-----Original Message----- From: elefino [mailto:kevinmcl@magma.ca]

<big snip>

At work, my main desktop machine runs Win XP Pro. From the time that I press the power switch, until the time that the hard disk stops churning, takes a minute or so, including the few seconds that it takes me to authenticate. The company and I have both added some extra stuff that lives in the tray, and that has added a few seconds.

When I boot SuSE 9.3 on that computer, or SuSE 10 on my home computer (the one that I'm writing from, at this moment), it takes many minutes for SuSE to load, then (after I login) it takes a further few minutes for KDE to load. The difference between starting after a clean shutdown, versus starting and re-opening apps (like multiple Konqi windows) that I might have left open at last shutdown is a very small portion of the total start time, so I discount that

That's amazing. portion. My testing has been very minimal -- but I have noticed a pretty long time to boot when I selected everything on the DVD (for SuSE). Because of some requirements at work, I use office more often (via vmware) than I do OOo (and I can't really speak on the apps front anyway). I do know that every other install I have had when I was judicious on the install, smoked windows in responsiveness for everything that I did -- and did not *seem* to be much longer on the boot time. One of the points I made, is that windows has addressed the very issue that you complain about quite well -- which is the customer experience -- real or perceived (and you are describing real numbers). I think that a lot of ground can be covered by a distro vendor or third party, if they would address this facet (and not necessarily in a copy-windows-behavior mode) of the OS. I think the majority of the desktop market is served best by the things which annoy those of us who are current Linux fans. The new breed of Linux fans will be the ones who find it as satisfying from a productivity and user experience perspective without being at all interested in the technology. I like Linux better, primarily, because the more I learn about it, the more I can do with it -- that is, it includes almost everything that I would want and if not, I can get and install something that does pretty easily and the learning curve for new apps is more shallow (in my experience). Linux is like a good statistical graphic (in the words of Edward Tufte:) -- it rewards closer inspection. I think Linux is at a tipping point, however, in that the gap you describe in your experience will be addressed by *someone* and Linux adoption on the desktop will skyrocket. I don't think it will happen the way some people predict, because the value proposition for the majority of the desktop market just won't be there to cause them to bare the pain of transition. Microsoft will address the problem by reducing financial barriers, addressing security concerns, etc... as well -- the business case for Linux on the desktop will not grow by the same magnitude that the useability of Linux on the desktop grows. <big snip> Thanks, Patrick