Intel Aims for Two Second Boot Times
Imagine an operating system that would boot in two seconds -- that’s what Intel is aiming for with Moblin.
We reported earlier this year that Intel had released a Linux-based operating system for alpha testing. Intel’s aim for Moblin is to provide the Atom CPU a light and fast OS that less stressful than running a full blown version of Windows.
Those who have been testing the alpha version since late January have found that parts of the system can be started up in just seconds. If Intel is able to reduce all initialization processes to just a couple seconds, and have them run in parallel, we could have the fastest booting OS yet.
Intel Open Source Technology Center director Imhad Sousou spoke at the Linux Collaboration Summit about reducing Moblin boot times, detailed in Ars Technica’s report. By cutting out bloat, parallelizing and other streamlining techniques, Sousou declared, "We think that two second boot is possible."
A reduced boot time would increase the usability of any system, but particularly so for portable devices such as the netbooks and MIDs that Moblin is targeted at. Often we’re finding that we prefer to have our notebooks (and netbooks) in and out of sleep states for the sake of having nearly-immediate access. Of course, sleep modes do drain battery as well as risk data loss, and hibernate modes still incur wait times as RAM is being written back and forth.
Would you be willing to try Moblin (that’s right, bye bye Windows, hello Linux) on your netbook if Intel made good on its promises for a two second boot time?
I really don't want a windows based OS on MY netbook.
I mean, my god, we couldn't wait 6 more seconds....
I certainly have to agree with that statement. Also, I doubt that the full boot process could be completed in 2 seconds as well. Still it would be great if it does work as described. Not likely, but still......
and I can't hardly wait for jaunty.
I agree also..
First I'd have to get a netbook though.
What about the integrated OS in some motherboards? Provide net, email, and instant messaging. All I'd use a motherboard for anyways.
You do know about Kubuntu (KDE Desktop), Xubuntu (Xfce desktop) and Fluxbuntu (Fluxbox desktop) as alternatives to regular Ubuntu, right?
And I will absolutely try this. Man, that would be awesome to boot into my desktop in 2 seconds and check something on the internet before I have to leave in a minute or two. Not that big of a deal, but it would also be an energy-saving alternative to suspend/sleep mode.
However, my current Arch Linux system boots into the desktop in about 15-20 seconds, so it's not a huge deal to me to gain those extra seconds. Definitely beats my experience with booting Windows (no fanboyism intended).
Like many I'll believe it when I see AND displaying desktop does not = computer is fully up and running.
That said, for a mobile device that has specialized apps loaded on it. If it works will probably be a very handy thing indeed. Most people don't really need windows loaded on their mobile devices, they just need the apps to be functional and the files to be compatible with whatever they normally use on their desktop.
Most of the internet already runs on linux anyway.
And yes, I've heard of the other ubuntu variants, and they are a bit better, but instead of the likes of Kubuntu I would use Mepis, which actually shares ubuntu innards but is designed with K interface in mind so it's slightly better for that. (I admit, I'm not familiar with Xfce or Fluxbox desktop environments, I'll have to check them out.)
GIMP? Paint.NET?
Also, I'm pretty sure you can modify photoshop to work on linux.
I'm pretty interested in an operating system from an actual silicon designer/manufacturer...Maybe they can actually take advantage of all the processing power
That is exactly how it is done. Windows is doing the same think since Windows 98. But compare to Windows the mouse don't get frozen because the better task scheduler used by new Linux kernel used by Moblin. Of course you need to wait for network connection in order to open your e-mails. With new changes in the kernel I think we can see even faster boot times.
The new Ubuntu loads all background task faster then Moblin, but Moblin is not finished yet and has a lot of debugging code enabled.
Moblin V2 vs. Ubuntu Netbook Remix vs. Ubuntu MID
This is small demonstration how the Linux can be trimmed down in order to achieve maximum performance.