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    Battery life and os

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by Snow_fox, Dec 17, 2007.

  1. Snow_fox

    Snow_fox Notebook Consultant

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    I was thinking of getting linux for my laptop. I'm currently running Windows XP.

    If I switch over to linux do you think I could squeeze out more battery life?
     
  2. Acorn

    Acorn Notebook Evangelist

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    Actually, laptops running linux has a shorter battery life, but it depends, search 'Powertop linux laptop', its a howto some guy wrote about using powertop he can squeez out many many many hours of battery life on his laptop.
     
  3. Snow_fox

    Snow_fox Notebook Consultant

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    Hm. can anyone confirm or deny this? Most of what I read about it is in the *possible* and *theoretical* tense.
     
  4. vespoli

    vespoli 402 NBR Reviewer

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    I can run on battery longer in Windows XP than in Ubuntu 7.10
     
  5. 4ndr3

    4ndr3 Notebook Geek

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    depends.... if u have a centrino (single cpu not solo core :), the old ones ) u can undervolt your cpu and gain half an hour of batery life and less heat... Or not having beryl or compiz requires less graphic process so less batery..
    cheers
     
  6. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    I get about equal battery life between the two. I get over 2 hours when compiz is enabled.
     
  7. kl5167

    kl5167 Notebook Evangelist

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    I get about the same. It took a little longer to find where all of the setting are though. I can get a lot more without compbiz running. I think it may have been longer when running the generic vesa driver but I didn't really look into to much. I get about 2.5 hours and that is normally enough for me. I run linux on most of my laptops right now. I will work on getting it onto my third shortly.
     
  8. Sub-D

    Sub-D Notebook Evangelist

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    From my time dual booting Ubuntu and Vista, Vista was far more efficient with battery and I tended to get better life from it than Linux.
     
  9. John B

    John B Notebook Prophet

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    I get shorter battery life in Linux than in Windows, but I haven't tried to optimize that.