On patching usplash, boot times and Live CD

[Adam Conrad]

Frank Schoep wrote:
> 
> Real machine, normal boot: 21.4 seconds
> Real machine, textless boot: 18.7 seconds
> Savings: 2.7 seconds, 13% of boottime

Yes, bogl takes a small amount of time to write a message to the
console.  This time isn't drastically increased as computers get slower,
while all the stuff going on behind the scenes certainly does.  So, that
extra 3 seconds will almost certainly remain an extra 3 (or, oh no,
maybe 5) seconds on a slow machine, while the boot process will get
significantly slower due to other things happening behind the scenes.

> VMware, normal boot: 38.7 seconds
> VMware, textless boot: 21.7 seconds
> Savings: 17 seconds, 44% of boottime

Either VMware has a really, really poor VGA implementation (which I
don't recall from past experience with it, though it's been a while
since I used it) or, more likely, you're using a file-based disk image,
and on the second boot, your disk image was mostly cached to RAM in the
host system, reducing disk seeks.

> Thanks again for your time. I think I've now cleared my list regarding usplash 
> and provided all code and artwork necessary to get it in. What happens now is 
> beyond my control.

I've pleaded before, and I will one last time.  Can you let this rest
until after dapper is out the door?  I appreciate your enthusiasm, but
you need to appreciate that the timing of your enthusiasm is such that
we can't reach consensus (no, your opinion isn't the only one that
counts here), test changes, and get it into the distribution, with all
the actual, non-aesthetic bugs we have to fix before release.

Had you approached us near the beginning of the cycle with these ideas,
you would have found us (and me) far more receptive, but right now, all
you're doing is creating noise for people who are trying desperately to
get a non-buggy release out the door.  Bikeshedding about the look and
feel of a splash screen is not helpful to this process.

Yes, it seems inevitable at this point that the artwork WILL change, as
the current artwork seems to be universally hated.  The text, however,
will not be going away for dapper.

... Adam