Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
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Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
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Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#2More interesting question to me is why the hell some firmware boots take so long now. I know laptops from years ago much, much faster than what I have now, which is otherwise much faster than them. And the firmware initialization times for some servers I've seen seem completely obscene (on the order of minutes).
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#3Windows is a bloated mess, so it's obvious there.
As for anything POSIX, it's because UNIX is shitware; it took a long time to boot decades ago and it takes a long time to boot now, because more garbage has been piled on top.
It's possible for a good operating system to boot in less than a second, however. People have simply been conditioned to accept this unacceptable state of affairs, no different than a TV that takes ten seconds to become usable for no reason other than the manufacturer was lazy.
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#4More interesting question to me is why the hell some firmware boots take so long now. I know laptops from years ago much, much faster than what I have now, which is otherwise much faster than them. And the firmware initialization times for some servers I've seen seem completely obscene (on the order of minutes).
Surprisingly power is a huge factor. Spinning up 48/96 drives on boot can surge beyond what power supplies could handle, so things supported staggered spin ups. This allowed huge banks of drives to start without blowing a power supply, but you don’t know how many drives or if staggered spin up is enabled until it times out. This was a huge boot delay for servers.
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#5More interesting question to me is why the hell some firmware boots take so long now. I know laptops from years ago much, much faster than what I have now, which is otherwise much faster than them. And the firmware initialization times for some servers I've seen seem completely obscene (on the order of minutes).
Surprisingly power is a huge factor. Spinning up 48/96 drives on boot can surge beyond what power supplies could handle, so things supported staggered spin ups. This allowed huge banks of drives to start without blowing a power supply, but you don’t know how many drives or if staggered spin up is enabled until it times out. This was a huge boot delay for servers.
That's interesting to note, but I'm just talking about computers with 1 drive connected to them. Both for the servers and the laptops. In fact the older (faster) laptop had both a DVD and an HDD, whereas the newer one just has an SSD...
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#6More interesting question to me is why the hell some firmware boots take so long now. I know laptops from years ago much, much faster than what I have now, which is otherwise much faster than them. And the firmware initialization times for some servers I've seen seem completely obscene (on the order of minutes).
Today we have to make things hack proof, noob proof and lots of proofing adds more complexity, cost and lowers speed.
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#7More interesting question to me is why the hell some firmware boots take so long now. I know laptops from years ago much, much faster than what I have now, which is otherwise much faster than them. And the firmware initialization times for some servers I've seen seem completely obscene (on the order of minutes).
Today we have to make things hack proof, noob proof and lots of proofing adds more complexity, cost and lowers speed.
I don't think this is it. I haven't tried with many machines but I don't think current machines are all generally slow with firmware, just some of them. The part that baffles me is that the slowness is on the faster ones.
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#8A bigger question for me is, why can't monitors boot instantly? So annoying that a monitor that went to sleep can sometimes take 10-20 seconds longer to wake up than the computer it is attached to.
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#9Windows is a bloated mess, so it's obvious there. As for anything POSIX, it's because UNIX is shitware; it took a long time to boot decades ago and it takes a long time to boot now, because more garbage has been piled on top. It's possible for a good operating system to boot in less than a second, however. People have simply been conditioned to accept this unacceptable state of affairs, no different than a TV that ta…
While I don't agree with everything you wrote I would like to add android boot time to the list.
Re: Why can't computers boot instantly? (2013)
#10A bigger question for me is, why can't monitors boot instantly? So annoying that a monitor that went to sleep can sometimes take 10-20 seconds longer to wake up than the computer it is attached to.
But my 5” touchscreen monitor can...