True suspend/instant-on may be on the way back

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/c/a/News/Direct-Insight-SwiftModul...

Finally, we may truly be returning to the H/PC form factor.

The worrying thing is that there will be people for whom this is a scary new thing in CE; ancient as we are.

Modern (Ubuntu, Windows 7) operating systems seem to have near-instant suspend and resume, even on older hardware. It only makes sense that CE needs to regain this capability if it will be able to compete.

Really? Windows 7? I wouldn't call it that instant. Then again, I'm running it on a 2004 laptop with 256mb of ram and a hard drive that is in desperate need of a cleaning. Hardware wise, how old are we talking?

Must confess I've never managed to get anything like a near-instant resume from suspend from any Linux installation either on my old PC or a newer netbook. Closest was about 15 secs for a tuned variant of Linpus Linux on an Acer 110.

Not tried the latest Ubuntu though so might give this a whirl as suggested. Anyone else have experience of this?

The only new devices that I know that have true suspend and instant-on are cell phones and the iPad. Ok, sorry guys, I really got converted to the "apple" side of the force...

It has to be a recent Ubuntu, 10.04 or later. I have tried it on a Dell Inspiron 1150 (about 5 years old) and suspend/resume is absolutely instant. As soon as I press the button to resume, I see the screen and can move the mouse.

As for a more recent and portable machine... I tried Ubuntu on a ThinkPad X60 and had the same results (instant resume). Windows 7 also resumed instantly (well, within 1 second) on that machine. ThinkPads like that are about $300 used, about what we used to pay for a MobilePro 900C.

The new Chromebooks will have instant on, the only limiting factor being that most of the apps will have to be web based. Given the relative power of HTML5 though, this may not be too bad a concession.

http://www.google.com/chromebook/#features

Barnes and Nobles Nook Color has instant on/resume...very low power consumption in the stock rom which has been upgraded to Froyo...it is superior to anything Apple in that it will run FLASH, has a micro sd card, bootable at that, a nine hour battery life, the same anti-reflective capacitance touch screen as the Ipad only a more mobile 7" 1024 x600 size. There is now an app store for B&N...but very small and they are charging for many apps free on android market. Stock ROM is incredibly easy to root which renders the Nook Color in to a full featured android tablet, less a camera and a microphone, and able to access the entire gamit of android market apps...many of which are free...including youtube which runs in hi res. Once rooted the rom is extremely configurable for overclocking from stock 800 to 1100 Mhz, or if you prefer you can boot from the sd card and still retain your original stock ROM. CyanogenMod7 rom zips are easily downloaded and updated...although in suspend mode do seem to consume more power. CM7 even managed to get the "hidden" bluetooth functioning...so a keyboard or microphone can be used...modified wifi driver allows you to teather to your rooted cell phone's 3g so you can use it anywhere. Great for web browsing, downloads, angry birds, etc. All this for only $250! And you can spend hours and hours tinkering with its innards and not brick it...

Same as my wife's Pandigital Novel....good suspend and resume, just like my old HPCs...