online article: "Call issued for more mobile Linux apps"

[Cefiar]

On Tuesday 14 February 2006 14:39, Daniel Robitaille wrote:
> http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=30259&src=site-marq
>
> =============
> Linux applications typically launch slower and require more RAM than
> Windows, Kegel said. "My laptop takes between 60 and 90 seconds to
> boot up," he said. "I took out my stopwatch in a coffee house the
> other day and because I wasn't plugged into a network it took three
> minutes to boot up, and that's not acceptable."
>
> Fedora Core takes 98 seconds, and Ubuntu requires 160 seconds if the
> laptop is not plugged into a LAN, Kegel said.
> ==============
>
>
> As an aside, last time I checked my Dell Dapper laptop, the boot up
> time, while on wireless, was 37 seconds...

Ahh, and if you didn't have wireless configured, or had DHCP running on a 
wired interface, how'd that go? On Warty, Hoary and Breezy it hangs and takes 
a long time to boot usually (unless you Ctrl-C when it's doing DHCP). On a 
server, I can see the point (but then again, why are you using DHCP on a 
server?), however on a laptop, the main things that you're doing with the 
network are:
 1. Getting an IP
 2. Setting time/date via ntp

Surely we could background DHCP and get the network stuff to load in the 
background once it's done, possibly via ifup scripts? Otherwise, how about 
detecting if a cable is actually plugged in and if it's not, forget bringing 
up the network (local network aka localhost is always assumed to go online).

Of course, we'd want a way to not do this on a server setup, so there needs to 
be some sort of variable stored somewhere to tell the scripts whether it's a 
server or laptop setup.

-- 
 Stuart Young - aka Cefiar - cef at optus.net