What a G1G1 user wants from an alternate OS

[Sameer Verma]

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:04 AM, Ed McNierney <ed at laptop.org> wrote:
> Most "quick boot" systems are - at least in part - making a tradeoff by
> slowing things down later.  I would not want to "succeed" with a quick boot
> only to have people think the machine was slow because the next 5 things
> they did took a long time.
>

Perception is a major component in technology adoption (VHS vs BetaMax
etc. Also see Rogers, Everett M. (2003).Diffusion of Innovations). In
fact, anywhere between 50% to 85% variation in adoption can be
explained by perception alone!

So, even if the boot is 5 seconds long, and the tradeoff is a slower
loading of apps subsequently, the perception of a faster boot will
(most probably) imply a faster system. I don't have statistical
evidence for this, but I'll dig deeper and see if anyone has studied
boot time perception. If there's none, maybe we can run a quick test
with newbies :-)

> I think we need to be careful about being sucked into the "quick boot"
> ideal.  How often do you reboot your machines?  I just rebooted my MacBook
> Pro this morning for the first time in several weeks, for a software update.
>  It took over a minute to boot, and that fact has been completely irrelevant
> to me as a user.  If we provide good suspend/resume and power management
> support, users aren't going to reboot very often.
>

Many Windows users reboot more than once a day :-) and I suspect most
G1G1 users will be Windows users as opposed to Mac or Linux users...

> I certainly agree that moving from a six-minute boot to a one-minute boot
> makes a substantial difference in the user's perception of the system (if
> not a difference in usability) and that's a very important goal.  But
> striving for incremental improvements in boot time is, I think, much less
> valuable to user than an excellent suspend/resume experience (which my
> MacBook Pro does very well).
>

I agree that suspend/resume cycle makes a huge difference. Sugar's s/r
cycle is *very* impressive. Given that it already works in Sugar, I'd
imagine achieving that in GNOME shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

Sameer
-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/


>        - Ed
>
>
> On Dec 3, 2008, at 10:32 AM, Samuel Klein wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 10:30 AM, Samuel Klein
>>>
>>> with all due respect, 'business applications, youtube, ppt, &c'
>>> doesn't sound like an insurmountable target.
>>
>> To be more specific, fast boot time, business apps, and video/flash
>> playback have all been demonstrated on their own.  The question is how
>> to combine them.
>>
>> I would guess fast boot time that loads extra bits in the background
>> to support more elaborate apps would be acceptable.
>>
>> SJ
>>
>>> SJ
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 9:06 AM, Mikus Grinbergs <mikus at bga.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> From a post that included the following quote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> However many G1G1 participants, such as myself, may not be as
>>>>>> interested in the plethora of functionality that these builds have to
>>>>>> offer, and only want rapid, basic functionality:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1. Quick boot time (Yes, ideally 5-10 seconds)
>>>>>> 2. Basic wifi access and webbrowsing.
>>>>>> 3. Business applications such as: Spreadsheet, Word Processor, PDF
>>>>>> viewer, PPT Presentation viewer would be nice.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What do we need to do to make this a reality?
>>>>
>>>> I believe here is a case of unrealistic expectations.  There are at
>>>> least
>>>> three things about an XO-1 (i.e., G1G1) that stand out:  (1) rugged
>>>> physical
>>>> design  (2) reflective display  (3) [with latest software] low power
>>>> draw.
>>>> But should the XO-1 be asked to compete with systems that offer business
>>>> applications, YouTube, PPT, etc. ?
>>>>
>>>> My suggestion is that someone who wants the described "basic"
>>>> capabilities
>>>> go spend the money to purchase a "netbook" instead.
>>>>
>>>> mikus
>>>>
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>>>
>>
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