From: noemail@basdxcqvbe.com   
      
   On Thu, 21 Oct 2021 21:02:45 +0100   
   James Harris  wrote:   
      
   > You guys might be interested in this. The guy claims it as the   
   > world's fastest-booting PC. That may be something of an overclaim but   
   > this is the fastest I've ever seen a PC boot - about 2.5 seconds to   
   > MS-DOS 3.3. And that's on an 8086!   
   >   
   >    https://youtu.be/DaSkda4XW3k   
   >   
      
   Didn't you bring up this issue previously?  Or, was that someone else?   
      
   Well, that is for an early small BIOS, with a very small text-based OS,   
   probably without any device drivers, with a relatively fast for the era   
   8086.  Yes?  And, it really didn't seem like it was loaded from a   
   floppy (real slow) or MFM hard disk (slow).  So, I suspect it would've   
   been much slower if it was.  Didn't he say something about a ROM drive?   
      
   Well, this mostly 2009 parts computer, i.e., a decade or so old now   
   (assembled 2013), takes roughly six seconds to boot MS-DOS 7.10, from a   
   slow Compact Flash card which is probably comparable to a hard disk, or   
   maybe slower ...  Two seconds for the BIOS to execute, with most of that   
   time spent dynamically identifying hardware upon boot.  Some uncounted   
   time for me to manually to select from the boot menu the DOS drive to   
   boot from, as it's non-primary.  Then, about four seconds to load   
   MS-DOS and some DOS drivers.  Obviously, it would be faster without the   
   drivers, if the machine booted straight through to the DOS drive, and   
   if I still had DOS on the SSD instead of the CF card.  My recollection   
   was that it was nearly instantaneous to boot DOS when it was on the   
   SSD, taking only time for the BIOS to identify hardware.   
      
   So, your definition of "boot" doesn't only include executing the BIOS   
   and transferring execution to the boot loader?  I.e., you define "boot"   
   as including executing the BIOS/UEFI, executing the boot loader (etc)   
   too, and executing a small text OS too, but not executing a large GUI   
   OS.   
      
   Since this machine is old now, I'd think that newer machines could boot   
   DOS just as fast, assuming they can even still boot DOS, and perhaps   
   even boot Linux or Windows GUIs quickly too.   
      
   Linux wastes lots of time displaying text of what it's doing when   
   booting/loading.  It doesn't take that long, just a few seconds, to   
   start Linux GUI (XFCE) from a text-mode, command-line boot of Linux, on   
   this old machine.  I wouldn't doubt it if Linux could be make to boot   
   into the GUI in about five seconds, if all the text display from Linux   
   boot scripts was deleted.  BIOS 2 secs, Linux OS 1 sec (normally about   
   20 to 30 seconds ...), GUI 2 secs.   
      
   Windows 10, when it is being booted cleanly, wastes lots of time doing   
   something too, which I suspect is re-identifying hardware and   
   re-configuring.  I suspect that because powered down or unplugged USB   
   devices are fairly consistently lost, or fail to be re-found correctly   
   once re-plugged or re-powered, sometimes requiring booting into   
   safe-mode to restore all of them.   
      
   I agree that booting/loading could be faster, but then you'd need to do   
   some sort of save-state of the OS, like certain OSes do when the   
   computer "sleeps" or "hibernates" or does a "quick shutdown".  You'd   
   also need some way to quickly reset the hardware to the correct states   
   to match that of the OS save-state.  And, if the OS boots fast, because   
   the machine is fast, what's the point?   
      
      
   --   
   Donald Trump: No oil rigs off the East coast.   
   Joe Biden: Windfarms off of all our coasts.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)