Further experimentation

[andrewducker]

My PC comes with something called "Express Gate" - a bootable linux attached to the motherboard that is theoretically "instant-on". Some brief timings later:
Time to boot to a completely limited OS with a cut-down version of Firefox which can't do addons: 22 seconds.
Time to boot to Windows full desktop and display the full version of Firefox with all of my bookmarks and addons: 65 seconds.
Time to resume from sleep to my complete Windows desktop: 3 seconds (of which 2 seconds is it reconnecting to the network and getting an IP address)

I think I'll stick with the last of these - all of the gain, none of the pain.

Comments

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

Fix your IP address then, poisonduk has a massive ream of printouts explaining how.

[andrewducker]

It takes a massive ream of printouts?

It's not worth me fixing the IP address - I occasionally connect it to other networks (LAN parties, for instance). And the 1.5 seconds isn't noticeable except when I'm sitting there timing it. Nice idea though.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

22 seconds? I guess it's flash memory rather than DRAM, but even so, I'm pretty sure Ubuntu 10.4 ran off booted off my hard disk in less time.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I was completely unimpressed.

[call-waiting.livejournal.com]

Gosh, that's entirely underwhelming.

I've just clocked my mac, 17 seconds from hitting the power switch to the login prompt, then after typing my password, another 5 seconds to web browser finishing loading.

<3 Momentus XT.