Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

She doesn't. I mean, you can apparently boot Linux in 5 seconds ;).

"In short, why is using a computer with a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM
full of delays, when using an IPTV set top box with typically 100MHz CPU
and 32MB RAM is not?"

Well, that set-top box is designed to do one thing, and it's designed to do
it on one hardware-configuration. So they can optimize it like crazy. Those
do not apple to Linux.

that said, my DVR takes about 5-10 seconds to boot. My DVD-player takes few
seconds as well. My router takes about 10 seconds to become reachable.

"If you allow delayed service startup to not count, the danger is that
you'll discount services that matter to users."

But the thing is that we already have slow as hell boots, even with delayed
services. Like I said, my laptop running OpenSUSE takes ages to boot, and
when I DO get to the desktop, it's STILL not connected to the network! So
the difference between this fast booting and my OpenSUSE is that Arjans
system takes 5 seconds to boot, after which it takes few more seconds to
connect to the network, whereas my laptop takes 45-50 seconds to boot,
after which it takes few more seconds for it to connect to the network.

In other words: it takes just as long for the two systems to connect to the
network. The difference is that the things that happen before that net-
connection take 45-50 seconds on my laptop, whereas on Arjans EEE it only
takes 5 seconds.

And how would you connect to the WiFi befire getting to the desktop? I
mean, you might need to enter passwords and the like? Should the computer
stop booting and prompt you for your WPA-passowrd? No. It should get you to
the desktop and in to an usable state, and prompt you for any needed WiFi-
passwords as needed.

"Indeed, you're already trying to handwave away an important service for
some use cases as "takes too long, and anyway users can wait"; this is
exactly why someone doing the challenge must set a defined state in which
boot is finished. Given the defined state, I can now look at it, compare it
to my use cases, and say "yes, that's good enough", or "no, I need to work
out how to fit WiFi startup into that 5 seconds"."

But Wifi is not part of what we usually think of when we talk about
"booting". And like I said: I see no difference between this 5-seconds boot
when compared to normal booting, if we think of Wifi alone. In either case,
WiFi is disconnected at the end of the boot.

"Plus, my experience of normal users is very different to yours - they
don't have computers waiting and switched on, they don't start the computer
up without a task in mind, they start the computer thinking "Do I have any
e-mail waiting?""

Sure. But let's compare two scenarios:

Normal distro:

User turns the computer on. It boots for about 45 seconds, and the user
logs in. After he gets to the desktop, he needs to wait for few seconds for
the network to become usable. Then he can check his mail

Arjans EEE:

User turns on the computer. It boots in five seconds. User needs to wait
for few more seconds for network to become usable. Then he can check his
email.

How is that normal distro handling networking better than the EEE is? It's
not online either, at the end of the boot.

removing WiFi from the equation we can focus on the subject at hand:
booting. WiFi relaies on other things that are totally outside the scope of
this project.