There has been some discussion in recent months about developments in making laptops and other computers start instantaneously. These developments seem to be based around fiddling the shut down mechanism so it part starts or by implementing a mini-Linux OS in flash like with Splashtop Linux, to give an option to the standard start mechanisms that are in the main OS (mostly Windows of course).

Somehow, I believe people have gotten things messed up. My last four laptops all made good use of Hibernation and Suspend modes, and I have had few difficulties with the startup aspects of these (well at least since Windows 2000 came on the scene). These mechanisms work really well. The focus on boot up time is a bit of a non-issue for me, particularly when mobile as I am not normally rushing to get started up with the machine, I am normally getting a coffee and talking with people on entry to an office and the machine can start up in pretty much whatever time it wants to (well a couple of minutes would be good).

The problem area for me is shutdown. This is what takes time and needs focus on by engineers. Shutdown speed is governed more by how long it takes poor applications to notice the OS wants to go bye-bye, and this can be a reaaalllllyyyyy long time. So come on, make sure apps shut down quickly as well as start-up and then I would be really happy. This is really important of course because leaving offices are when we are in a hurry, and the time really drags by waiting for the end of the hibernation or the shutdown – when it is then safe for your disk to move, or for the machine to be placed in your bag (without the dreaded machine was still on syndrome noticed when the bag is really hot).

So this is where the effort needs to be expended – shutdown/hibernate, not start-up. What do you think?