Nifty! So Asus is set to have an Instant “On” Linux for a line of their notebooks. (And, yes, it supports instant “Off” as well.)
Going back a few years.. well, a few decades.. the whole instant “On” concept is certainly not new. I am trying desperately to remember the name of an 8-bit system that would “instantly” turn on or off and always have your work sitting there waiting for you where you left off.
But we’ve all become so accustomed to having to wait on computers to boot software which we then use to run other software which we have to wait on to do anything. Sigh. It is a little sad.
Anyway, I am hoping this marks a wider trend of focusing more on having computers that act like typical electronic devices and less like, well, computers.
Funny article:
http://www.bspcn.com/2007/12/03/5-things-we-miss-about-old-school-computing/
At least most Linux distro's will save your session on shut down so you can resume where you left off at startup. One of my favorite features of Linux because 'hibernating' (or the old echo 'disk' > /sys/power/state) kills my video card on 'awakening'.
The HP Omnibook 300 and such used Windows in ROM and used Flash RAM, it was Instant-ON.
The Canon Cat.
That's it!
I think I first heard about the Canon Cat in Jef Raskins book about user interfaces.
The Humane Interface?
Great book.