Question about battery cycles and Ubuntu betas

How is the battery cycle count handled while running Linux? Is the cycle count only done in software or is in done in hardware?

I installed Ubuntu 7.10 beta on my notebook since I really couldn't get my wifi card and Compiz-Fusion working under Fiesty. I'm wondering though, when the final version later this month, will I need to reinstall Ubuntu on my Thinkpad? Will it be stable if I update via the updater?

 

It should be done in hardware, I believe. Battery cycles aren't something you'd want to record only in software, given system reinstalls, etc.

And no, you won't need to reinstall when the final release happens. You should just need to update, and it'll all be the official version. But either way, reinstalls are much easier on Linux than in Windows... just back up your home directory, and restore it in the new install. I've moved from Fedora to Ubuntu that way, with very little problem. Only a few program's config files needed to be reset.

 

A clean install is always less risky and optimal for stability but I achieved in the past good results by just updating Ubuntu (some other distros break easily when updated)

 

True. But he's running the pre-release version which is due to be officially released in a month or so. There will not be any major changes except for bug fixes, so he's not really even doing a full upgrade. Just keeping updated.

 

You're right...when I think about it what I did was an upgrade from a version to another and not from a beta to the final