14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the highly successful Eee PC, responsible for having set the grounds upon which the current netbook market was built, will receive a feature that will significantly increase its level of performance. As a matter of fact, leading chip maker Intel is working on a system that will allow a standard Eee to boot into a Fedora desktop in just five seconds.
The news has first been reported over at Lwn, in a post that informs about the work being carried out by Arjan van de Ven and Auke Kok, two Linux developers working at Intel's Open Source Technology Center. The two are not only trying to make ASUS' Eee PC boot faster, but have actually set for themselves a higher purpose, in that they are trying to deliver a system that can boot in 5 seconds. “It's not about booting faster, it's about booting in 5 seconds.” they say.
The feature isn't entirely new but, however, for an ultra-portable computer system to boot in just 5 seconds it is rather impressive. That is because netbooks have been designed with portability in mind, and because such systems are capable of providing their users with a fully-working desktop approximately in the same timeframe as a PDA device. The system could actually boost the number of Eee PC units sold, as users are likely to enjoy the much-improved booting time.
The work of the two Linux developers could improve not only the booting time for Eee PCs, but also for the next-generation netbooks and mobile Internet devices. Accomplishing the proposed feat will significantly increase the popularity of netbooks, which have already gained a considerable market share, helping their makers achieve sales records higher than expected.
A 5-second boot time for netbooks appears as the logical improvement to such a device that should offer users fast access times to the Internet and to other desktop applications.