Moblin 2 First Impressions 100
nerdyH notes a DesktopLinux.com first look at the alpha of Intel's Moblin 2 toolkit for Linux distributors to create distributions for netbooks and other Atom-based kit. "A lot of notebooks and even netbooks these days run Windows, but also offer a minimalist Linux environment that boots in seconds. Now, with the Intel-sponsored Moblin project's alpha release of Moblin 2 Monday, it looks like insanely fast boots will become a standard feature of full-featured Linux desktops, too. Some of the quick-booting environments out there are enough to give anyone a lasting hatred of Linux. Like those free bicycles that liberal, well-intentioned municipalities release into the wild from time to time, hoping to get drivers out of their cars, fast-boot Linux is probably doing more to harm than help the cause. But pretty soon, even full-featured Linux will boot in seconds. That's because Intel's built some mighty whizzy read-ahead boot technology into Moblin 2."
Re:Bicycles what? (Score:1, Funny)
Are you kidding? This bicycle bit is very on topic. I used to live in a town with those green bicycles, and I'd often arrive at my destination with a seat stem up my ass. Granted, I tended to chose bicycles with no seat, and I blamed George Bush for this at the time, but not I realize that it was probably Rush Limbaugh. Now, this is exactly how people feel when they boot an a poorly implemented Linux fast-boot netbook, except they probably blame gnus or eunuchs.
Yeah, I see their point (Score:5, Funny)
Being able to boot quickly really, really sucks. It's so much better when you have to wait 10 minutes for your box to boot.
Wait, what?
Is this whole article a troll? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm ... confused. From the article:
fast-boot Linux is probably doing more to harm than help the cause.
Yeah, because I and everyone I know hates nothing more than being able to boot quickly.
almost anything would be an improvement over Network Manager.
What?? Personally, I prefer Network Manager to Vista's networking UI any day.
In fairness, Network Manager has actually done an amazing job
Oh, never mind then.
Yet, what really won me over, in playing around with the Moblin 2 alpha, was the insanely fast boots.
Wait, are you trying to help or harm the cause?
Fast boots could be a true advance in the history of computing.
Oh, I don't know. My Apple ][ booted into the Basic ROM quickly enough.
Having two OSes, one fast-booting and one slow-booting, is a horrible kludge. It's like a car with two steering wheels, one only for parking.
Actually it sounds more like having two cars, one that's moving fast and one that's moving slow. But these car analogies always confuse me.
I think Microsoft may have to really re-think a few things if they are going to compete on boot time with the Linux distros of tomorrow.
You might be right...
I don't know how fast Windows 7 is booting
Oh, never mind then.
I have a feeling that those declaring it's "mission accomplished" for Windows on netbooks may be getting ahead of themselves just a bit.
In fact, you could even say they're doing more to harm the cause than help it ... oh I give up.
Re:Bicycles what? (Score:5, Funny)
You obviously don't understand the nuance of the story's analogy. Well-intentioned liberals often want to release bicycles in the wild so that the bike population breeds and grows over time; it's a well-known fact that bicycles don't breed in captitivity. However, bikes will start breeding too fast, and before you know it they'll start having more and more encounters with humans to catastrophic effect - in the denser areas of bicycle territory, you'll even see people get so desperate as to try to ride them, in a manner similiar to a horse, in order to tame them. This is obviously the law of unintended consequences.
Compare this to Linux. Right now, it's slow to wake up. Well-intentioned liberals see this lethargy as another sign of Linux captivity. They also want to see the population of linux grow. So, they come up with the bright idea to make linux less lethargic: if they wake up faster it means they'll have more energy. If they have more energy, linuxes will breed more often. Thus, it seems to the liberal, that fast boot up is desirable as to achieve this similiar end goal.
But the law of unintended consequences strike again! Many linuxes are in family homes, and their owners don't want to them to breed more. There'd be all types of trouble: imagine if the linux was at home and all it could breed with in its harmonal state was a Windows? Remember the Lindows travesty of years past?
Fuck, the 90-talists are here. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, crap. I now get to read articles on computing technology which were written by people who aren't even aware that, once upon a not-so-distant time, you could turn on your computer and be greeted with a cool blue-on-blue READY.-prompt within a second.
I'm ancient, credz nuked :-(
On the upside, I did get a cool new .sig:
--
"Fast boots could be a true advance in the history of computing."
-- Henry Kingman, 2009-01-28
Re:Bicycles what? (Score:5, Funny)
Many municipalities require you to have your pets neutered. Check your local ordinances to see if that includes penguins.
Re:My experiences (Score:3, Funny)
Omg r u payed bye Micro$uck$ 2 poest dis??????
Re:Fast BOOT? (Score:4, Funny)
Half of my linux boxes only get re-booted during a power outage, like once in 3 years. What's all the hype about?
I think it's about not everyone being you.
Re:Fuck, the 90-talists are here. (Score:5, Funny)
"Fast boots could be a true advance in the history of computing."
-- Henry Kingman, 2009-01-28
Not to mention footwear.
Re:Fast BOOT? (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, the more sensible among us have a UPS or two.
Re:Why was this modded down? (Score:2, Funny)
There you go buddy [modarchive.org].
You sir, are... (Score:1, Funny)
I like this one, I'm sure there are people who try it from time to time... It's very tempting to say what syscall #2 is, but it would remove temptation
You sir, are a forking bastard!