[ Thanks to nick58b
for this link. ]
“One of the most obvious differences between a LiveCD and an
operating system installed on a hard drive is the time it takes for
the system to start. LiveCDs have the disadvantage of all CDs,
easily being 15 times slower in both transfer and access speeds
than standard hard drives. Even with this huge variation in speed,
the average LiveCD does not take 15 times longer to boot than the
same software installed to a hard drive. This article will provide
an overview of the boot speeds of nine popular LiveCDs in several
different configurations…”