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Ask DLS: how much does a sub-30 second boot matter to you?
See, I never shut my machine off. I close the lid, it goes to sleep. I open the lid, it resumes in a few short seconds. Windows 7 is especially quick, but Vista was fast, too. Unless I'm toying with an OS that can't pull off the go-to-sleep-and-wake-up trick (several Linux distros, I'm talking to you) I just don't need to power down that often.
My desktop computer at work is the same. When I leave it idle, it suspends. I bang on the space bar and up it comes - and in fewer than 15 seconds. Yes, sometimes a shutdown can't be avoided, but those occasions have been few and far between for me. Am I alone in this?
I wouldn't think so. A friend of mine hasn't rebooted his Linux-based media server in more than a year. It may take a full minute to boot, but I doubt he'd care if it can run for 365 days straight from then on.
Don't get me wrong. I love building systems with Raptors and watching them tear through the startup process. I understand that the amount of time an OS takes to boot says something about how it's been put together. It just seems to me that there are dozens of other things that are more important to compare when looking at the different systems.
What do you think? Do you shut your computer completely off that often? Is a half minute too long to wait for it to power back on?
Comments
61
Subscribe to commentsLinkintek06Jan 22nd 2009 1:06PM
The reason I do not put my computer to sleep is that, by overtime will it not slowdown my speed or ending the lifetime of my laptop even faster?
jupiterthunderJan 19th 2009 7:26PM
I'm with you on this one. I don't really care about startup time unless it's horrid. And by horrid, I mean like the startup time on the machines that belong to people who have absolutely no idea how to keep their computers working smoothly.
Drew GreenJan 19th 2009 5:14PM
Call me impatient, but it pisses me off having to wait for my machine to reboot, especially since I'm used to having it on all of the time. Having to wait 1-2 mins from the time the machine boots to being able to actively surf the intrawebs and use Outlook is unacceptable.
Stuart JonesJan 19th 2009 5:32PM
I'm a student, so battery life and boot time are near and dear to me. I've got several classes in a row, with about 20-30 minute breaks between them. Shutting my computer down (and Hibernation to some extent), are not really an option. If I walk into class and have to wait for my machine to boot up and load all my note taking programs, I could miss the first 2 or 3 minutes of a lecture.
Conversely though, suspend drains battery, making me have to carry my charger around and it dictates my seating arrangements.
A 30 second boot would solve all of these problems.
Bolivar BaezJan 19th 2009 5:52PM
What's wrong with using hibernation? It works great and loads fast.
rcarmJan 20th 2009 4:11AM
@ Bolivar
windows can't hibernate if you have more than 4gb of memory
Alex MJan 19th 2009 5:44PM
Are you kidding? I need to reboot my XP work PC every week, at least. Those damned windows updates always require reboots.
I hate how double-faced that is. They have a whole suite of recommendations for Windows software saying how you, as a vendor, should never ever ask the user to reboot when updating your software, but Microsoft can do it every single week.
CaramelZappaJan 19th 2009 5:49PM
You know you can have windows update run at whatever time you want, and then have it automatically reboot after updates? You can set it to a time when you're asleep, and when you wake up in the morning you'll have a freshly booted desktop.
Alex MJan 20th 2009 11:35AM
I didn't know that.
Still, I tried it, didn't work. I'm at work, and the updates are forced through the network. So besides blaming Microsoft, I can now add my network admins, too.
And that still doesn't address who gets to request reboots and who doesn't.
CaramelZappaJan 19th 2009 5:46PM
I'm with you on this. When I need to move my laptop without draining the battery life I put it in hibernate, otherwise it's just always on. It doesn't take terribly long to boot up, just a couple minutes, if that. If I'm really feeling impatient I might go downstairs for a snack. No big deal.
akcpeJan 19th 2009 5:48PM
I really dont care about the boot time that much. Like the OP says, i dont usually turn my computer off. My desktop is always on and my laptop is either on or in sleep mode. 20-30 mins between each class is no big deal for sleep. I lose 1% or less battery per hour of sleep on mine at least.
Muffin_manJan 23rd 2009 2:18PM
I have to shut down my computer. For some reason Vista won't stay in sleep mode, I've disabled the option in the BIOS for it to wake up, disabled the option on all my peripherals, disabled the option on my network card and disabled the option for every single scheduled task. Yet it STILL wakes up.
My machine takes less than a minute to boot up but when you've had the luvury of an instantly starting computer it's a real pain.
sidewinder12sJan 19th 2009 6:18PM
Mine is always on Sleep, also right now i have windows 7 installed on Dual Boot with Vista and windows 7 starts MUCH faster then Vista and its pretty nice. i hate waiting for it to start up, But i dont know how long it really takes since i select what OP to Boot everytime i start the thing.
step21Jan 19th 2009 6:22PM
On the topic: yeah, I'm like that too, my old Samsung notebook for long periods of its life only went to sleep when I had to travel or otherwise needed to move it, possibly why it died on me after barely 2 years.
@Stuart
I'd say listening closely and the papers / scripts that go with lectures are much more important than taking notes yourself. Note taking especially with a laptop only annoys other students and gives not additional information as all of that is already in the papers / scripts.
jameseyjameseyJan 19th 2009 6:11PM
I enjoy saving power, so I shut my box down when I'm not using it. A quick boot is important.
andyJan 19th 2009 7:17PM
i agree, call me crazy but i turn it off every night
bambooJan 21st 2009 10:47AM
Same here. Even in suspend mode the computer wastes power, so I shut mine down every night. My vista used to boot very quickly, but has gotten much slower with all the programs I run installed.
And as a gamer, I want every bit of resources the computer can give, and rebooting is the best way to free up memory and processes.
Peter MillerJan 21st 2009 7:19PM
This is what hibernate is for - a computer does not use ANY power whilst in hibernation.
Hibernation saves the active memory to hard disk and then powers down. When it wakes, it copies the memory back from the hard disk to RAM.
TurboFoolJan 19th 2009 6:24PM
I shut my desktop computer down most nights to conserve power. As for my notebook, I do so occasionally. Typically if I have no apps open that I care about, I'll usually shut down instead of sleeping, as I might as well let the system clear its memory, fully shut down apps, apply updates, etc.
So yes, fast boots ARE still valuable to me, regardless of how often I use sleep.
Lee MathewsJan 19th 2009 6:26PM
Doesn't powering off only save about 1 watt vs. sleep on most modern machines?
Not to be "un-green," but that's only about 8kwh a year, right? Check my math on that one...