Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
My Linux takes less than 45 seconds to boot, and most of that time is
loading innumerable bits of stuff off the disk
You've just made my point. I don't want to wait 45 seconds to listen to
the radio in the bog.

That's because it is booting off disk. Its also checking lots of
needless stuff out, like how good is the disk structure? can it set its
clock off the internet? is its hardware passing diagnostics?

None of that is needful in a radio.It has to check for wifi connection,
and then that it: Assuming the network is able to see the internet, it
simply opens a stream to the radio station of your choice.

At last you agree. A laptop is stupid as a radio...



Indeed. Now I am aware that dedicated hardware exists there is no need
to 'roll ones own'.

The reason to use laptop components is for the low power consumption.

Or if you happen to have one spare - loads of battered but just
serviceable ones being given away these days - why not turn it into
something useful?