One second Openmoko boot?

Jon 'maddog' Hall maddog at li.org
Thu Aug 20 01:53:03 CEST 2009


>i've never understood the fascination of linux users with keeping
>systems up for days and months on end. sure, it's great for a server
>hosting web sites, or in a corporate environment, but for a home
>system? it comes across as nothing more than who's the most '1337',
>which is really lame. add to that the power wasted and it's verging on
>the pointless

I turn my systems off at home to save power, lifetime on fans and disks.
That is not the point.  The point is that *I* turn them off, versus some
instability that causes the system to crash.  The fact that a
multi-user, network-connected, resource-limited system *can* stay up
that long is (IMHO) desirable.

>as for phones, there are many reasons i turn mine off - not least
>because there's no way i want to be contactable at night, and when i'm
>doing other things where i don't want to be interrupted. it gets
>turned on and off at least once a day. my phone exists to serve me,
>not the other way around

Ahhh, the difference between a "phone" and a portable computing device
that can make telephone calls.  I want my "phone" to be an alarm clock,
a calendar, a music player....and I want it to have the *capability* of
running twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, efficiently, and
without me having to futz too much with it, or to worry if I have to
find its electric fix three times a day. Or to *have* to turn it off
because I am not near an outlet for a long enough period of time.

>do you realise the effects of the 'always-connected' lifestyle?
>they're not good at all

I do not typically give out my cell phone number.  I consider my cell
phone for my convenience and not others.  Again, that is not the point.
You are welcome to turn off your cell phone any time you want, or leave
it on and make it silent, ready to receive messages and let it save them
for you.  Turn it off, and it is a boat anchor.  Worse than a boat
anchor, because at least a boat anchor is heavy enough to hold a boat in
place.

As to the power wasted, the always on, connected cell phone uses less
power in a day than my laptop uses in an hour...and if it goes into deep
suspend, a lot less than that.  Power management in servers, desktops,
laptops and netbooks is also necessary, and can help cellphones too, in
the long run.

>anyway, the point i'm getting at is: a quick boot time, it doesn't
>have to be one second, is definitely an advantage

Granted.  But if there is a choice of where to put engineering talent?





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