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.

There’s been a lot of talk over the last year or so about “instant on” operating systems for netbooks and laptops. The idea is that instead of using the sleep and resume functions on a full operating system like Windows, you can boot a quick-start environment like Splashtop or Hyperspace in just a few seconds to get online, surf the web, make Skype calls, or listen to music.

The problem is that just a few seconds usually means 15-20 seconds or longer. Since it doesn’t take much longer than that to boot Windows, and takes even less time to resume from suspend mode, I don’t really see much use in these quick start operating systems. But Phoenix has a new technology that could change things… a bit. It’s a quick-booting BIOS.

The idea is that part of the reason it takes a while for any computer operating system to do a cold boot is because the BIOS takes at least a few seconds to load before you even start loading the operating system. Phoenix has a new Instant Boot BIOS that Laptop Magazine says can load in just 1 second on supported hardware. That’s 5 to 10 times faster than most BIOS boot times.

You can watch a video of the Phoenix Instant Boot BIOS at Laptop Magazine. Just make sure not to blink.

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?

Moblin Alpha 2

Intel and its partners that are working on the Moblin Linux platform for netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices have big plans for this little operating system. Ars Technica reports that one of those goals is a super-fast 2 second boot time.

I took Moblin Alpha 2 for a test drive last week. And while it definitely seems snappier and more feature-packed than earlier builds, it’s not quite at the 2-second boot point just yet. But apparently Intel thinks this is a wholly realistic goal, even on mobile devices with slow processors because it doesnt’ take very long to load the most important software components.

What’s interesting about this concept is that it could quickly make quick-start applications like DeviceVM’s Splashtop and Phoenix’s HyperSpace obsolete. Each of these are designed as light weight operating systems that boot in 10-15 seconds to give users quick access to a handful of programs including Firefox and Skype without waiting for Windows or a heavier Linux operating system to fully load. But Moblin is a fully functional Linux distribution. If you can start a computer running Moblin in as little as two seconds there would be no need for a secondary OS like Splashtop or HyperSpace.

In fact, if Intel can pull this off, there wouldn’t even be much need for sleep or hibernation — unless you want to be able to save your computer’s state in between sessions.

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.

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Lenovo is updating its IdeaPad S10 netbook line with three new features: Quick Start, facial recognition, and Lenovo Social, a social networking tool.

Quick Start is Lenovo’s answer to the ExpressGate software that Asus loads onto most of its motherboards (although not most Eee PC netbook models to date). The software gives a computer “instant on” capabilities by booting a stripped down Linux-based operating system with just a few programs allowing you to access a web browser, Skype, and photo and music applications without waiting for a full OS to boot. We’d already heard that Lenovo would be offering the software on its IdeaPad S10E netbook (which I believe is intended primarily for educational markets), but now it looks like the whole line of netbooks will get Quick Start.

The S10 line is also getting a facial recognition application that works as a security feature.

Finally, Lenovo is adding a tool called Lenovo Social, which seems to be a link to a web portal that offers access to Lenovo forums, blogs, and basic information about accessing social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr. Lenovo Social seems to be geared towards people who have never heard of Twitter, and may never have heard of Facebook or Wikipedia either, if any people like that actually still exist.

The new facial recognition and Quick Start features will be available in March. No word on whether you’ll be able to add the software to existing netbooks or if you’ll need to pick up a new Lenovo IdeaPad S10 in March to use the new features.

via jkOnTheRun and Laptop Magazine