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."
Bicycles what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh? Can we moderate the story itself as Off-Topic?
What a shitty article. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is this whole article a troll? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
I think what the author was trying to say was something like: "The fast-booting versions of Linux are all stripped-down toy systems, thereby giving people the impression that Linux is an immature and feature-limited OS. Thus even though fast-booting Linux is exposing people to Linux, it is doing more harm than good to the overall image/reputation of Linux."
The wording is confusing, and the point being made (if I understand it correctly) isn't much better.
Re:Yeah, I see their point (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm pretty sure what they mean is that minimal fast booting distros dished out with netbooks are crap and people equate them to linux and so think linux is crap. Clearly if you can make a full distro boot quickly that's a good thing.
I've never used a netbook so I can't comment on their distros.
Re:Is this whole article a troll? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
The problem the author is incompetantly attempting to define is that the fast booting Linux is often feature limited and that you must reboot into a real linux in order to use real applications.
It would be like having to pull off to the side of the road shut off the engine, flip a switch to Engine B and then start back up again in order to drive above 40mph in a hybrid. A sacrifice some are willing to make no doubt but like first generation electric cars give the user a bad taste in their mouth and misrepresents the potential of the system.
read-ahead boot technology (Score:2, Insightful)
Seems like the author is not actually aware of how Linux works. Read-ahead has been implemented for a while (there's even a post-boot component similar to Superfetch on Windows).
This is more likely the continuation of http://lwn.net/Articles/299483/ [lwn.net], where they improved read-ahead with some kernel-based patches among other things, rearranged the process initialization order, etc.
Also, what's with the wordf**k the author created that I (and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people) had to re-read 5 times before the point s/he was trying to put across was understood. And what's with the trollish injection of politics into a discussion about linux boot times?
Re:Yeah, I see their point (Score:3, Insightful)
Given I reboot my laptop about once a month, I really wouldn't care if it took my linux forever to load. Though it's only like a minute or so.
Suspend to disk/ram are useful
Re:My experiences (Score:1, Insightful)
I have Fedora (10) on my PC and even I'm not interested in working with it!
The so-called "glitch-free audio" glitches so bad I have to mute the sound. The "flicker-free video" causes flickers on my screen whenever I scroll a document or even move the mouse. Suspend/hibernate doesn't work reliably. Both Windows XP and OpenSuse work just fine on the machine. It's not just me, check out the Fedora forums.
Seriously, their QA department has been AWOL for the last couple of releases.
Re:Is this whole article a troll? (Score:1, Insightful)
With lots of RAM and fast multi-core processors, why not start services in parallel?
Why not make some assumptions during boot? USB printer and Ethernet cable are probably still connected since last time. Probe for them, yes, but get to the desktop right away--- by the time the user prints a document or opens a web browser, DHCP server and printer will have responded.