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CustomOps

for laptops: BIO op sys that lets you do what you need with minimal battery use
 
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ok, we all know how quickly your laptop battery dies when it's on. An idea, might just be halfbaked, but I thought wouldn't it be better if you could have separate operating systems - very simple ones, like dos - on your laptop that each do individual tasks. here's what happens: say you're going on a road trip and you want to listen to some music. boot up and instead of power-hungry XP - with many useless and redundant processes running constantly - you choose BIOamp (basic output-input winamp, of sorts) that lets you browse your files and play mp3's..all the time using very little battery power because that's all you're having the laptop do. like an mp3 player. an mp3 player is just a computer that's only purpose is decoding mp3's and sending audio output. but why can't your laptop (something you paid much more money for) do the same thing for the same amount of time? with CustomOps it can. you can choose mp3, dvd watching, e-mail, gaming, etc., operating systems and use your laptops longer because they aren't running some all-purpose operating system with processes coming out of every orifice that you don't need every instant.
fatalbert, Apr 19 2005

Phoenix FirstWare Assistant http://www.phoenix....sistant/default.htm
[krelnik, Apr 19 2005]

Laptop TV without booting on Toshiba Qosmio http://www.sptimes....V_without_boo.shtml
[krelnik, Apr 19 2005]


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Annotation:







       This is very baked. Some newer laptops have the ability to play CDs or even DVDs without booting up the main computer at all. Phoenix (the BIOS company) also has a version of their bios that is smart enough to access certain files without booting up Windows, so for instance you can look at your Outlook email without doing a full boot-up.
krelnik, Apr 19 2005
  

       "Laptop TV w/o booting" from the article: "If users want to pause live TV or record TV shows onto the 80-gigabyte hard disk, however, they'll need to do so with the Windows software." this is obviously just a separate physical component of the laptop that has the ability to work on its own. My ASUS laptop can play CD's without booting up. that (old) technology is very simple because it's just your laptop providing power to the CD drive alone.   

       phoenix downside: "The preboot FirstWare app doesn't read Outlook files directly. Instead, the product installs an Outlook plug-in that synchronises your Outlook data with FirstWare. It automatically runs the sync process each time you start Outlook and each time you close the software, so it's never out of sync. The first time you run the product, it takes a while to create the sync file. And FirstWare won't go online to get or send mail; it's only for reading what's in the synced file. If you already have a synchronised PDA, you don't really need it."   

       I want something that isn't pre-boot, but a customizable OS that lets you literally turn the whole laptop into a myriad of dedicated circuits meant for one purpose alone. much faster for much faster needs. why use firstware if you can read only what you sync with the pre-boot app (must be done in windows..)? and let's be realistic: if you're going to sit down and watch a 2hr DVD or even TV, waiting for the bootup isn't an issue.
fatalbert, Apr 21 2005
  


 

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