3 ms·

Shame that the battle for the desktop is actually (mostly) being fought on the laptop - and Linux sucks there. The default settings are usually extremely poor f

Shame that the battle for the desktop is actually (mostly) being fought on the laptop - and Linux sucks there. The default settings are usually extremely poor for powersaving. Why doesn't powertop+TLP get installed, configured and activated by default when Ubuntu/Fedora detects its installed on a laptop? Also, sleeping still isn't reliable (if I close my Macbook with some work on I can be damn sure it'll be exactly as I left it when I open it. With Linux, its still not 100% reliable). Wifi still also isn't nearly as reliable (packet loss, connection drops etc.) as either Windows or macOS.

idobai 10y ago
I use linux on laptop and I don't have problems(especially with xubuntu). I just install the base, run additional drivers, install the wifi/gpu drivers and done. It was always like this on my previous laptops and on others' laptops I've installed it. Power saving on windows is an illusion, I don't remember getting more things done with the same laptop. Maybe it's the case if you use Unity/KDE/Gnome3 and similar heavy stuff... If you want to spare more energy then use integrated graphics and amd|nvidia only if you want to play. Bumblebee can also help. Using XFCE, Firefox, playing videos with vlc(not with web players!), installing a blocking extension for your browser, avoiding electron/jvm/mono-based apps(ironic, I'm a Scala developer) can also reduce energy consumption. I use neovim for coding and it's a huge boost for me. Suspending was always realiable on ubuntu for me. But with arch or arch-based distros it's a ~70% possibility for failure(according to my experience). On the other, hand putting windows to sleep is a serious hazard, it's not just hurts performance but it makes the os and its apps unstable(I use win7 at work). I've heard that there are people with wifi problems but connection drops and packet losses are issues which are better to be reported. There is askubuntu.com, you can get help pretty fast by searching or asking.
eikenberry 10y ago
The fact that TLP exists is a great step. It wasn't that long ago that I had a dozen different custom hacks in place to get better power usage while on battery, now TLP does all of them and more.
- tornadoboy55 10y ago
  Still kind of disheartening that I get 10-14h battery life on my 13" 2015 Retina under macOS, but it drops to 4-5h on untweaked Ubuntu. I can push that to about 7-8h with the help of Powertop and TLP. That's still a vast, vast chasm to overcome for Linux. Yes, I know Macbooks do non-standard things with Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt controllers (special ACPI sleep modes etc.), that isn't a bad thing, Linux should attempt those as well. To end on a positive note: I do agree TLP (and other powersaving tools) are good progress.

idobai 10y ago

I use linux on laptop and I don't have problems(especially with xubuntu). I just install the base, run additional drivers, install the wifi/gpu drivers and done. It was always like this on my previous laptops and on others' laptops I've installed it. Power saving on windows is an illusion, I don't remember getting more things done with the same laptop. Maybe it's the case if you use Unity/KDE/Gnome3 and similar heavy stuff... If you want to spare more energy then use integrated graphics and amd|nvidia only if you want to play. Bumblebee can also help. Using XFCE, Firefox, playing videos with vlc(not with web players!), installing a blocking extension for your browser, avoiding electron/jvm/mono-based apps(ironic, I'm a Scala developer) can also reduce energy consumption. I use neovim for coding and it's a huge boost for me. Suspending was always realiable on ubuntu for me. But with arch or arch-based distros it's a ~70% possibility for failure(according to my experience). On the other, hand putting windows to sleep is a serious hazard, it's not just hurts performance but it makes the os and its apps unstable(I use win7 at work). I've heard that there are people with wifi problems but connection drops and packet losses are issues which are better to be reported. There is askubuntu.com, you can get help pretty fast by searching or asking.

eikenberry 10y ago

The fact that TLP exists is a great step. It wasn't that long ago that I had a dozen different custom hacks in place to get better power usage while on battery, now TLP does all of them and more.

tornadoboy55 10y ago
Still kind of disheartening that I get 10-14h battery life on my 13" 2015 Retina under macOS, but it drops to 4-5h on untweaked Ubuntu. I can push that to about 7-8h with the help of Powertop and TLP. That's still a vast, vast chasm to overcome for Linux. Yes, I know Macbooks do non-standard things with Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt controllers (special ACPI sleep modes etc.), that isn't a bad thing, Linux should attempt those as well. To end on a positive note: I do agree TLP (and other powersaving tools) are good progress.