Presto! In ten seconds, you've got an Internet desktop.

I had always been a fan of upgrading old hardware, and I found this fascinating article today:

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.Presto! In ten seconds, you've got an Internet desktop., Apr 2009

You should read the whole article.

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.

This actually reminds me of a very similar product, puppy Linux. This is a Linux smaller than 256MB, and the best thing is it loads into the RAM of your computer. What this means is that old system with at least 256MB of ram can run this with ease. One of the main measure stick everyone uses is the boot time of a system. This version of Linux will not impress you in that catergory, the boot process requires you to answer a few question, then it will load itself into the RAM of your computer. However after the boot up process, the speed of the OS is real quick. I am really starting to like this product. I sure recommend you to give it a spin and post comments below.