Splashtop has released a new version of its instant-on OS that is based on the Chromium browser and could shorten PC boot times to just a few seconds. The latest version of the Splashtop OS, now in beta, is a lightweight version of Linux that allows users to surf the Web, access online applications or check e-mail almost instantly after switching on a PC.
So it’s based on Google’s Chromium browser and runs on a lightweight version of Linux… and uses Microsoft Bing for search? That’s a bit strange
Maybe they got money from Microsoft?
In that case, this isn’t strange..
Agreed.
And look how careful they are in stating that “it does not ruin your windows installation”
20something are the best years so enjoy while you still can.
All the best
The hardware support is still very limited:
Thank you for your interest in Splashtop OS – the fastest way to the Web!
Here is a list of currently supported devices:
• HP Mini 110
• Compaq Mini CQ10
• HP Mini 210
• HP Pavilion dm4
• HP Pavilion dv4
• HP Pavilion dv5
• HP Pavilion dv6
• HP Pavilion dv7
If you don’t see your PC model listed above, check back in a few weeks as more Splashtop-ready platforms are tested, we’ll update this list of supported platforms.
* Note: Some SKUs of these models may not be fully compatible with Splashtop OS.
The download package would appear to be simply a program that checks the hardware type and then displays the list of supported hardware, if it’s not one of those. It doesn’t contain the Splashtop package.
Extracting the files indicate that it calls
SplashtopOSSetup.exe -n:PROTODL03H0 -p:http://sn.splashtop.com/file_system/apt_repository/dists/PROTODL03H…
I’m not sure where the real packages are stored.
So Splashtop is this tiny os that boots up really fast and can access the web. Sure, I get that. What I don’t get is the purpose behind such a limited os. You can access the web over Wifi, sure, but the instant you want to do anything more than access the web (play music, use voip, print out that web page, watch a locally-stored movie, use a mobile broadband device, etc) you just have to fire up your primary os anyway. In that process you lose your browsing session and have to re-open whatever you were looking at in the primary os if you want to continue. So what’s an extra 10 seconds of boot time to just fire up the primary os anyway, especially with suspend/resume which work well on most of these devices in both Windows and Linux and will cut the ready time down further than Splashtop can? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Future splashtop will be based on MeeGo, which is not a limited OS.
Funny how everyone always likes to say how awesome something will be in the future. Evaluation is done on what exists *now*, not what *might* exist. Once something changes, we can re-evaluate it then. When and if Splashtop does become based on Meego, then talk about how awesome it is. Until then, what’s the point of using Splashtop over something more capable?