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I’m still not sold on “instant on” operating environments like DeviceVM’s Splashtop and Phoenix HyperSpace. First of all, on low power machines like netbooks, it can easily take 15 seconds or longer to load the software. If you could have held on another 30 seconds you could have booted Windows XP. But more importantly, when was the last time you actually shut down your computer and waited a minute for it to do a cold boot? Most people I know put their PCs to sleep for weeks at a time without a boot, and resuming from sleep or hibernation usually takes just a few seconds.

That said, it seems like every time I turn around, Phoenix or DeviceVM are announcing some new partnership to bundle their software with somebody’s hardware. This week it’s Phoenix’s turn. The company is announcing that it’s reached a deal with Intel to bundle HyperSpace with Intel Desktop Boards featuring Intel Atom 230 and 330 processors. In other words, mainboards that are destined for nettops.

HyperSpace gives users quick access to a handful of applications including an office suite, web browser, and Skype before waiting for the full operating system to load.