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PC makers are in fierce competition to shorten the time it takes for computers to boot up. The New York Times on Sunday said PC manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard Dell and Lenovo are planning to showcase computers that enable users to log onto the Internet within just 30 seconds after switching on the machine. Normally, it takes four or five minutes for a PC to grind into gear, an anxious wait for many. Some just watch the screen, while others have the sense to make a cup of coffee.
The alternative PC makers have been looking at is to start up a simpler program through Linux while Windows was starting up. It does not cut down the actual time required for Windows to boot up but makes users feel less on edge during the time. It seems the most effective way until Microsoft comes up with a fundamental solution. Device VM, which developed the trick, made US$20 million back on its investment last year by earning $1 or 2 per PC that installs the program.
The daily says that while people tended to be more patient and relaxed before the days of the Internet, now people are now impatient for access. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles, is quoted as saying, ¡°Our brains have become impatient with the boot-up process. We have been spoiled by the hand-held devices.¡±
Cutting the boot-up time short is one area that the computer makers can focus on to distinguish their increasingly similar products in a saturated market. ¡°Computer makers say the battle for boot-up bragging rights could resemble the auto industry¡¯s race to shave tenths of a second from the time it takes a car to go from 0 to 60 miles an hour,¡± the daily says.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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