Bypass Windows With Fast-Boot Technology 348
thatnerdguy writes "Phoenix Technologies, a developer of BIOS software, is working on a new technology called Hyperspace that will allow you to instantly load certain applications like email, web browser and media player, without loading windows. It could even lead to tailoring of computers to even more specific demographics, like a student laptop preloaded with word processor, email and an IM all available at the press of a button." Why is this story setting off alarms in my brain?
bare metal spyware (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:bare metal spyware (Score:2, Insightful)
"Technology" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rootkit applications? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:old technology (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.linuxbios.org/ [linuxbios.org]
Similar to Virtualization technologies (Score:5, Insightful)
My concern would be data security, as if you wanted to run a word processor or any app that needs access to your hard drive or thumb drive, you would have to have appropriate security built into the miniOS to handle reading and writing. An option would be to provide some onboard flash storage for Hyperspace to use. How much can you enable the end user to customize the user experience without opening up the system to security risks?
Bypassing Windows and... (Score:3, Insightful)
Similarly I don't think there's ever a time when I want to run just a word processor. I want an MP3 player for some tunes. I want a web browser for fact checking. I want Freecell because I'm lazy and rarely do any actual word processing.
Basically what I'm saying is that I want a proper OS, not something that runs one app at a time. I doubt I'm alone in that. Now, give me a decent OS that runs lots of things loaded into an area of Flash memory so it starts up quickly and I'm yours.
What is this 'booting'? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nasty issues to be handled in embedded BIOS applications:
I guess you can cram this in 4M of flash if you are top notch programmer, 128M if you are not. Either way the hardware won't add more than $20 to the cost of the laptop, so I suppose it is a good thing, as long as you can disable it.
It does open an interesting option: If a user only needs email and web access, they don't need to install an OS at all.
Re:No brainer. (Score:5, Insightful)
By the time all is said and done, they do a heck of a lot more than just email and more than what probably makes sense for some trimmed down applications.
Re:"With the exception of Apple" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yeah, and setop boxes will replace PCs (Score:2, Insightful)
Later on, some (small) fraction of these users might consider switching to some other operating system (which could be good for Linux & opensource).
At last, I think it opens a very interesting can of worms: finally the BIOS is evolving (yes I do know about EFI for Apple, OpenFirmware for some old Suns, OpenBIOS or LinuxBIOS for some happy few motherboards).
What surprises me is that the BIOS are not evolving these days (with the exception of useless gadgets). In particular (even if Microsoft don't care yet) a better BIOS with a better loading procedure (imagine a BIOS containing the GRUB loader!) could be welcome.
AFAIK, current BIOSes are not something of importance when choosing hardware (e.g. a motherboard), except perhaps for overclocking.
Re:"With the exception of Apple" (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah yes, eventually I figured out how to do it with my old Toshiba, considering how the default mode was hibernate, and nowhere does it recommend or even mention that an alternate, faster sleep mode was available, and indeed the option was hidden deep within the guts of the OS.
Apple's "it just works" mantra isn't rocket science, among other things it's about being non-stupid with your default settings, and exposing features in a usable, easy to find manner.
Joe user isn't going to know the difference between hibernate and sleep, he just wants his machine to be snappy and work. So while the underlying technology is no different, one machine gets a much more favorable impression.
Re:Rootkit applications? (Score:1, Insightful)
Or anywhere else the US has stationed troops...
Re:Sounds possible (Score:5, Insightful)
Why Windows? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why is the headline of the story, "Bypass Windows..."?
Wouldn't this same technology allow you to bypass Linux, BSD, OS X or any other OS out there? Wouldn't it offer you same or more utility in any case?
How about this one: "Bypass Linux With Fast-Boot Technology" - Don't have time/patience/technical aptitude to learn Linux? Easy, just bypass Linux and learn Firefox and OpenOffice.
Re:Rootkit applications? (Score:5, Insightful)
We hold this truth to be self-evident, that those in Congress who vote on legislation they have not read, have not represented their constituents. They have misrepresented them.
Sadly, I think that signing something they haven't even read is rather strongly representative of their constituents.
Re:Sounds possible (Score:3, Insightful)
True, but who is going to be running AIX on their home pc?
anyway, having a subset of features running without windows is likely to be a miserable failure. Most consumers probably turn on their PCs about once per day, and once it is booted, all of their applications are available for use. Why would these people then want to reboot, to get a subset of these applications (or vica versa, rebooting to open some pdf/flash file that the bios rom doesn't have a reader for, etc)?
If these people wanted to be useful, they would push companies like microsoft (or make a driver) to make a ram image of a freshly booted copy of windows xp (or whatever) upon first boot/after hardware changes, and then continue using that image after every boot.(hell, even store that on some solid state memory provided by phoenix, etc)
Sure, there may be drive consistency issues, network state/etc, but issues like that can be fixed. It would probably be a lot simpler than loading a little operating system onto a cmos chip.