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Fast-Booting Text-Editor Operating System?
cgenman writes "What is the fastest booting operating system out there that is still sufficient for editing text? Quite frequently, I'll need to boot my laptop and edit a few lines of text, or jot down an idea or two. XP loads in roughly 4 minutes to usable, and Ubuntu loads in about 60 seconds. Both feel like an eternity if there isn't a pen and paper around. What is the best operating system that people have found which would load to useable in under 20 seconds, can edit text files in something a little more friendly than VI or EMACS, yet can still access fat32 formatted USB drives? GUIs aren't required, but commands which require arcane foreknowledge or a cheat sheet are out."
Point 1: Sleep and wake actually works on MacOS/X
(and doesn't make you log in again)
Point 2. You get a mac!
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Why the hell is this modded interesting when it's so obviously flamebait?
He doesn't argue against putting the computer to sleep instead of turning it off. The most this AC says is that if he was in the TSA he would pull your goddamn battery out. Who gives a shit? Save what you're working on before you put the computer to sleep.
Except... he said nothing as arcane and unfriendly as vi and emacs. So, suggesting a vi clone and/or emacs is kind of ... inappropriate?
I ignored that comment as gibberish.
pico, nodepad.exe and edit.com are the arcane ones. How in the world can you replace foo_* with *Foo in those editors. doesn't make sense.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
So you're saying that a Mac can resume from a suspend-to-RAM faster than other operating systems can boot?
absolutely! There are very few systems that boot faster than most any OS's reanimation time. I don't believe the OP was considering hibernation as a way to speed boot time because of the possibility of losing ram from an interrupted sleep.
Did you know that other popular operating systems, such as Windows and Linux, can also suspend to RAM?
Sure did. Though since I'm not an expert on all of them I'm only sharing what I know best about.
And will therefore start up at probably about the same speed as a Mac? Or are Macs somehow soooooo much better than other computers?
Y'know, there are very few things more annoying than an Apple-Fanboi, and one of them is an Anti-Apple-Fanboi. Instead of being one, contribute something constructive - why don't you tell us about some alternative OSs and their reanimation times and behaviors that you have experience with, which helps this person.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.