Samsung is the latest PC maker to jump on the quick start bandwagon. The company has partnered with Phoenix to load HyperSpace on all of Samsung’s upcoming mobile PCs including netbooks.

HyperSpace is basically a low profile Linux distribution that hangs out on a small hard drive partition, allowing you to choose between HyperSpace or Windows when you boot your computer. HyperSpace has the advantage of booting in a matter of seconds and allowing you quick and easy access to a handful of applications including Firefox, Skype, and multimedia software.

Personally, I’m not all that convinced that anyone needs one of these quick-boot solutions. But if you spend all of your time using Skype, Firefox, and the handful of other apps that are available in HyperSpace, maybe it’s Windows you don’t actually need.

I’m still not sold on “instant on” operating environments like DeviceVM’s Splashtop and Phoenix HyperSpace. First of all, on low power machines like netbooks, it can easily take 15 seconds or longer to load the software. If you could have held on another 30 seconds you could have booted Windows XP. But more importantly, when was the last time you actually shut down your computer and waited a minute for it to do a cold boot? Most people I know put their PCs to sleep for weeks at a time without a boot, and resuming from sleep or hibernation usually takes just a few seconds.

That said, it seems like every time I turn around, Phoenix or DeviceVM are announcing some new partnership to bundle their software with somebody’s hardware. This week it’s Phoenix’s turn. The company is announcing that it’s reached a deal with Intel to bundle HyperSpace with Intel Desktop Boards featuring Intel Atom 230 and 330 processors. In other words, mainboards that are destined for nettops.

HyperSpace gives users quick access to a handful of applications including an office suite, web browser, and Skype before waiting for the full operating system to load.

HyperSpace

Phoenix Technologies’ HyperSpace software is a quick-booting software environment that can coexist on a PC with Windows or other full featured operating systems. In other words, you have a choice when you hit the power button of waiting 45 seconds or longer to boot into a full desktop operating system, or you can launch HyperSpace in just a few seconds and quickly go online with a web browser, access media stored on your PC with media players, or perform other tasks.

Yesterday Phoenix announced a partnership with Intel to work together on Moblin, a custom Linux distribution for netbooks. The press release is a little vague, but as far as I can tell, this partnership means two things:

• Phoenix will work with the Moblin team to bring fast-boot, power management, and other HyperSpace features to Moblin
• Intel and Phoenix will promote the inclusion of the HyperSpace fast-boot option to PC makers putting together Moblin-powered netbooks

It doesn’t sound like HyperSpace and Moblin are becoming one. In other words, you’ll still have a choice of booting into one operating system or the other. But I kind of have to wonder what the point is. If it took a half hour to boot Moblin and 10 seconds to boot HyperSpace, that’d be one thing. But we’re talking about the difference between 10 seconds and maybe 30 or 40 here. Not to mention the fact that most people I know tend to put their computers to sleep more often than they completely power them down, which means you can probably resume from sleep faster than you can boot HyperSpace.

RealNetworks is announcing a deal that could bring the company’s RealPlayer software to a number of Linux powered netbooks. The company is partnering with Ubuntu to bundle a Linux version of RealPlayer mobile with Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

RealNetworks is also working with three companies that offer an “instant on” environment for netbooks that lets you run a handful of applications a few seconds after hitting the power button on your PC without waiting for the computer to boot Windows or another full desktop operating system. Phoenix Technologies (the makers of HyperSpace), DeviceVM (the folks behind SplashTop), and Xandros (which has its own Presto quick boot environment) have all agreed to use RealPlayer Mobile.

So what are the advantages of RealPlayer Mobile? Well, the software does include codecs for handling most popular media files. But so does the open source VLC media player. It will also be able ot handle HD video playback on netbooks with hardware acceleration. But RealNetworks’ Rishi Mathew tells ComputerWorld the big advantage is name recognition. When most computer users pick up Linux for the first time, they’re struck by the fact that it doesn’t run the programs they’re familiar with, even if it does have other programs that serve the same purpose. Mathew seems to think that by slapping familiar apps like RealPlayer on Linux devices people will find the operating system more comfortable.

What do you think, would you be more likely to use a Linux netbook with RealPlayer? Or would you prefer an open source solution like VLC or mPlayer?

Phoenix Technologies says the company’s quick start HyperSpace software now works with ARM processors. That means that you’ll be able to load HyperSpace on low cost computers like the upcoming Pegatron netbook which could sell for as little as $199.

HyperSpace is a low power Linux-based environment which boots in about 10 to 20 seconds on most Intel Atom powered netbooks. It’s not clear how quickly HyperSpace will load on ARM powered machines, but it’s likely that it will be at least a little bit faster than loading a fully functional operating system like Ubuntu (Windows and OS X don’t run on ARM CPUs). HyperSpace includes a handful of programs like Firefox, Skype, and media players that let you start using your computer without waiting 60 seconds or longer for the OS to boot up.

Honestly, HyperSpace makes a bit morse sense for more powerful computers which are capable of runing the software at the same time as Windows is booting. So you can check your email while Windows loads in the background and then switch from one OS to the other. On low power netbooks, you have to shut down HyperSpace before you can fire up Windows, Ubuntu, or another full operating system.

HyperSpace also charges customers an annual subscription fee, which will make the software a non-starter for many users.

Phoenix Technologies has signed a deal with Asus to include HyperSpace “instant on” software on new Asus laptops. A Phoenix spokesperson tells me that includes at least some Eee PC netbook models.

HyperSpace is basically a stripped down operating system that boots faster than Windows or a full Linux distro, letting you access some apps like a web browser, VoIP, chat utility or media player without waiting for Windows to boot. I got a chance to check out HyperSpace at CES, and saw that it’s not exactly an instant on environment for netbooks. On a Lenovo IdeaPad S10, which has similar hardware to the Eee PC line of computers, it took more than 10 seconds to boot HyperSpace. Still, I suppose that’s faster than the 40+ seconds it typically takes to boot Windows XP.

There are two versions of HyperSpace. The version that can be used with more powerful laptops allows you to boot Windows in the background while HyperSpace loads, which lets you toggle back and forth betwen the two operating systems. The netbook version only lets you boot into one OS at a time.

HyperSpace is also available for anyone to download and install on their own, but Phoenix charges a yearly fee to use the software after your 21 day free trial is up. It’s not clear whether Asus and other companies that preload HyperSpace on computers will charge customers an additional fee for the software. Update: Kevin at jkOnTheRun has confirmed that HyperSpace will ship on Asus notebooks with a normal subscription plan. In other words, you’ll need to pay $40 a year to use the software on an Eee PC after your 21 day free trial expires.

HyperSpace

Lenovo added a new quick start feature to its IdeaPad S10 netbook line this week. Basically users have the option of booting into a full Windows XP operating system or a stripped down Linux OS that provides you access to just a few frequently used applications like Firefox and Skype. The advantage of using quick start is that… you guessed it, the PC boots faster.

Lenovo is using technology from Splashtop to deliver this quick start feature. But I discovered yesterday that the company had also looked at using similar technology from Phoenix called HyperSpace. Apparently Phoenix didn’t have the product far enough along for Lenovo to load it on the company’s netbooks. 

In a nutshell, both  Splashtop and HyperSpace do the same thing. And here’s the interesting bit – they both work on the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 today. Phoenix is launching HyperSpace this week and anyone can download and install the software on supported hardware, and that includes the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. The primary difference between the two systems is that Lenovo is offering Splashtop for free while anyone can download a free 21 day trial of HyperSpace, but you’ll need to pay if you want to keep using the software after the trial expires. 

HyperSpace works in two ways. You can either toggle back and forth between Windows and a HyperSpace environment, or you can choose to boot into one OS or the other. On computers with slower processors like the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, only the latter version is available. The either/or version is available for $39.95 a year, while the verison that lets you switch back and forth costs $59.95 a year, both of which seem kind of steep to me. 

I asked a Lenovo rep if the company would be offering Splashtop as a free or paid download for customers who have already purchased an IdeaPad S10 (right now it’s only going to be available on new units), and he said it’s possible but that no announcement has been made yet.

I did learn  one interesting thing about both HyperSpace and Splashtop yesterday: Neither is truly “instant on” software. As you can see from the videos after the break, it actually takes 10+ seconds to boot into either environment. While that’s pretty good compared to most Windows and Linux boot sequences, my 5 year old PDA turns on and off a lot faster. Of course that’s because when you turn it off, it’s really going to sleep and not shutting all the way off. But I’d love to see this feature on more netbooks not running Windows CE.

Read the rest of this entry »