If You're Lucky, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Can Boot Faster

HP EliteBook - Intel Core i5 “Sandy Bridge”
Ubuntu 11.04: 9.35 seconds
Ubuntu 11.10: 7.69 seconds
Ubuntu 12.04: 8.34 seconds

The first set of numbers is for the HP EliteBook Intel Sandy Bridge notebook. This EliteBook model was Intel's reference software development vehicle (SDV) for Sandy Bridge early on and was kindly sent over by Intel Corp. As Sandy Bridge was last year's platform, only tests going back to Ubuntu 11.04 x86_64 could be carried out. Ubuntu 11.10 booted faster than 11.04, but with Ubuntu 12.04, it has regressed slightly for this modern hardware. However, it has fallen back by just under one second and is still under a ten second boot for this Intel notebook backed by an X-25 SSD. The notable drop in the Ubuntu 12.04 boot process is the peak disk throughput falling from 269MB/s with Ubuntu 11.10 to just a 142MB/s peak throughput during the 12.04 boot process. With Ubuntu 11.04 the maximum disk throughput was 242MB/s.

Lenovo ThinkPad W510 - Intel Core i7 “Clarksfield”
Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS: 14.74 seconds
Ubuntu 11.04: 16.65 seconds
Ubuntu 11.10: 13.97 seconds
Ubuntu 12.04: 10.50 seconds

With Ubuntu 12.04 on the ThinkPad W510 notebook that has the same Intel SSD model (160GB X-25) as the EliteBook while bearing a quad-core Clarksfield CPU plus Hyper Threading, the boot speed is at its best under Ubuntu 12.04. This notebook can now boot in 10.5 seconds running Precise Pangolin x86_64 where as with the Oneiric Ocelot it took 13.97 seconds. With Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS "Lucid Lynx" the boot time was 14.74 seconds while between that previous LTS and Ubuntu 11.04 it pulled back to 16.65 seconds. It is good to see at least this notebook's boot performance is in order for Pangolin. The maximum disk throughput was also in better shape than the Sandy Bridge notebook. With 12.04 LTS the disk throughput during boot topped out at 275MB/s (it was 247MB/s for 11.10 and 235MB/s for 10.04.4) where as the Intel X-25 on the EliteBook dropped to 142MB/s.