Microsoft toying with the idea of an “Instant On” operating system

By on Oct 15, 2008 at 2:02 PM
Rumor October 15, 2008

A survey sent from Microsoft to select users hints that Microsoft is interested in the concept of an “Instant On” OS where a select subset of services can be accessed within eight seconds. The survey asks users how valuable this service would be, which services they would want to be accessible via Instant On and how quickly this Instant On should launch. With Intel’s engineers recently showing off an Eee PC that can fully boot in five seconds, the folks in Redmond might be looking to remedy their case of “boot time” envy.  The full survey is after the jump.

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  • Scott

    Duh…Of course this is desireable!

    But instead of utilizing the increased ability of the hardware over the years Microsoft has chosen instead to bloat the crap out of the OS.

  • gquaglia

    Don’t even know why they bother. M$ will do none of this.

  • J

    What they need is to let the OS start within 4-5 seconds to browse the web, IM or email.

    And ALSO start loading Windows slowly in the background so that the heavier operations (playing a game, browsing files, printing, etc) will be able to work in somewhat approaching the normal amount of time (over a minute is standard to boot, sadly. It should be 20sec).

  • bob

    I’d prefer they fix the problem with my Vista machine freezing up 10-15 times a day for as long as 30 seconds to 3 minutes each time. This is even after having turned off the dreadful ‘searchindexer.exe’ that constantly runs in the background consuming memory & cpu. I HATE VISTA!

  • Steve

    I wish they would concentrate on an OS that works.

  • b.N

    @Scott

    Perfectly put.

    —–
    Vista definitely ran off in the wrong direction and I love the idea of a umpc with 5sec boot time. Seeing all these newer models are working with solid state drives and blazing fast read/write times, I see no reason why OS innovations haven’t kept up.

    Ask us a hard one, Bill.

  • http://www.k5live.com Likeabite

    It is a great idea and as always people skip the entire post and want to talk about Vista when there’s nothing wrong with it…such moronic individuals.

  • johdaxx

    Heh – they’re worried by manufacturers including a quick and simple media playing version of Linux along with their mobos, I’d wager.

  • hi

    J -

    You hate Vista? Redirect your hatred back upon yourself.

    Did it ever occur to you that Vista does not freeze 10-15 times a day for the rest of the world? I know… Vista has it in for you… Not like it’s a conspiracy or something.

  • r

    sounds just like the mac OS.

  • bluehorseshoe

    Nothing wrong with Vista? I like it, the most stable OS MS has put out there, but let’s get real. There’s area for improvement here without having to upgrade the hardware each and every time because the code just keeps getting bloated and bloated. MS needs to reinvent their OS.

  • MarxAnth

    Toying with the idea? Weren’t we promised faster startups with Vista but yet the start up time on Vista is a joke.. Most machines I used take 2 mins plus before they are actually usable. The sad part is that most users have no idea how to optimize their startup. Why does Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, etc etc..continue to crapify the os..

  • Skipper

    I love Vista. I love how slow it is, the bloatware, and all the visual effects – taking up precious resources – is a must in my book.
    8 second bootup? What for?

  • afstech

    It is not MS fault that OEM manufacturers load tons of crap onto the PC, which is what slows it down and causes problems. A clean install of Vista will boot in 23 seconds. On my HP laptop I average around 30 seconds of boot but I don’t have IM clients or what not running at the start up. Also MS is working with OEM’s to optimize the start up from a new machine. Plus they are making the Windows 7 start up to not be impacted by the crap ware.

  • http://www.k5live.com Likeabite

    Yes Vista needs improvements but so does every other OS out there…you take the good with the bad.

  • dub

    Of course I’d like Vista to boot to a usable state in seconds – who wouldn’t? Firefox is my main app for nearly everything, so I really dont’ care that much if it takes a bit longer to be able to run other apps.

    The Vista-bashing here is pretty comical, though – I’m anything but a MS apologist, but if Vista would just cut out the background crap (DRM, mostly), it would be a damn good OS. Fact is, it’s a damn good OS now, and people who insist on “downgrading” to XP are giving up what is currently the best OS in the world in several important areas, especially for laptops: Vista’s handling of power management and wireless connections is better than *any* other OS out there (including OS X)!

    A lot of “Vista” hatred from users is really about the new Office2007. I *hate* Office2007 and will never buy Office again, since there’s nothing worth having any more, but Office isn’t Vista, and Vista itself is actually not a bad OS, except for the bloat. (When I bought my laptop last year, Vista was still the *only* OS choice, so I chose the cheapest thing I could find with 2GB of RAM: an $800 Gateway that’s better than the multi-thousand-dollar Dells and ThinkPads I’ve had before. That 2GB may be why I’m happier with Vista then many others – Vista really needs it.)

  • The Steven

    Nothing new…
    They use to have an instant on OS…
    It was called MS-DOS, boot times were as fast as 20 seconds.

    But that was when some guy said that 640k would be enough memory for anyone.

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