For office drones at big companies such as AT&T, United Health Group and Cigna, booting up their computers at the start of the day and waiting for them to shut down takes some decent time. Like 20 minutes at the start and end of the day. And they sure don’t like the fact that their weasely employers have decided to not pay them for that time. So, of course, they’re suing.
This survey, sent to a random sampling of Windows users, seems to indicated that MS is at least thinking of integrating an instant-on mode to Windows. Existing quick-start features like Splashtop, found on the Voodoo Envy, Eee Box and a number of other machines, are usually Linux-based systems that stick their finger into the BIOS. A Windows-native solution would be a similar setup–giving you access to a limited feature and application set after a few seconds boot. That is, unless the respondents to this survey overwhelmingly select “1-2 minutes” as their definition of “instant.” [Engadget]
