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Startup Offers Instant-Boot Windows Alternative
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."
How to get slashdot coverage if I have a startup?
1995 called they want their ramdrives back.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
You sure you heard that right?
I'm sure this story was reported some months back?
;)
Ahh, wait, I forgot - this is slashdot!
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
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?
Living With a Nerd
And all I get in return is a quicker boot up? No thanks! It's not like windows boots are particularly bad. I go for weeks just hibernating which is even faster.
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.
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
TFA is infected with "Vibrant Media IntelliTxt" advertising hotlinks. Mouse carefully or browse with NoScript or something.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
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.
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).
Gone!
Just wondering which flavor of linux is splashtop based on? (i.e. Distro, Window manager, etc.)
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
IMHO, the time it takes for your OS to boot is a bit of a non-issue. As long as you've got working suspend to ram/disk, why bother with this? You lose all open apps/files with a (re)boot, whereas suspending maintains the state of your system.
Bootup speeds have always seemed like a bit of a pissing contest to me. Maybe I'm not part of the target audience...
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 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.
How is this different from using LinuxBIOS and/or a small, lean linux distribution, a la Puppy Linux, etc?
if its based on Linux/FOSS then the source should be available, yet i cant find it anywhere on the official site
http://www.splashtop.com/
perhaps someone from FSF would like to remind them of the OSS obligations
seems too many companies thesedays are taking FOSS without giving anything back
treating it as fre money, thousands do the work and they just take it and sell it
I think you just have to submit a press release as a story.
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
...Windows SideShow and get true instant on to files, e-mails, appointments, etc. on their PC.
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.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
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.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
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.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
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.
Zapsavings: Simply calculate how much energy efficient bulb
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.
You can't have a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent.
Of course you're going to get a fast boot in a less complex operating system. Just try installing Windows 98 on current hardware and watch that boot, it's fast too. The less you load the faster it will be.
Excellent! Now I have something to boot to and surf microsoft's tech support site with when my Vista install inevitably goes bad!
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.
Direct link to Splashtop.
OpenLina sounds more interesting....
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
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.
On their Inspiron line of laptops? I think it's a media playback only solution, but I can't imagine adding a protocol stack and browser based on Linux would be that hard.
gotta run, I'm inventing the "instant-on firefox" where users who just want to turn on their computer to browse a webpage can flip the switch and selecting, instead of Windows, instant-on firefox, blackjack, and hookers. In fact, forget the firefox!
Gee, that kind of looks like Linux with X doesn't it?
Also, isn't this basically what is being used on the Asus EeePC?
~Petaris "The world is open. Are you?"
Grub
Lilo
Didn't I just read a month or 2 ago about the CMOS manufacturer Phoenix (bios programmers) that are developing their own "pre-OS" called hyperspace.
it is supposed to run at a level between the main OS and the cmos.. a quick boot , if you will, just like this splashtop.
their whole marketing angle was aimed at the user who doesn't want to wait for Vista's (not xp's) huge bloated startup time if they just want to pop a DVD into their laptop to watch, or check their email.
got the feeling that it would be a big help to business laptop people. I can totally see the benefit, sometimes I just want to check my email when I'm out on a jobsite, and if I could just start up a small OS layer to run a few applications, like outlook, I would jump on that in a second.
It's not illegal if you don't get caught.
gotta run, I'm inventing the "instant-on firefox" where users who just want to turn on their computer to browse a webpage can flip the switch and select, instead of Windows, instant-on firefox, blackjack, or hookers. In fact, forget the firefox!
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
here
I wonder if this is the first signs of M$'s eventual demise. The minimal end user now says "I don't need Vista because Splashtop does everything I need". Vista is a dismal disappointment from just about any angle you look at it. The company I work for isn't migrating to it anytime in the next two years and we are not small. Silverlight though nice, was too late to put a damper in AJAX. MS Virtualization software was just too late to dent VMWare. Just about every cool new gadget comes with embedded Linux and NOT embedded Windows CE. All the Multifunction printers that my company buys have embedded Linux not CE. Signs point that the Google phone will have embedded Linux. The iPhone certainly doesn't use CE. So is this the first signs that Micro$oft has grown too big to be competitive and will collapse under its own inertia?
this is...
Move sig!
Great ! Now I can boot Slashdot ?
Sure it is much less complexe than Windows.
The world belongs to those who get up early. - I'm far from being the king of Earth then
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 ;)
Problem solved.
It's LinuxBios
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
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.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
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.
Huh, isn't this GRUB?
If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?
This really isn't news...I built my own system about 3 months ago, and the motherboard came with this feature.
I am actually a bit worried about it. Clearly all it's doing is booting into a flash-based copy of Linux, from which I can run a stripped down copy of Firefox or a Skype client. But all the serial numbers are filed off, so it can't be proven. Do they obey all the appropriate licenses? Where can I get the source for all this?
This has also been installed on the EEE (video). 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.
molmod.com - computing tips from a molecular modeling
It's mainly in the storage model. Opera is only about 5 MB, OpenOffice is over 100MB. That means it is easy to add Opera to the flash image, but not so for OpenOffice.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Hewlett-Packard already offers a slimmed down Linux installation on their laptops that offered access to multimedia capabilities. Sure, it might not be as advanced as Splashtop, but I hardly see how their product is anything close to revolutionary.
You can charge $1 billion for GPL'd software if you want. You can ask people to register. You can also ask them to give you a lap dance or eat a live rodent.
You just can't require them notto give it away to anyone afterwards.
Vista w/SP1 wakes from sleep and is fully functional in less than 5 seconds (including wireless network connection). One of the many useful new features of Vista. Hibernation is *so* XP.
Come on... Drink the koolaid. It's grape!
so it boots fast... what are you going to do with it next hmm? I betcha it wont support itunes....
..... drum roll... this is pretty much linux
I can make a linux partition that boots really fast too, only i dont need anything fancy to do it. problem is no one gives a crap because they won't be able to use their "familiar" applications and all that jazz....
although if this rallies support from stupid consumers we can blindside them later when we reveal that
"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny" ~Frank Zappa
EdelFactor
Wow! What a radical idea. A useful BIOS. Who woulda thunkit.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Perhaps this will encourage vendors to provide better Linux driver support for products such as sound cards etc. Since you have access to things like YouTube you will need working Video, Network, Sound drivers.
Throw in a file manager, and a way to run an anti-spyware/antivirus application, and you got yourself a winner!
"either Windows or a faster, less-complex operating system"
Isn't *every* operating system faster and less-complex than Windows?
Lame have this on my 3 year old Toshiba Qosmio g10 Laptop, I can boot into Linux to watch DVDs and see TV without starting Linux. Lars
Other threads suggest a 20 second boot time for SplashTop: my understanding is that it is around 5 seconds from switch on. Also, IIRC, you *can* be booting your main OS in the background as you use SplashTop (taking advantage of hardware virualisation).
(Note to manufactures: I would buy a SplashTop motherboard *tomorrow* if a) it real was 5 seconds, and b) it was on a basic, cheap motherboard (SplashTop is starting out only high end motherboards).)
Call me at 10.30. I'll probably be in the kitchen. Well coffee doesn't brew itself, you know!
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
To understand pain you need to have iTunes and QuickTime installed on your PC. The Real Player as well, for the truly masochistic.
Suppose you have a super-fast boot time, and suppose you had a boot sector virus in Windows, no virus scanner will be able to check the boot sector fast enough for this quick boot - so then what happens, your system has been comprehensively shafted because you had to skip a few steps just to boot faster?
Take Nobody's Word For It.
It is called ROM Basic ;-)
I know, I could repackage Windows 3.1 and MsDos 6. It runs all of those old old programs, you can start up in ms dos almost instantly, and you get quicker windows boot time!
What about just using hibernate like most people do, and drop your boot time to under 5 seconds on a p4 and keeping all your windows open just like it says in the manual....
I mean common..., really!?!
Don't be surprised to see more IE only support sites from Microsoft if this gets to be more popular.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
From the UI styles, it's pretty obvious they're basing this thing off of linux. So, beyond that they just have a hardware solution that doesn't require booting from a hard disk. Neither one of those things is revolutionary.
I'm running XP on my home desktop, with a Core 2 Duo and a WD Raptor. It takes about 30 seconds for me to go from the off state to booted, logged in, and ready to go. That's faster than my cell phone, and I haven't even done any specific optimizations. I don't really see much of a need for the 'splashtop'.
How about speeding up the boot of existing systems? I know most people use the Sleep function on laptops, and that's what it's designed for, but why does the OS need to do so much even if I haven't changed any hardware or software between reboots? Shouldn't it be possible to cache more of this, or store the "clean boot" state as a file alongside the sleep/swapfile and similar, then just load that into memory on boot? If the hardware state has changed, a full boot could be performed instead. If the user installs some software or changes an OS option that requires a different booting sequence, why not refresh the boot file in the background while the user continues working, or even while the system is shutting down?
I haven't had my coffee yet, so I suspect I'm rambling. I personally would have no interest in booting into a half-assed Linux environment and using that all day just to shave 30 seconds off your morning boot. Laptops are excluded from this unless you're in the habit of shutting down your laptop every time you close the lid, or have reasons for doing that beyond saving ~1% of your battery overnight.
I can possibly see the appeal of using it to quickly switch on the computer to Google something, then switching it off again. If you were doing this repeatedly you might benefit from using an embedded or VM OS. You would also benefit from using the right tool for that job (like a portable device, or one capable of sleeping) and basically not fucking about cycling the power on your computer all day praying that your square peg will eventually fit through that round hole.
(also, "Mr Chong" is an awesome name)
It's basically Linux with fluxbox, firefox, and some other apps installed on the motherboard (maybe flash) -set up to boot to desktop in a couple seconds. I seriously don't see how /.'rs are thinking so backwards. There's many uses for this, besides quick boot. Boot when you're system is borked, no hard drive, or to install bios updates without having to do it from windows. Not to mention, 90% of home pc use is strictly web based; why wait for a full system to boot if you're just going to check something quick on-line? Generally, I think the lay person will simply consider this "booting to the internet, or firefox or whatever" instead of booting into windows. Big deal, You don't always need a swiss army knife to cut a slice of bread. If anything this will teach people they can use computers *without* windows.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
I see a lot of "This is pointless" responses from Windows users. Having Linux boot first must be more frightening than I thought. I could see mom and pop taking a little box using this home and never booting into Windows. They would never get caught up in the upgrade, disinfect, must learn Winderz cycle that has turned so many people into non-computer users and eventual botnet victims.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
I'd certainly mod you up myself if I had any points today -- my only puzzlement is whether "Informative" or "Insightful" would be more appropriate. :)
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
which is based on the open-source operating system Linux--can start surfing the Web or watching a DVD in less than 20 seconds, and, in some cases, in less than five.
Here is where I find this both a really good and really stupid idea.
Linux world - great...
Windows World - worthless...
1ghz CPU
1gb RAM
Vista
Day one Install
Boot Time: 60-90secs
1ghz CPU
1gb RAM
Vista
3-7 Days Later after Boot Optimization Runs internally on Vista
Boot Time: 10-20secs (BIOS time being the biggest chunk of time)
1ghz CPU
1gb RAM
Vista
Resume from Full Off Hibernate: 3-10 secs (Depending on BIOS time)
So this sounds great, but it also demonstrates that these people either:
A) aren't using Vista, or
B) Are taking advantage of the Vista FUD.
I can put this in real numbers and video on freaking YouTube if people think this is abnormal, our lab has over 30 PCs running Vista, almost without exception these numbers are accurate.
Here are two machines that are at the 'fast' end of these numbers:
HP ZD7030 Laptop (Circa 2003)
3.06ghz HT CPU
5600 GeforeGo
1ghz RAM
Boot Time: 15secs
Resume Hibernate: 4 secs
Custom Built (Circa 2003)
Athlon 2800+ (32bit)
ATI X700 AGP
1ghz RAM
Boot Time: 12secs
Resume Hibernate: 5 secs
That brings up another aspect of Windows that I so LOVE -- the modal dialogs. So I can be in the middle of typing an email, and an alert will pop up and very annoyingly force itself to the front of the Z order only long enough for me to barely notice it as I type, and lo I've hit a key that corresponds to one of the dialog buttons, and BAM! I'm suddenly rebooting, or installing an update I'm not ready for, or gods only know what else. I much prefer the alerts in Kubuntu -- they simply flash from the Taskbar, and politely stay behind the active window, thus ensuring that I know they're there, but I don't accidentally confirm something simply because some jackass UI designers thought it would be smart to interrupt people mid-sentence.
Meh.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Why the hell is that a troll? Those are bootloaders used ubiquitously.
I use Prince Albert in a can.
Just the existense of these kind of products proves that there's something really wrong with the OS market in general, and Microsoft's domination in particular. People seem to view Windows as something they don't want to use, but have to use anyway.
There are alternatives.