Netbooks: Booting Up In Under 3 Sec

2.97 Sec to be exact.  That's what The Inquirer is reporting Lineo, a Japanese company specializing in embedded Linux software, has done just that.

To do this, Lineo loaded about an 18MB Linux system on an ARM chip.  Even more impressive is that they achieved a compressed image in 3.17 sec.

That's faster than my iPhone or G1.  Heck, I think it's faster than some not-so-smart cell phones.  When will we see this on our netbooks or laptops?  Well, not sure.

However, The Inquirer did get into what others are doing.

• Asus sues "Express Gate", loaded with an embedded Linux and web browser system, on all it's motherboards.
• HP and Lenovo uses a similar system called DeviceVM Splashtop.
• Dell has it's Dell Latitude On that runs on an ARM chip.  
• Toshiba and Intervideo will have their own Linux boot for quick startups.

So, there you have it.  Less than three seconds.  

Impact on mobile warriors:  Keep in mind that these are Linux systems.  And I just don't know how this will figure into purchasing decisions by consumers in general.  For more experienced mobile warriors, a system with quick startup time may be enough to win them over.

Factoring in Microsoft:  What about Microsoft?  Provide folks with the choice, they'll like go with XP.  Still, Microsoft does have a lot of work to close this startup gap and put more distance between itself and its agile Linux competitors.  People are becoming less and less reliant on all things Microsoft as more computing and mobile tasks move into the browsers and onto the cloud.  

Source:  The Inquirer