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What's The Fastest Loading OS For x86?

Posted by Cliff on from the on-your-marks-get-set-BOOT! dept.

core10k asks: "I have a question concerning quick loading operating systems. I have a laptop that I use which I'd *like* to have running in the 10 seconds or so it takes for the BIOS to heat up, but then I have to wait for Windows 98 to load. And I know that Linux is even slower loading up. So I was wondering, does anyone know of a fast-loading operating system that has a half-decent (not necessarily great) C/C++ and GUI toolkit?"

1 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. BeOS, BIOS, DOS, and DJGPP. by percival · · Score: 3

    Well, BeOS is fast, that's for sure. You might also want to look at the Linux BIOS page - it promises VERY fast linux loading... when the work is done.

    If all you want is a GUI of some type, DOS + Win 3.1 will load very fast, if you arrange it nicely. There's a DOS version of the GNU compiler environment here, so you can do C/C++ development under DOS, but I don't know about a GUI IDE. I recall there are several text IDEs.

    DOS won't take up too much space, either, so you might be able to keep Win98 on there for other boot times.