic Windows updates I rarely worry about shutting down and rebooting. Of course the 3 or 4 times a year I do have to patch Windows it sucks plutonic balls to have to restart over and over to finalize the patches.

    • Re:My desktop machine has been up 700hrs (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:33PM (#22072562)
      OMG. Does anyone know how to recover a stolen account? I had a really low uid too.

    • Re:My desktop machine has been up 700hrs (Score:5, Interesting)

      by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @06:25PM (#22073242) Homepage

      Since I turned off automatic Windows updates I rarely worry about shutting down and rebooting.
      I hope it has really good power management, because otherwise that's an extreme waste of energy.

      It's funny how many slashdotters are posting to say that Windows sucks and boots slow, and of course the solution is to run Linux. I run Linux, but one of the things I'm least happy about is the horrible support for power management. None of the sleep, hibernate, etc., options work on my machine at all. I don't know the solution to the problem, either, because it sounds like the problem is basically that manufacturers refuse to openly document the registers that need to be saved when their devices go to sleep. If I had working power management, then I wouldn't need to shut down my computer so often, and I wouldn't care much what my boot times were. This is all much bigger issue on laptops, of course.

      I believe one of the reasons Linux doesn't boot faster than it does is that there's a kernel feature that, for security, randomizes the addresses at which various code is loaded into memory each time you boot. This is supposed to protect against buffer overflows that jump to a fixed address in memory. The problem is that it means you can't speed up booting by simply caching an image of the initialized state of a lot of your memory in a freshly booted system.

      I don't know about other people's Linux boxes, but on mine the time taken to start Gnome is comparable to the time it takes to boot into gdm. That's one of the reasons I run fluxbox rather then Gnome.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I have a Dell D820 laptop and hibernate and suspend both work 100% with no issue.

        If I just close my laptop it suspends and can maintain instant-on state for almost 6 days on a full battery.

        If I select hibernate then it writes everything to disk and shuts off. Booting up then launches right back where I was and takes about 5-10 seconds.

        This is using a stock Ubuntu / Kubuntu install of Gutsy Gibbon.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hey! ( 33014 )
        Well to be fair, a lot of laptop vendors have really crappy, buggy BIOS. Toshiba for one. Until I patched the ACPI DSDT table, I couldn't get any sound under Linux unless I booted with ACPI turned off. Fixing the DSDT table (which was broken in multiple ways) to fool the laptop hardware into thinking I was running Windows XP SP2 brought sound back.

        One of the interesting things I found out after installing Ubuntu gutsy is that at least with recent kernels, Linux hibernates perfectly without power managem

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gelfling ( 6534 )
        Yeah that's fine. But the point was some system that aids in the booting of Windows machines. My only point was that it really doesn't need to be booted all that much. Given, if you have a bunch of things like autoupdate, Weatherbug, Kodak picture processor, a firewall, an AV scanner and such the bootup time on a midlevel machine can be 5 minutes on XP. Now as far as the greenishness of that, yeah we chuck it in suspend and 98% the network connections come back by themselves.

      • I run Linux, but one of the things I'm least happy about is the horrible support for power management. None of the sleep, hibernate, etc., options work on my machine at all.

        I once had a problem with this, and decided to investigate.

        So I went through the forums and found that the problem was that the manufacturer of the laptop supplies a dsdt table [wikipedia.org] that does not follow the published standards for dsdt tables.

        So I found a corrected table for my laptop and suspend/resume now works. But I was interested as to why a manufacturer would supply a DSDT that didnt follow the specs. And heres what I found:

        1. The ACPI standard is rather complicated, almost as if it was disigned to be hard to implement. Checking to find who the major players in defining the specification, I find my fist clue: "Conceived by Intel, Microsoft and Toshiba" [acpi.info]
        2. So why would they create such a complicated specification? My next clue was that Microsoft was the developer of one of two major 3DSDT compilers.
        3. It appears that the DSDT compiler Microsoft created is very forgiving of errors [gentoo-wiki.com] that other compilers (such as from Intel) would flag.
        4. I don't believe it is coincidence that the parts of the ACPI specification parsed strictly by the Microsoft compiler are those needed by Microsoft operating systems.

        So Microsoft create a complicated specification, probably taking care to leave out important implementation details. Then they ship a compiler for the specification that only checks parts of the specification used by their own software. And thats why Linux has issues with suspend/resume on some hardware.

        Does any of this sound familiar [wikipedia.org]?

  • I sleep/hibernate my notebook for months at a time.

    I think the last time my e1405 was shut down and cold booted is when I installed a bluetooth module (about 4 months ago).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )

      No kidding. My MacBook Pro would be up for months on end except for two things. The first is Apple updates that require restarts (come out once every month or two, it seems) and the times on weekends I boot into Windows to play Half-Life 2 or Team Fortress 2. My PowerBook G4 (which couldn't boot into windows) had a record of 3-4 months, with me hauling it between home and school every day. That was due to an Apple update too.

      If you don't want to wait through boot times, just put the computer to sleep.

  • Just wondering which flavor of linux is splashtop based on? (i.e. Distro, Window manager, etc.)

  • Misnomer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kebes ( 861706 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:14PM (#22072350) Journal
    Calling this "Instant-Boot" is a bit of a stretch. What they are describing is just a dual-boot bootloader that gives the option of booting into Windows or into Linux (Splashtop [wikipedia.org] is a trimmed-down Linux distribution). The 20 second boot time for Splashtop is decently fast, but hardly "instant", especially when you compare it to how fast some computers can recover from sleep or hibernate modes.

    It seems moderately interesting, in the sense that some users might suddenly realize that all their computing needs are met by a lightweight (and Free) operating system. They might rarely boot into Windows. On the other hand, for many people this "fast boot" will just make using the computer more frustrating, since they will boot into Splashtop to get something done quickly, but then suddenly realize that they need another application (that they only have on their Windows partition), and then have to endure another, longer, boot (and re-open whatever webpage they were just looking at, etc.).

    In short, the interesting thing here is the idea of pushing a dual-boot computer to the masses, and not an "instant on" computer.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MBCook ( 132727 )

      No kidding. "Look, we invented booting from ROM, only slower".

      Windows is slow to boot. OS X is pretty good, but it's no speed demon. But I just close the lid on my MacBook Pro and it goes to sleep. It actually seems to take 10-20 seconds to do this, but it's reliable so in reality I don't have to worry about it. Resuming is done as fast as the display can come up, if not faster. It is, for all practical purposes, instant.

      Hibernating in Windows is much slower every time I've seen it, ranging from relativel

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ColdWetDog ( 752185 )

      In short, the interesting thing here is the idea of pushing a dual-boot computer to the masses, and not an "instant on" computer

      Most of the computers that would benefit from this - business computers networked to applications or security routines / login scripts / cruft cleaners - would be the ones most likely to have it disabled. I'm not sure I want another network-capable application running under the radar, even if it is Linux.

      Besides, who wants to get started any faster in the morning.? Long coffe

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Bob-taro ( 996889 )

      In short, the interesting thing here is the idea of pushing a dual-boot computer to the masses, and not an "instant on" computer.

      To me, the interesting thing was embedding the OS in the BIOS.

      • To me, the interesting thing was embedding the OS in the BIOS.

        That's not what they did. AFAIK there's one flash chip that holds a conventional BIOS and a separate flash chip that holds the Splashtop Linux installation. Instead of giving you the choice to boot from disk, CD, or USB, the BIOS gives you a choice to boot from flash, disk, CD, or USB. Technically, there's nothing to see here.

    • Re:Misnomer (Score:4, Informative)

      by pilgrim23 ( 716938 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:40PM (#22072650)
      I know what instant boot is: I used to use a Compact Macintosh SE running System 6. I defy ANY modern opsys to go from power off to up and I can click an app as quickly as that system. Funny thing: A document created on that system, with gee whiz wow fonts and spiffy graphs on a 8.5 X 11 paper sheet, looks just like a modern machine creates. decades later I still get a sheet of paper

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Trixter ( 9555 )
        I can beat your Mac. I have a Tandy TL/2, which came standard with MS-DOS in ROM. From power-on to DOS prompt is less than 2 seconds.

    • Calling this "Instant-Boot" is a bit of a stretch. The 20 second boot time for Splashtop is decently fast, but hardly "instant", especially when you compare it to how fast some computers can recover from sleep or hibernate modes.
      Forget hibernate or sleep, my Windows install boots that fast. Of course, it's got a decent hard-disk and isn't loaded with a billion items of crap to launch at startup.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Zantetsuken ( 935350 )
      Not only that, but this story was covered back in October [slashdot.org]. In fact, the old one was even better, since it was more descriptive and not misleading in the title or description...

      At least the old article mentioned that it was Asus to be first making these boards (the dupe only has a screenshot of the bootloader having an Asus logo. Or that it would first be available on Asus's Intel X38 motherboards...

      I think along with myself, a lot of people are getting tired of dupes on stories from months ago, with "

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Trogre ( 513942 )
      20 seconds? Instant boot?

      My 4MB 386 booted DOS and the menu application launcher in less than 3 seconds. Windows 3.1 was a bit slower though, at about 10 seconds from POST screen.

  • or on could always use... (Score:4, Informative)

    by stubear ( 130454 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:21PM (#22072434)
    ...Windows SideShow [wikipedia.org] and get true instant on to files, e-mails, appointments, etc. on their PC.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by markdavis ( 642305 )
      From what I see of that technology, it just drives external, autonymous display devices and such WHEN THE COMPUTER IS ON. It can transfer files to a smaller integrated computer, for example, to display appointment or somthing. It would not be useful for web browsing, live file access, etc.

  • Good for Windows users (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Rinisari ( 521266 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:24PM (#22072468) Homepage Journal
    This thing is quite the buzz. It was all-the-rage at CES in a few companies' product, memorably ASUS, which I believe calls it "Express Gate." I think that OEMs could clone this functionality quickly and package it up. It's just a very hardware-specific kernel running with just enough modules and libraries to run the applications. A quick build of the x86 version of Cross-LFS would yield a decent, small OS for a base. But, those Linux users who already tune their kernel generally don't have to wait the two minutes for Vista to start and think it's quick when the computer boots in 20 seconds. We tuners wait 30-40 seconds and we've got a full system. Splashtop users wait 20 seconds and have a reduced system.
    • This has also been installed on the EEE (video) [blogeee.net]. For a PC on the go it is pretty neat, after pressing the "on" button you directly get to choose what to boot, after selecting the Splashtop it directly opens the OS and you can work. Now the EEE is already pretty fast with Xandros, but the Splashtop really makes it close to PDA speed for startup. Even recovering from a hibernate might take normally longer than this. I was quite impressed.

  • real solution: interim "preOS" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:24PM (#22072472)
    Splashtop sounds good, but TFA portrays it as requiring the user to pick between OSes at boot. That sucks if the user wants a fast boot and eventual access to all their "real" applications. Instead, I see more need for a light weight interim OS (a preOS??) that boots and lets the user do a few things while the main OS continues to boot in the background. Something like Splashtop could boot first, launch a couple of key "first-thing" apps (e.g. web with some morning news or email) and then transfer the session data to the main OS once it's up and running. After a minute (or whatever) Splashtop would crossfade to the main OS and decommission itself.

    Of course, the real solution is stable instant-on low power modes (and OSes) that make the morning boot wholly obsolete.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vrmlguy ( 120854 )
      I'd hope to see the base OS support VM Player, which could boot (or restore) Windows in the background.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by noamsml ( 868075 )
      Really? Kubuntu boots from your BIOS? (they didn't say that's what it does, but since it's bundled with motherboards, it's unlikely that it's anything else).
  • It works really well, much faster boot times.

    Though mine has a different name, it is called Kubuntu.

    And I am not sure about the cut down part.

    Still, it is a great idea, "your OS is slow and crappy, here, install another!"

    It will be interesting to see how well this plays, Windows has liked to break dual booting for quite a while.
  • People with HP laptops incorporating the QuickPlay feature already have something similar, and have since at least 2006. A small partition on the HD holds a linux kernel and various drivers, as well as HP's QuickPlay software. Pop in a DVD, hit the QuickPlay button, and you're watching your media within 20 seconds or so. I fail to see what's new or revolutionary about TFA's product.

  • Brilliant! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Foddz ( 1181575 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:39PM (#22072628)
    Excellent! Now I have something to boot to and surf microsoft's tech support site with when my Vista install inevitably goes bad!

  • Dose this work with EFI / UEFI? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Joe The Dragon ( 967727 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2008 @05:43PM (#22072680)
    EFI and UEFI system will likely start coming out after vista sp1 comes out apple has been useing efi for all of there x86 systems.
  • OpenLina sounds more interesting....

  • Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Elentari ( 1037226 )
    I can't find anything useful about this product. XP boots quickly on my PC, though it can't match OSX or Debian in my experience. Still, I don't have to go away and put on some tea whilst waiting for it to get to the "Login" screen, and can't imagine why anyone would be so desperate to browse the internet or connect to Skype that they'd find "Splashtop" an interesting prospect.
  • Problem solved.
  • I haven't RTFA, obviously, but I'm willing to bet that "Circumvents the bootup process" = bootloader. If not, Microsoft would probably be sending in the DMCA hounds with bees in their mouths.
  • Wow! What a radical idea. A useful BIOS. Who woulda thunkit.

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