Best Linux distro for "instant on"

[shatteredmindofbob]

So, a first, a confession. Windows 7 has won me back to the dark side. That said, I do still intend to keep using Linux and I figure the best use for now would be to set up an ``instant boot`` partition on my laptop.

I don`t really feel like shelling out the money for Presto (plus, I can`t say I`m too fond of their little `app store` model) so which free distro would be best for quickly booting, particularly when I want a secure connection (still don`t feel good about doing online banking from Windows)

[billgoldberg]

I only know of Splashtop and Presto.

The first you can't download or buy, the second costs money.

You could create your own.

Create a custom kernel for you machine, only install the bare minimum (not gnome or kde or xfce but something like JWM) and a light browser.

Something like that should boot in 20 seconds or less.

[vonti]

As an alternative, you can use Slackware and boot it from a pendrive.

[Chilli Bob]

Tiny Core live CD boots faster than anything else I've seen, but how hard it is to get a working desktop, I don't know.

[sertse]

Arch, with 5 second boot configuration.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=69086

or I think http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=71647 now

Obviously it means you need to read and work for it.

[shatteredmindofbob]

Arch, with 5 second boot configuration.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=69086

or I think http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=71647 now

Obviously it means you need to read and work for it.

Nothing wrong with reading and working

[phrostbyte]

You can do Puppy Linux too. It's not "instant on" (I don't think anything really is) - but it's pretty damn fast.

[chris200x9]

you could do gentoo :P

[floborg]

Though it's basically useless and not Linux, ReactOS is the fastest-booting OS I have seen (intended for a PC).

[myusername]

moblin. its opensource. ive personally used it. and in the future you'll be able to install more apps thru free repos

[Warpnow]

Moblin is the easiest. I'll second that.

DSL/Puppy do boot fast.

But, ubuntu with a lightweight DE (LXDE) and no login manager, optomized to boot as quickly as possible with many tweaks can also cut under 10 seconds easily.

[Sublime Porte]

TinyCoreLinux is the fastest booting, functional desktop I've come across. About 10 seconds for me, and you're in a JWM desktop, with wbar and there's heaps of extensions, like Firefox, Skype, Pidgin etc.


But, ubuntu with a lightweight DE (LXDE) and no login manager, optomized to boot as quickly as possible with many tweaks can also cut under 10 seconds easily.

Ubuntu booting in under 10 seconds?

[Warpnow]

TinyCoreLinux is the fastest booting, functional desktop I've come across. About 10 seconds for me, and you're in a JWM desktop, with wbar and there's heaps of extensions, like Firefox, Skype, Pidgin etc.



Ubuntu booting in under 10 seconds?

The lower resource Openbox version of Kuki Linux (Ubuntu derivative for the Acer Aspire One) booted in 8 seconds for many people on IRC. I never tweaked mine that much but was getting under 20 seconds.

Bearing in mund the AA1 has an underpowered CPU I bet faster could be achieved.

[Phreaker]

Asus express gate

[Camilio]

You should try xPUD. It is in heavy development. You can easily customize it to include your drivers.
It boots in less than 5 seconds, and stops in less than 1 second.
It is designed to boot from an USB stick, but can easily be set on HDD and booted via Grub.

http://www.xpud.org/
http://wiki.github.com/penk/mkxpud