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    Which linux flavor is the best on battery?

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by firstwave, Aug 2, 2008.

  1. firstwave

    firstwave Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey everyone,

    I am excitedly waiting for the Thinkpad X200. I plan to dualboot XP (or Vista) and a linux OS.

    Now, I've seen various OS that have sub-optimal support for on battery power (basically much less battery when using linux).

    I am wondering which flavor would the best for prolonging the battery life? The x200 will have 9 hours of battery life in XP and Vista, so I am hoping for 6+ in Linux

    Thanks
     
    firstwave, Aug 2, 2008
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  2. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    Ubuntu has power consumption on par with XP, so you should get just as much; maybe a little bit less. I don't know about other distributions, but they should all use the same implementation of ACPI in the kernel and CPU throttling daemons such as powernowd or cpufreqd (seeing as they use all use the Linux kernel). You won't see worthwhile differences from distro to distro.
     
    Bog, Aug 2, 2008
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  3. shoelace_510

    shoelace_510 8700M GT inside... ^-^;

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    I have heard that Fedora has pretty good battery life but I've never used it myself so I couldn't tell you how it compares. :S Sorry...

    Hope this helps anyway! :)
     
    shoelace_510, Aug 2, 2008
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  4. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    One of the things you should make sure to do in any Linux distro is make sure that 3D effects are off, and that CPU frequency scaling is working (it almost always works out of the box).
     
    Bog, Aug 2, 2008
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