Comment 42 for bug 420933

A user shouldn't have to change the boot order to get the new-and-improved GRUB to work reasonably well.

Many users have Windows on a first-in-BIOS HDD "sda" and boot from that HDD by installing GRUB to its MBR, in preference to maintaining their Windows on a non-first HDD (requiring devicemap and being subject to various maintenance issues, especially as Windows receives updates). I do agree with posters above now that this is a show stopper. Not only is the delay between POST and boot menu unacceptably long (70 s in my case, with just two standard SATA disks), but there also may be a 2-6 second delay after selecting a menuentry from the menu. As GRUB improves along certain useful dimensions (e.g., loopback, GPT support, os-prober, etc.), many other new features will never be used by most users of GRUB; so let's not ask them to live with a regression of basic performance & features. (BTW, I'm a GRUB lover, too, and an active how-to writer these past several years, aka Qqmike@kubuntuforums).