Get back in your shell, you cirriped
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Phoenix software bypasses Windows
US SOFTWARE outfit Phoenix is designing a BIOS which enables punters to run their most used Windows software without running Windows.
Woody Hobbs, CEO of Phoenix Technologies told Wired that as Windows got more complex, startup times were getting longer.
If you are using Wi-Fi it can take five minutes to boot up before you see your mail, he said.
The software his crowd is developing, Hyperspace is a simple OS that sits on top of the BIOS, that runs side-by-side with Windows. Apparently it can run most Windows software. Hobbs thinks it will mean that content providers will be able to create "instant-on" applications like media players, and PC system vendors will be able to embed purpose-built software into new computers.
Hobbs said that it will take control of the PC out of the hands of Vole and enable suppliers like Lenovo, Dells and Acers of the world can start tailoring computers with HyperSpace functionality to very specific demographics. A student-aimed laptop, for instance, could come with apps like word processing, e-mail and IM preloaded into HyperSpace.
Hobbs thinks that the people from Vole don't like his outfit much. But Intel, on the other hand, think it is a great idea and are working with Phoenix and companies doing similar things in virtual or embedded environments.
The only major outfit not beating a path to Phoenix's door is Apple, for some reason.
HyperSpace options are expected to start appearing on computers from the end of next year, Wired thinks.
More here. µ
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I thought Asus had a similar pseudo-OS that allowed people to check the internet (specifically on the boards with built-in wifi). Is it just that their implementation was stored more like traditional hardware on a harddisk than wherever this will be?
GOOD JOB LADS! I often take flights and I've got 15 mins or so in the lounge to waste, it always pisses me off waiting the 5 minutes for the laptop to boot and all the rest of the junk to load, etc, before I can realistically get in and start using it.

If I could whip the trusty notebook out, hit a button and in 20 seconds have *just* my email client accessing the wireless network I would pay seriously good money for that. I hate PDA's, I carry enough gadgets as it is, and my massive paws don't resemble delicate japanese hands in any way so it's frustrating for me (6'7" 130kg male) to use. If my laptop could do this... you would have me sold in a heartbeat.
LinuxBIOS + WINE?
If MS thought outside the box (pun intended),
they would license a super duper skinny Windows on a chip, that would boot in record time, and would run some MS apps.
I'd by a Motherboard, and pay extra, for that!
In all honesty, for their own reasons (building both hardware and software) it wouldn't surprise me if Apple were not already building something similar of their own.

Does sound interesting though, and might take off better than the little embedded screens we were supposed to get in laptop lids for just media etc.
it's got to be built.

Maybe they could make a small ebook device with the same visor.
I can't see Hyperspace gaining much ground, just as they are trying to convince "Mr. Dent", that bypasses must get built, the vogons (OSS-Community) are almost done:
Splashtop by DeviceVM:
http://www.splashtop.com/aboutus-corporate.php
http://www.splashtop.com/index.php

And when do Steve's lawyers make their appearance ?
Because they WILL come. Everybody knows that.
Never heard of "Hibernate"? I always use it when away from base, primarily so that my laptop doesn't bleat about not being about to see this Novell server or that network share. Loads in roughly a minute (though I confess I haven't timed it), with all my previously open applications just as I left them.
I wonder if this can be used as a hook in other os's to increase compatability. Go go non-lazy software engieers, you can take over the world if you stop eating all the power the hardware guys give you.
... uses Intel's own next-gen firmware. This is to Phoenix's BIOS as Windows NT was to MS-DOS.

Phoenix's plan seems to be a throwback to the 1980s, when computers were real computers, programmers were real programmers, and operating systems -- such as they were -- lived in ROM.