Fastest booting desktop linux distro?

I'm currently running Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop and I'm very happy with it. But boot times aren't great... So I'd like to have a second distribution on my hard disc that I can boot to quickly check my email and stuff like that. It really only needs to run firefox and a terminal. Ext4 support would be a plus since my Ubuntu partition is ext4. In the next couple of hours I will try xPUD and DSL. Any other suggestions?

EDIT: Tried xpud, hangs on boot.

Kim

Posted 2009-09-01T06:36:35.017

Reputation: 2 238

Answers

You may toss my answer to the wolves but it may give you a different perspective:

I have a netbook, an ASUS EeePC 900HA, and I've been on the hunt since last November when I bought it for a "fast boot" OS. The truth is, anything you may only want to wait seconds for (thus the fast boot) you should be capable of on your smart phone.

I eventually broke down and purchased a Blackberry. I'm not starting a smart phone debate, so please insert your favorite smart phone every time you read "Blackberry". My Blackberry lights up and asks for a password. I can check email, check movie times, make a quick note to self, make an audio note even. I can google map a location I'm not familiar with or use the messenger to say hi to a friend.

Outside of this type of work I use my netbook. It's a great little computer, but the truth is, if you NEED a 10 second boot, then whatever you can't wait for, you probably can do better by not using your netbook/laptop/desktop.

Will I wait upwards of 60+ seconds for a boot? Damned right I will ... if it works

Edit: In case you're curious, I use a regular install of Fedora 11 on my netbook. It rocks and everything works!

bobby

Posted 2009-09-01T06:36:35.017

Reputation: 399

now if only my phone had a decent keyboard and an iodine client... – Kim – 2009-09-01T17:20:26.307

if you bought an ASUS Eee PC for "fast boot", then the 900HA was definitely a poor choice. any SSD Eee can do much better, XP and various Linux distros (Xandros, Cruncheeeand, eeePCLOS) boot on my 701 4G in around 20 seconds. – None – 2009-09-01T18:31:33.497

@Molly - Sorry, but that's just completely wrong. Those SSD's aren't very fast at all, and many people say that for heavy hard disk utilizations, they perform worse. – th3dude – 2009-09-01T18:38:13.500

160GB goes a long way on a netbook vs 4 gigs. That's why I went with the HA. thedude19 raises a good point as well. THE SSDs inside of most netbooks are there for price and size, not disk space or speed. – bobby – 2009-09-01T19:25:38.443

Buy a fast SSD then. My 900A screams. It feels like my C2Q, faster boot times even. – prestomation – 2009-12-01T17:39:06.147

PuppyLinux, xPUD and DSL should be fast. Ext4 support needs to be checked though. Also consider things like XFCE.

* PuppyLinux 4.3 has ext4 support

Puppy and DSL are outperformed by Slitaz, xPUD seem decent for booting fast but not more ...

ext4 still immature and don't have a signicative speed improvement (less than 5-10 %) ...

xfce is outperformed by the user-friendly LXDE and for professionnal by the windows manager it use Openbox but used in solo but some peoples add tint2 so they don't need to build an openbox panel ...

But it's true that Debian is way faster than ubuntu and will be more simple for you ...

So if I add that to my 1st response :

ditch ubuntu and put Arch linux (forgot to say optimized distro for new hardware also) with LXDE or better Openbox ... It will handle all your needs but it will take a week for your first setup if you have only basic linux knowledge ...

zillion

Posted 2009-09-01T06:36:35.017

Reputation: 398

What makes you think I have only basic linux knowledge and I don't know arch? – Kim – 2009-09-01T07:53:32.633

PuppyLinux, xPUD and DSL should be fast.
Ext4 support needs to be checked though.
Also consider things like XFCE.

PuppyLinux 4.3 has ext4 support

nik

Posted 2009-09-01T06:36:35.017

Reputation: 50 788