[TriLUG] Speeding up the boot process of a Linux box

[sholton at mindspring.com]

>That said, why would you ever *not* want the system to boot faster? 

Lots of meat in that simple question.

The evolution of the need for a fast boot time is (IMHO)
directly comingled with the more general evolution of 
Linux (and, to a large extent GNU/Linux with it) down the
path toward maturity.

Linux (the kernel) started out as a hobbyist system which 
proved it was capable of being used as a software design
platform for geeks, thanks for the GNU utilities. Roughly
DOS'ish in functionality.

Distro providers (Red Hat, Debian, etc) took a software 
design platform and evolved it further to the point where 
it was suitable for non-geeks to use in a desktop or 
home computing setting. Here, having to reboot just isn't 
that big of a deal. Roughly on par with Windows.
Still some work to do to beat Windows in a desktop
setting (IMHO) because the Linux focus is elsewhere.

Further improvements made it 'enterprise ready'. In this
realm, Windows is definitely struggling compared to Linux.
Without the proprietary lock in, there wouldn't even be a
race. Linux has the advantage in that it /can/ be targeted
toward a specific hardware configuration and specific software
requirements. (Things like Gentoo.) But even for the enterprise
market, going beyong 5-9's puts you into the realm of 
diminishing returns. No sense in having an OS that never
needs rebooting if the IS folk are going to reboot it every 
sunday 2:00 am anyway.

Next step? For carrier-grade reliability (better than 5-9's)
you really need embedded equipment: not only software 
targeted for specific needs, but stuff that rarely needs to
be upgraded or patched. 

Linux can beat Windows in this market without a doubt.
The real question in my mind is: who needs carrier-grade
service when, thanks to internet protocol, every failure
you /do/ have can be blamed on someone else?


-- 
sholton at mindspring.com
Innovation is a wildflower. You cannot choose where it will blossom; you can only choose where it will not.