Best Software & Readers' Choice Award Winner

Phoenix Hyperspace

Today’s notebook users are forced to wait for their computers to start up, shut down, or resume from sleep. Phoenix Technology’s new Hyperspace Instant-On operating system promises to change the way people use their PCs by offering them light-weight, low-powered Linux environment that can load in lieu of Windows or run alongside it.

While we’ve seen instant-on operating systems before, Phoenix provides four critical innovations that its competitors lack. First, though it will come preloaded on some new systems, Hyperspace is end-user installable so those who buy notebooks that don’t already have an instant-on OS won’t be left out in the cold.  Second, the “Hybrid” version of Hyperspace runs parallel to Windows, allowing users to switch back and forth between operating systems instantly, just by hitting the F4 key. The OS is also able to go to and wake from sleep more quickly than any other we’ve seen, easily waking from short naps in under 1 second or deeper sleeps in less than 4 ticks. Finally, Hyperspace is designed for extreme power savings, promising a noticeable bump in battery life for those who use it frequently.

Of all these features, we are most impressed with Hyperspace Hybrid’s ability to run independently yet simultaneously with Windows.  The ability to jump into a different OS while Windows reboots or performs some rote task in the background makes us feel like we have two computers at the same time. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Read more » Instant-On Hyperspace Promises New Era of OS Co-Habitation, Readers Choice Award Winner