It is the black hole of the digital age -- the three minutes it can take for your computer to boot up, when there is nothing to do but wait, and wait, and wait some more before you can log on and begin doing anything at all. Now the computer industry says it wants to give back some of those precious seconds. In coming months, the world's major PC makers plan to introduce a new generation of quick-start computers, spotting a marketing opportunity in society's short attention span.
Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo are rolling out machines that give people access to basic functions like e-mail and a Web browser in 30 seconds or less.
Now, can you remember back when you'd boot up the PC and then head to make a pot of coffee ...
Asus, a Taiwanese company that is the world's largest maker of the circuit boards at the center of every PC, has begun building faster-booting software into its entire product line.
Even Microsoft, whose bloated Windows software is often blamed for sluggish start times, has pledged to do its part in the next version of the operating system, saying on a company blog that "a very good system is one that boots in under 15 seconds."
Today only 35% of machines running Windows Vista, boot in 30 seconds or less, the blog notes.
Apple Macs tend to boot more quickly than comparable Windows machines, but still feel glacially slow to most users.
Now, if we could just solve global warming ...
More at the New York Times.
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Tom,
For the hardcore Linux hacker, you can use Coreboot to replace your traditional proprietary bios.
They claim that you can boot to a console in about 3 seconds, and into a windowing system not much longer after that.
Not for the faint of heart, but still sounds like a fun project!
- Dan