4 ms·

Ubuntu aims for ten-second boot time with 10.04

30 points by habs 17y ago

jsonscripter 17y ago
This will vastly improve the usability of LiveCDs.
- eru 17y ago
  Yes. But I doubt LiveCDs will reach the 10s limit. (Though they may probably benefit from the work being done.) At the current state of the art the Ubuntu LiveCD takes a magnitude longer to boot than a HDD install.
- dimitar 17y ago
  Live thumbdrives, maybe :-)
- zcrar70 17y ago
  Live CDs will still boot slower than full installs, because accessing the CD is a lot slower than accessing the HDD. I'm wondering whether the boot time for Live CDs will be fast enough to avoid displaying the progress bar, or whether they will have to boot Live CDs differently than HDD installs.
mapleoin 17y ago
I'm surprised the article doesn't mention Fedora's boot time. Fedora already has 20 seconds (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/20SecondStartup https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/20SecondStartup) and their last release was 30 seconds. So I guess they've got a head-start
- jncraton 17y ago
  They may have a small head start. The article also doesn't mention what the boot time is for the current 9.10 build of Ubuntu.
- TallGuyShort 17y ago
  For me, Ubuntu 9.04 already boots in under 20 seconds. I'm at the login screen 18 seconds after pushing the power button (so that includes the time BIOS still has control). I'm using a pretty low-end laptop.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    Clueless help-desk techs often count "boot time" as the time it takes for you to boot, then log into your account. Then when you follow their instructions and call them back "after it boots" they get irate at you for making them wait another few seconds.
philwelch 17y ago
Steve Jobs would be pleased: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Saving_Lives.txt&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=medium&search=boot http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...
buugs 17y ago
Since Ubuntu wants to become the one true desktop distribution, or so it seems, they should focus more on usability and improving user interface because to be honest as long as it boots faster than windows xp (excluding a fresh install) they should be fine.
- albertni 17y ago
  Overall I agree with you, but usability and user interface don't do anything for someone who doesn't even consider using Ubuntu. Boot time is one of those things that, if you get it beyond a certain threshold of speed, can really jump out and grab someone's attention. For those people who power down their computers and start them up again for whatever reason, it'll be extremely noticeable every single time, both when they start up their own 10.04 machines, and when they go to non-10.04 machines that start up way more slowly. This seems like one of those things that will serve a specific group of people very very well, and doesn't hurt for everyone else. As long as they're not sacrificing too much effort for this, it seems like it could be a good use of effort.
  - wvenable 17y ago
    In the land of laptops, powering down is a lot less frequent. Vista's "power button" by default suspends. The hardware power button suspends. I suspect a lot of Windows users almost never reboot.
    - hs 17y ago
      it's truer in osx. i never booted my iBookG4 except for updates. the more important is the sleeping wake up time. in mac, you can just close it, travel half the world, open it and instantly everything works(tm) just like nothing happened it seems ubuntu again is copying the wrong model. reboot is sooooo microsoftie, solving it is like premature optimization.
  - pgebhard 17y ago
    I can see how this would be a god-send to people who might spend a lot of time messing around with VMs. Those users probably fall under your case.
Zak 17y ago
I certainly won't complain about faster boot times, but it seems like an odd thing to focus on for the netbook market. Do people really power down netbooks instead of just suspending them?
- mapleoin 17y ago
  it's good for the environment ;) . I always power down my notebook at night.

30 points by habs 17y ago

jsonscripter 17y ago

This will vastly improve the usability of LiveCDs.

eru 17y ago
Yes. But I doubt LiveCDs will reach the 10s limit. (Though they may probably benefit from the work being done.) At the current state of the art the Ubuntu LiveCD takes a magnitude longer to boot than a HDD install.
dimitar 17y ago
Live thumbdrives, maybe :-)
zcrar70 17y ago
Live CDs will still boot slower than full installs, because accessing the CD is a lot slower than accessing the HDD. I'm wondering whether the boot time for Live CDs will be fast enough to avoid displaying the progress bar, or whether they will have to boot Live CDs differently than HDD installs.

mapleoin 17y ago

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention Fedora's boot time. Fedora already has 20 seconds (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/20SecondStartup https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/20SecondStartup) and their last release was 30 seconds. So I guess they've got a head-start

jncraton 17y ago
They may have a small head start. The article also doesn't mention what the boot time is for the current 9.10 build of Ubuntu.
TallGuyShort 17y ago
For me, Ubuntu 9.04 already boots in under 20 seconds. I'm at the login screen 18 seconds after pushing the power button (so that includes the time BIOS still has control). I'm using a pretty low-end laptop.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  Clueless help-desk techs often count "boot time" as the time it takes for you to boot, then log into your account. Then when you follow their instructions and call them back "after it boots" they get irate at you for making them wait another few seconds.

philwelch 17y ago

Steve Jobs would be pleased: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Saving_Lives.txt&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=medium&search=boot http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...

buugs 17y ago

Since Ubuntu wants to become the one true desktop distribution, or so it seems, they should focus more on usability and improving user interface because to be honest as long as it boots faster than windows xp (excluding a fresh install) they should be fine.

albertni 17y ago
Overall I agree with you, but usability and user interface don't do anything for someone who doesn't even consider using Ubuntu. Boot time is one of those things that, if you get it beyond a certain threshold of speed, can really jump out and grab someone's attention. For those people who power down their computers and start them up again for whatever reason, it'll be extremely noticeable every single time, both when they start up their own 10.04 machines, and when they go to non-10.04 machines that start up way more slowly. This seems like one of those things that will serve a specific group of people very very well, and doesn't hurt for everyone else. As long as they're not sacrificing too much effort for this, it seems like it could be a good use of effort.
- wvenable 17y ago
  In the land of laptops, powering down is a lot less frequent. Vista's "power button" by default suspends. The hardware power button suspends. I suspect a lot of Windows users almost never reboot.
  - hs 17y ago
    it's truer in osx. i never booted my iBookG4 except for updates. the more important is the sleeping wake up time. in mac, you can just close it, travel half the world, open it and instantly everything works(tm) just like nothing happened it seems ubuntu again is copying the wrong model. reboot is sooooo microsoftie, solving it is like premature optimization.
- pgebhard 17y ago
  I can see how this would be a god-send to people who might spend a lot of time messing around with VMs. Those users probably fall under your case.

Zak 17y ago

I certainly won't complain about faster boot times, but it seems like an odd thing to focus on for the netbook market. Do people really power down netbooks instead of just suspending them?

mapleoin 17y ago
it's good for the environment ;) . I always power down my notebook at night.