Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 22, 2008 19:38 UTC (Mon) by SimonKagstrom (guest, #49801)
In reply to: Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore by drag
Parent article: LPC: Booting Linux in five seconds

Well, if it's a sport - I agree, there should be the same rules for everyone :-)

However, otherwise I simply want to start working as soon as possible after I've logged in (as probably most people here, I seldomly boot). Obviously showing a screenshot of the desktop is just plain silly, but why should I have to wait for some network share to be mounted unless I really need it?

Applications will start slower, sure, but if the system is unusable because of I/O caused by daemons starting in the background I'd consider that a plain bug which should be fixed.

// Simon

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 22, 2008 22:28 UTC (Mon) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (5 responses)

What if your application depends on data on a network share?

I figure the services your starting up are starting up for good reason and you'll probably have applications that depend on them. Otherwise, on a desktop, what is the point of starting them? :)

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 23, 2008 7:35 UTC (Tue) by mjthayer (guest, #39183) [Link] (2 responses)

The distribution sets them up so that the user doesn't have to know about them at all. E.g. the user doesn't have to know about CUPS in order to print. (Although I would be interested to know how many Linux users have succeeded in printing without knowing about CUPS.) Of course, that could also be made more intelligent - some services could be started when they are needed by default (I thought that was the point of upstart) and automatically moved to or from autostart on boot depending on how often the user needs them.

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 23, 2008 15:14 UTC (Tue) by macc (guest, #510) [Link] (1 responses)

CUPS is unpleasantly opaque.

It's either there or not after
boot ( server on remote host ).
Though an easy way to _really_
flush printjobs that have gone bad
would be nice too.

The next bloodpressure raisers
are beagle and that gaga
network-manager. ( on SuSE )
MACC

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 23, 2008 20:05 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

What's wrong with 'lprm'? It works for me.

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 23, 2008 9:08 UTC (Tue) by NAR (subscriber, #1313) [Link] (1 responses)

There are some daemons like spamd of spamassassin that are not necessary right after boot, so they could be started later in the background...

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 23, 2008 17:58 UTC (Tue) by arjan (subscriber, #36785) [Link]

Spam Assassin should just be started on first use; if you only use gmail for your email you shouldn't pay for it (both in time and memory) after all.

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Sep 23, 2008 2:30 UTC (Tue) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (1 responses)

Well in the windows camp, for example, you can't even successfully operate the start menu. So just triggering the attempted launch the programs you want can be really unworkable, and with a less than perfect io subsystem, your attempts to launch programs may cause thrashing, delaying your eventual ability to make use of your programs.

Linux is of course a good deal better than this, but avoiding these devils bargains is still laudible.

Cheating: Not just for Microsoft anymore

Posted Oct 4, 2008 18:36 UTC (Sat) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link]

Well in the windows camp, for example, you can't even successfully operate the start menu.

Indeed. What's the point of showing the user the desktop if they can't actually use it? That's the question the Windows developers should be asking themselves.