Ubuntu 9.04 - 47% Speed Increase
To check the benefit of the promised boot speed increases I installed bootchart program and produced the output from Ubuntu 8.10 boot process:
Before
Ubuntu 8.10 on Acer One = 36 seconds (click to enlarge)
After
Ubuntu 9.04 on Acer One = 19 seconds (click to enlarge)
Installing Ubuntu 9.04 on Acer One
I burned the .iso file onto a CD using the CD burner in my primary
laptop. I then attempted to boot from the new CD using an external USB
DVD burner attached to my netbook (Acer One). This failed to work due
to unexpected dick error.
Eventually I got the install going using this technique:
sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
wget http://download.ubuntu-fr-secours.org/isotostick.sh
chmod +x isotostick.sh
sudo ./isotostick.sh ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso /dev/sdX1
Don't forget to replace /dev/sdX1 with the partition name of your USB drive
Now you can boot from the USB drive and install Ubuntu like as if you had booted from the Desktop CD.
Keep separate partitions
By setting up my system so the I had a dedicated partition for where the /home folder was mounted I was able to preserve almost all my personal settings.