Fast-Booting OS for Usually-Off Appliance PCs?

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 17, 2008 @02:00PM from the zero-to-sixty-in-zilch-dot-two dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I have some older computer equipment at work that I want to re-purpose as application appliances. The machines will sit, unpowered, until needed, then powered up. No way around the 'sitting powered off' — company directive. What is the quickest-booting OS I could use for them? I know about LinuxBIOS, but that would require new hardware, which does not go along which the re-purposing theme. Some of them do not need to be connected to a network, so an old version of Linux or Windows 98 are possible. DOS is too old to consider. So what are my options?"

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Re:Parent is correct. by Anonymous Coward · 2008-07-17 22:32 · Score: 0, Redundant

A small component of Splashtop is embedded in the BIOS of the PC - that's the part that runs as soon as you press the power button
A lot of older hardware does not have flashable (modifiable) BIOS'.