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Microsoft Considers "Instant On" Windows
Posted by
timothy
on Thursday October 16, @01:18PM
from the catch-up dept.
from the catch-up dept.
Barence writes "In what might be a glimpse of things to come in Windows 7, Microsoft is asking customers whether they would be interested in a new 'Instant-on' version of Windows. 'We would like your feedback on a new concept,' the Microsoft survey states. 'The Instant On experience is different from "Full Windows" because it limits what activities you can do and what applications you can have access to.' Sounds interesting but hardly new: Asus and Dell have produced laptops that provide swift access to apps and data using Linux subsystems."
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Mobile: E17, Slimmed Down For Cell Phones 163 comments
twitter writes "Want to run Enlightenment on your cell phone? The Rasterman's recent efforts bring E17 to Open Moko FreeRunner and Treo 650: 'According to the Rasterman, when used with his updated illume stack and new Elementary widget set, E17 can now run in just 32MB of RAM, on an ARM9 processor clocked at 317MHz. To prove it, he is distributing a Linux kernel and E17/Illume/Elementary stack for Palm's Treo650. The stack can be launched from PalmOS without touching the device's flash storage, he says.' While Microsoft fumbles with limited 'instant on,' GNU/Linux rules the embedded world and that's the only thing going in the IT market right now."
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My opinion (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:My opinion (Score:5, Funny)
In all honesty, I love the multiple minutes it takes to bring up windows now. Instant on would be a detriment.
Oh my God, the fucking Comcast turtle posts to Slashdot.
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Re:My opinion (Score:5, Funny)
"Instant On" Would be the worst thing EVER!!!
Windows is a great excuse to get up, get some coffee or tea, and spend the first 15 minutes of your day doing NOTHING.
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Yes because as we all know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously is there anyone on
Jesus this is like Digg more and more everyday.
OK bitches mod me down now.
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Instant on UI (Score:5, Funny)
The UI for the new "Instant-On Windows" is a black screen with the text "C:\>".
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Re:Instant on UI (Score:5, Funny)
How cute, an emoticon of a frowning bald guy with a goatee! What does it mean?
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Re:Instant on UI (Score:5, Funny)
And if you choose A, you'll get three pop-ups:
"Are you sure you want to boot to application? Yes/No"
"Windows needs your permission to use this program: Windows. If you do not trust the source do not use this program. This program can potentially harm your computer. Allow/Cancel"
"Confirm boot-up to Windows: Yes/No"
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Why give an option? (Score:5, Insightful)
Certainly there must be a way to offer these "instant on" apps while the rest of the subsystems load in the background. And if that's true then there's no need for an option, just always do it. It sounds like it's only an all-or-nothing proposition because they're copying the way others are currently doing it.
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Re:Why give an option? (Score:5, Funny)
"...because they're copying the way others are currently doing it."
because they're innovating the way others are currently doing it.
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Nope. (Score:5, Insightful)
Instant on is useless if you can't do everything you want; which is what this is.
How about an don't need to reboot version?
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Easy Lazy Instant-On/Off... (Score:5, Interesting)
Boot the system. Now snapshot a memory image (a'la hybernate).
Now for "instant on", set up the page table and start running, and in the background, lazily swap in the rest of the memory. Anything you need immediately gets paged from disk, and the rest of the state gets swept up over the next 30 seconds.
Also, in the background, do "lazy write" as well: Any page that is stable for >X seconds but the disk is still active, write it out, so that going back to sleep (rehibernating) can be fast as well.
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Re:Uptime... (Score:5, Funny)
System Up Time: 0 Days, 21 Hours, 32 Minutes, 58 Seconds
Windows Update :( Not "off" but restart.
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Re:Uptime... (Score:5, Interesting)
System Up Time: 0 Days, 21 Hours, 32 Minutes, 58 Seconds
Windows Update :( Not "off" but restart.
Hm. I run both Windows and Mac. I can't remember the last time I did any update to a Mac that didn't require a restart. It's really pretty annoying.
Windows has gotten much better about not requiring restarts for updates. A huge change from its Windows 95/98 and NT days.
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If you wanted an uptime contest... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I can think of plenty of reasons to turn a notebook off. For example, a kernel update (we get those a lot in Fedora). Or a hardware upgrade. Or a low battery. Or extended storage. Or, if you are using a dual-boot system, to switch OSes.
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Re:If you wanted an uptime contest... (Score:5, Funny)
FreeBSD box :) up 465 days, 1:48, 1 user, load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
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Re:If you wanted an uptime contest... (Score:5, Funny)
I see your FreeBSD and raise you, um . . . FreeBSD
su-2.05$ uptime 10:57AM up 737 days, 1:11, 11 users, load averages: 0.01, 0.07, 0.07
You guys are all weak. Windows Vista Ultimate:
11:03:42 up 1010 days, 8:11, 1 user, load average: 0.99, 0.99, 0.99
I'm almost completely booted up now!
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Re:Uptime... (Score:5, Interesting)
Because I have a secondary monitor to the left of my Microsoft Windows Vista laptop. Why is that an issue?
- Because after undocking, Microsoft Outlook insists on opening on that (non-existent) monitor.
- Because after re-docking, Microsoft Windows insists on logically placing my external monitor to the RIGHT of my Laptop, and swapping the screens that the start bar and sidebar show up on.
- Because after undocking, carrying my laptop to the conference room and plugging it into the projector, all kinds of weird things happen.
That's why I shutdown daily.
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Re:Uptime... (Score:5, Insightful)
The only practical way this will ever work is coercing hardware manufacturers to stick to more specific standards. In practice, ACPI hasn't solved it.
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Nothing new here....Headlights. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Why is it that Microsoft has no original ideas of their own?"
One could very well ask FOSS the same question. Any takers?
"The worse part of this whole thing is, Microsoft convinces the public that their idea is something new!!!"
Like Apple?
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Re:Nothing new here....Headlights. (Score:5, Informative)
"One could very well ask FOSS the same question. Any takers?"
You can ask but I guarantee you that FOSS has more original ideas then Microsoft.
"Like Apple?"
Apple at least embraces the open source community and plays an active role in it.
Apple embraces the open source community with the most locked down systems and electronics made by any vendor not working on a defense contract. That must be a tight embrace.
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Re:Wow! What a novel idea! (Score:5, Informative)
Right, because this was all about Microsoft claiming a new idea. Slashdot retards attack!!!
I know this is Slashdot, but you could at least try to RTFA:
We would like your feedback on a new concept...The concept is called 'Instant On'. 'Instant On' takes your computer from being completely powered down or 'turned off' to being usable for a few specific activities in a very short amount of time.
Quick! Slashdot Microsoft apologists to the rescue!
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Next Windows should be Windows Verde (Score:5, Interesting)
The green os. 12-18% better power savings for 'always-on' desktops. Sell it to the CFO, not the CTO, and leverage half the marketing budget to the Windows Green campaign. Don't bother with other features or capabilities. They are unneeded, and do nothing to drive adoption or deployment. (Sorry, feature teams.)
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Green for Windows Verde, then brown for ... (Score:5, Funny)
Presumably the box and ads would be green, too? Then maybe they could have a color-coded release scheme, instead of the letters and numbers used to date. A green campaign for Windows Verde, followed by a brown campaign for the upgrade to Windows Merde! :D
Cheers,
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Re:Next Windows should be Windows Verde (Score:5, Interesting)
You are forgetting the benefits of instant login machines. Instant on and instant login saves 5-15 minutes per day of user time. GEICO used to insist that their employees were logged in and ready to take calls when their shifts started. This got them a class-action lawsuit over the non-paid work and overtime accrued by their phone reps. (are your company's practices as unfair?)
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Re:What an original idea - NOT! (Score:5, Informative)
No one said it was an original idea.
Does it need to be an original idea for them to implement it? Are only original ideas worth adding to an OS?
Nobody, that is, except Microsoft in the actual survey. From TFA:
"We would like your feedback on a new concept," the Microsoft survey states, according to a leaked version sent to Engadget.
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