@ kiwilinux

the nick says it all kiwi, quote :-

"It boots up in a cut down Linux OS, so there is little need for antivirus or firewall." 

are you insane ?? errrrrrrrrrrm, oh sorry, i forgot, your a penguin :O)

Two comments in answer..

Asus is now building this into every new motherboard they make. So Laptop or desktop you can be on the web in literally a few seconds.

It boots up in a cut down Linux OS, so there is little need for antivirus or firewall. The system may boot read only anyway, (cant quite remember), so if that's the case then internet nasties are definitely not a problem.

By the way the latest versions also contain more than just a browser, i.e. skype, photo viewer etc.


lol, i thought it was called 'safe mode' :O)

8 seconds eh ?? i suppose they're not bothering with a/virus, f/wall etc then ?? hmmmmmmmm O_o

Just one example of when this would come in very hand is getting directions. Say you are on the road and stopped next to a hotspot and would like to get directions and a map ASAP.

I can think of plenty of times I "just need to look one thing up online". Being able to do that in seconds instead of a minute plus is a good thing. The power savings will also probably be pretty substantial if you can avoid booting the entire system with the CPU and HD churning away at full blast while Vista chugs into memory.

That sounds great; now all they need to do is work out some way of booting Windows in the background or at the very least passing control back to Windows quickly. I wonder whether you could do anything with hibernation?

This is what we need IMHO, minimalist OS that does not do all the resource wasting tacky tinsel trash but runs DX10.

Quick and functional is what we want. If you run an OS to play a game, it should not be a game itself (to make it run efficiently).

Who dosn't like little TaDah beeps at start up, then mfgs splash screen, with ability to lead to Bios.Tghats So FUN. Next Computer starts to start & awaiting its o/s list. then o.s loads. well about minute of PURE Joi.

If You Missed start up sounds that activate bios chip, I Pity you, each little creep forward is so Grand. Sleep Mode is as good as any 8 sec computer.

Also, with so much google talk, let me state: Google is conduit that USENET takes to penetrate into Your families Home. Google too is cute name, yet content of USENET tells it all. B A R F. 

So Remember: You alredy have 8 Second Computer, if it has Sleep Mode enabled.Also, how do you write code that blocks: google/usenet/hermitscave/ et. al?
drashek

The point is, you dont even have to install an operating system if all you do is browsing the interwibble and replying to spam.

And you can do all that after just 8 seconds.

Would be very useful if this feature were integrated on ALL motherboards for very little cost, considering how cheap 1-2gigs of flash memory is these days.

Good to hear something like this is finally been produced, at least if nothing else when traveling this will be better than having to sit there waiting for ms windows to come up to show your laptop is real and not a "bomb" which takes for ever when there are another 30 people behind you who have the same problem as you have.
Real work on a laptop, please don't make me laugh.

It reminds me of Shigeru Miyamoto talking about "other" consoles, saying that he could not stand to wait 1 minute to start playing.
I've got a Gamecube and true enough - Nintendo developed games do not feature any loading screens.
People hurry even to have fun :-)