Jim Henderson wrote:
> Now go find a Linux binary application that 
> runs on Windows without something like Cygwin.

Most of the utilities are ported to native Windows. The appropriate google 
term is to tack "win32" onto whatever you're searching for:
gunzip win32
diff win32
... and so on.

Just in case you ever go looking.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   The NFL should go international. I'd pay to
   see the Detroit Lions vs the Roman Catholics.

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>> I saw an interesting project where people were figuring out what steps 
>> you could cut out of a Linux boot for known hardware (like a laptop) to 
>> get it to boot all the way to logged in under X in less than five 
>> seconds. They apparently got it working, too.
>
> And why shouldn't it boot in 5 seconds flat? Damnit! >_<

I always put my XP laptop to sleep rather than turning it off, from hitting 
the power button to windows unlock prompt is always under 5 seconds - it 
would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up from cold each 
time I used it.

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scott wrote:

> I always put my XP laptop to sleep rather than turning it off, from 
> hitting the power button to windows unlock prompt is always under 5 
> seconds - it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up 
> from cold each time I used it.

Doesn't that mean that after X hours the battery runs flat and you need 
to cold boot it anyway?

(I guess it depends on exactly which "sleep mode" you mean...)

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scott wrote:

> ...it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up
> from cold each time I used it.


No it wouldn't if it took only less than 5 seconds. And with SSD and
proper kernel config and INIT config it is very possible.

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Darren New wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Now go find a Linux binary application that runs on Windows without 
>> something like Cygwin.
> 
> Most of the utilities are ported to native Windows. The appropriate 
> google term is to tack "win32" onto whatever you're searching for:
> gunzip win32
> diff win32
> ... and so on.
> 
> Just in case you ever go looking.

The fun thing is, usually there are several versions to choose from. 
Some of them require a Cygwin DLL, some of them don't. Some of them 
understand Windows pathnames. Some of them don't. Some have been simply 
recompiled, some have been extensively modified. And so on.

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>> I always put my XP laptop to sleep rather than turning it off, from 
>> hitting the power button to windows unlock prompt is always under 5 
>> seconds - it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up 
>> from cold each time I used it.
>
> Doesn't that mean that after X hours the battery runs flat and you need to 
> cold boot it anyway?

X is a very large number though, even after a weekend in standby the battery 
is still at 90-something %.

> (I guess it depends on exactly which "sleep mode" you mean...)

Start -> Shutdown -> Standby

AIUI it just supplies enough power to the RAM to keep its contents 
refreshed, everything else is turned off.

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>> ...it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up
>> from cold each time I used it.
>
> No it wouldn't if it took only less than 5 seconds. And with SSD and
> proper kernel config and INIT config it is very possible.

Man, it takes longer than that to just get through the BIOS before it gets 
anywhere near an OS!

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scott wrote:
>>> ...it would drive me mad if I had to shut it down and boot it up
>>> from cold each time I used it.
>>
>> No it wouldn't if it took only less than 5 seconds. And with SSD and
>> proper kernel config and INIT config it is very possible.
> 
> Man, it takes longer than that to just get through the BIOS before it 
> gets anywhere near an OS!

I have servers where the disks take longer than that to spin up. ;-)

...we try not to reboot it much. o_O

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>> Doesn't that mean that after X hours the battery runs flat and you 
>> need to cold boot it anyway?
> 
> X is a very large number though, even after a weekend in standby the 
> battery is still at 90-something %.

I think the last time I used my laptop was about 4 months ago?

(Mind you, that's kind of moot; *my* battery is non-functional now. 
Disconnecting from the mains instantly shuts down the machine.)

>> (I guess it depends on exactly which "sleep mode" you mean...)
> 
> Start -> Shutdown -> Standby
> 
> AIUI it just supplies enough power to the RAM to keep its contents 
> refreshed, everything else is turned off.

Right. Unlike "Hibernate", which writes the RAM image to disk, so next 
time you cold boot it can just reload that.

Either way, don't you find that huge amounts of hardware stops working 
properly when you start it back up again?

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scott wrote:

> Man, it takes longer than that to just get through the BIOS before it
> gets anywhere near an OS!

True in many cases, I agree. But BIOS settings can have big influence on
this too. For example: I don't have a floppy disk drive connected at
all. But if I disable it from BIOS, loading the kernel takes 2 secs more
than if I had it enabled. So grub is someway confused. Maybe a BIOS or
Grub bug.

But there are options in BIOS which might make it faster to reach Grub.
Hopefully we'll see faster BIOS loading in the future, too.

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