Presto! In ten seconds, you've got an Internet desktop.
Summary: Have you ever had the need to boot your laptop in a Starbucks, an airport lounge, or a buddy's house, but don't want to go through the agonizing multi-minute procedure of starting up your operating system with all of its managed software and utilities? If you're a corporate Windows user on the go, chances are your PC might take several minutes to get up and running if you just want to get onto the Internet, GMail, surf, Twitter, FaceBook, instant message, Skype, or what have you.
Have you ever had the need to boot your laptop in a Starbucks, an airport lounge, or a buddy's house, but don't want to go through the agonizing multi-minute procedure of starting up your operating system with all of its managed software and utilities? If you're a corporate Windows user on the go, chances are your PC might take several minutes to get up and running if you just want to get onto the Internet, GMail, surf, Twitter, FaceBook, instant message, Skype, or what have you. Well, now there's a solution: Presto.
The Presto Linux desktop.
Presto is actually an ultra-stripped down Linux that has been optimized to boot on even the oldest PC laptop hardware in a matter of seconds. Unlike other Linux environments that require re-partitioning of your system, Presto actually is stored in the C:\Program Files\Presto directory on your native Windows NTFS file system and installs just like a regular Windows Program.
Click on the "Read the rest of this entry" link below for more.
When you reboot your PC, your BOOT.INI menu now gives you a choice of Windows or Presto. If you pick Presto, it boots your computer within seconds into a Linux OS that is optimized for Internet Browsing, Instant Messaging, and Skype VOIP. You can even access files such as Powerpoint and Word documents on your Windows hard disk and view them or even modify the files using the built-in OpenOffice software.
Presto includes Firefox, Instant Messaging, Skype and the ability to browse/view/and alter files on your NTFS drive.
The technology which Presto uses to co-exist with Windows on the NTFS file system has also been applied to other Linux operating systems, such as Ubuntu, which offers the free WUBI installer for Windows. However Presto is much more stripped down than Ubuntu, and is really geared for Windows-based netbooks, older laptop hardware, or for anyone who wants to get their system up and running quickly.
Presto installs in a matter of minutes and as soon as my Lenovo laptop rebooted, it instantly detected my wireless networks. Presto is also extensible through a special "Click and Run" web site that it uses in combination with the Application Store program pre-installed on the system. Need some games or other special programs, such as the GIMP image editing software? or Picasa? Just add it for free through the online App Store.
The Application Store allows you to add thousands of applications to Presto with just a simple click.
Unlike WUBI, Presto is commercial software -- it costs $19.99. But this is a no-brainer purchase for the busy traveller on the go.
Have you played with Presto yet? Talk Back and Let Me Know.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3138d3dc-d974-434f-966a-f357870d084b)
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Sounds mighty cool
If you don't mind some extra seconds during booting (about 40 to 50 seconds), then a bootable USB memory stick loaded with a live version of Fedora or Ubuntu, will provide the same functionality for free.
With Unetbootin you can turn any 1 GB memory stick into a bootable fully functional operating system with loads of fine apps:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Additional advantage: you leave the hard disk of the laptop untouched. So if your company has a policy of regularly restoring a clean image of Windows, that's no problem.
Have fun, Pjotr.
USB Sticks
Why 1g?
USB booting
RE: Presto! In ten seconds, you've got an Internet desktop.
ditto
RE: Presto! In ten seconds, you've got an Internet desktop.
Presto - 19.99, windows hibernation - free
Now if somebody could speed up BIOS startup then it would be really nice. That is worth 20 bucks.
Hibernation
What this does is give you the option of a full power down, and then being able to boot the laptop up very quickly. No hibernation.
full waked up mode?
"Some laptops put out a significant amount of heat even when "hibernating" and I've noticed on a number of occasions when closing the lid on several laptops the system never completely goes into hibernation, it keeps on running in full waked up mode instead, this despite having the correct hibernation settings applied."
Sounds like power management issues which are usually due to OEM's cutting costs. You find this a lot on laptops made in China... which is pretty much all of them.
I feel that instead of patching the problems with $20 apps... the OEM's should be forced to put out a decent product. But getting everyone to boycott these greedy bastards will be hard.
My last Compaq laptop...
Well... depends on how old.
Can't speak for everyone, but on average, most the Vista machines I have seen boot faster.
That said, I have seen some pre SP1 Vista machines take forever to resume from hibernation. However, in the cases is saw, this was due to poorly engineered BIOS support for power management. MS addressed a some of these issues in SP1, and some OEMs with BIOS updates.
You have to remember, MS only makes the OS, and other factors such as BIOS boot, and POST sequence play a part in boot time as well.
Deleted (posted in wrong place)
Hibernation works perfectly for me, every time, but...
So even I'd consider a fast-boot Linux distro.
When it works...
Now, let's ask the next question, it comes out of hibernate, but refuses to reconnect to the internet?
This was (probably still is) a famous Vista problem, leading to a complete reboot in the end anyway. If it works for you, then that's great, but hibernate may not be reliable enough for many.
TripleII
Vista reconnect issues are from standby mode
Hibernate works fine on Vista (for me at least), but it's frustratingly slow to resume from hibernation...
Which is, I think, why there's a reason for instant-boot operating systems to be promoted like this. I suspect if Windows 7 sorts this out so that a laptop will resume from hibernation instantly (which is theoretically possible, all it does is dump the contents of RAM to disk), or for that matter sorts out boot times (which I hear they have to some extent) the market for things like Presto will all but disappear...
Puppy Linux, also free.
What 10 seconds?!
Seems to work (except the WIFI!), but it takes
almost as long to boot up as XP! And now, I've
burned 6 hrs trying to figure out how to
configure the wifi. This is why Linux is not
gaining the traction that it should! Nothing is
simple and all the forums ASSUME you've were
there when the thing was born! It seems like
anything you want to do has to go back to the
command line. Windows may be terrible, but it's
super user friendly compared to Linux!
My MacBook Pro opens all windows and connects to wireless in 4 seconds!
Mine will do that also, but only...