Ubuntu goes almost instant on

ALMOST INSTANT BOOT UP is being promised by Ubuntu with a 10 seconds or less startup "Light" version of the OS.

Ubuntu Light, says its maker Canonical, can connect the user to the web, with a running browser, in under 10 seconds. This light version has chat, IM, browser and media player applications. Basically the key to the thing is a new shell that is designed to use screen space more efficiently and consume fewer system resources than a conventional desktop environment.

Canonical chief spaced out spaceflight tourist Mark Shuttleworth said that while Ubuntu Light is only really ready for the netbook OS Ubuntu 10.10 that is being released in October, it will end up in PCs one of these days.

Apparently the instant OS software has been packed off to the OEMs and should start seeing the light of day soon in a range of other products. The idea of having an OS running within a few seconds of you turning it on is attractive for everyone we would have thought.

Canonical's Light is based on its "Unity" desktop, also displayed at Ubuntu's Developer Summit in Belgium. Instead of the conventional Gnome panel configuration, it has a dock-like launcher and task management panel that is displayed vertically along the left-hand side.

The top panel will house application indicators, window indicators, and the menubar of the active window. Moving the menu out of individual windows and into a global menu bar will reduce wasted vertical screen space, leaving more room for content. µ