I long for a decent OS.

[Fraccy]

Apart from Amiga, three other solutions:

Psion 5mx - instantly on/off, and a comprehensive word processor all ready to go (plus a whole lot more!)

Linux - roll your own. My Gentoo-derived system boots in about 15s.

Zeta/BeOS - much faster than OSX, Windows or standard Linux.

Another experiment: starting a highly optimised Linux from hibernation, with an image of the state of the system just after boot-up. I think that could be fast - EXTREMELY fast!

[Fraccy]

@Ali

Plus the 5mx can be hooked up to the Amiga!

http://www.vapor.com/ncp/

I had a look at the Series 7 and Netbook. Great machines, but they seem a bit heavy... And have to be careful with the Netbook, the later versions run Windows CE rather than Symbian.

[Fraccy]

@Tomas

Perhaps because you're running KDE? It's a heavyweight desktop environment; try something lighter such as Fluxbox or even XFCE, and I think you'll find the response time will be significantly better.

Also, console-based applications open a lot faster in X than their GUI equivalents.