Editing Instant-on (section)

{{Essay|date=July 2009}}

In [[computing]], '''instant-on''' is the ability to [[Booting|boot]] nearly instantly, allowing to go online or to use a specific application without waiting for a PC's traditional [[operating system]] to launch. Instant-on technology is today mostly used on laptops, [[netbook]]s, and [[nettop]]s because the user can boot up one program, instead of waiting for the PC's operating system to boot. This allows a user to launch a single program, such as a movie-playing program or a [[web browser]], without the need of the whole operating system. There still remain a few true instant-on machines such as the [[Atari ST]], as described in the [[Booting]] article. These machines had complete [[Operating Systems]] resident in [[Read-only memory|ROM]] similar to the way in which the [[BIOS]] function is conventionally provided on current computer architectures. The "instant-on" concept as used here results from loading an OS, such as a legacy system DOS, with a small hard drive footprint. Latency inherent to mechanical drive performance can also be eliminated by using [[Live USB]] or [[Live SD]] flash memory to load systems at electronic speeds which are orders of magnitude faster.{{citation needed|date=December 2011}}