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This is their second recent article about linux laptops, and I have seen no mention of battery life. While its nice to have a 15% faster OS, I would also like

This is their second recent article about linux laptops, and I have seen no mention of battery life. While its nice to have a 15% faster OS, I would also like to know how the battery life differs between various distros (and Windows).

cgh 7y ago
It looks like the Clear Linux Github has some code related to power management: https://github.com/clearlinux/clr-power-tweaks https://github.com/clearlinux/clr-power-tweaks const char doc[] = "Power Tweaks -- adjusts runtime kernel options for optimal power and performance";
dyingkneepad 7y ago
I should note that power and performance are not opposites. Good power management ensures you don't waste power, which helps you draw all you need when you need it by the component that needs it. Good power management often helps overall performance. One thing that it often works against is latency, because it takes time to wake up things that are sleeping. But that is really not something you should care about if you're using a laptop. Your laptop is not servicing Google search results.
- papermachete 7y ago
  Performance is a solved problem nowadays, latency isn't. Especially with cloud-based software being pushed. The benefits of a tweaked linux kernel, such as liquorix are easy to spot. Yes, slightly reduced brute performance but large leaps in smoothness.
- drewg123 7y ago
  Yes, it often does in a broad sense. But there is a lot more to power management. Things like putting busses and devices into low power states when idle, and batching up I/O so that devices can spend most of their time in low-power states. Scheduler tweaks to idle most of the cores, etc.
lllr_finger 7y ago
My anecdotal evidence after searching for the "perfect" laptop OS across 2 laptops and various BSDs, a dozen Linux distros, etc.: the best power tuning you can do will still only get you around 85-90% of what you can in Windows (with no tweaks).
- tedunangst 7y ago
  I think this is generally true until you discover Windows Defender or the Logitech Updater or whatever has lost its mind and been spinning on CPU for the past three hours and now your battery is dead. I have a surface with pretty great battery life, but it's also rather fickle and you can lose hours of runtime because it slept on a pea.
- tluyben2 7y ago
  Anecdotal as well; on my X220 and GPD Pocket 1, I get over 40% more battery life under Linux than under Windows. Especially on the Pocket the difference is extreme. I do not use virus scanners (including win defender) on either platform and I check task manager/top etc regularly to optimise. On my Surface Go battery life on Linux is also better than under Win, not as extreme as on the other 2 devices, but significant.
nickjj 7y ago
I've been running native Linux on a $299 2015 Chromebook[0] for years and I get about 5 hours of casual programming, Youtube, browsing, etc.. In practice it works really nicely for what I use it for. A temporary portable computing device that isn't my main workstation but still gets a lot of use. [0]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromeboo...
xioxox 7y ago
I get excellent 8-10 hr lifetime on a Lenovo X1 Carbon and a Dell Inspiron 7590 with Ubuntu.
- DanCarvajal 7y ago
  Too me the X1 Carbon is a 16:10 aspect ratio screen away from being the perfect laptop.
  - ngcc_hk 7y ago
    Want to get a linux notebook for running Ubuntu 18 Lts for my projects on fpga. Wonder carbon is ok as I like their keyboard but keyboard only. Need thunderbolt for my AI part as well.

cgh 7y ago

It looks like the Clear Linux Github has some code related to power management: https://github.com/clearlinux/clr-power-tweaks https://github.com/clearlinux/clr-power-tweaks const char doc[] = "Power Tweaks -- adjusts runtime kernel options for optimal power and performance";

dyingkneepad 7y ago

I should note that power and performance are not opposites. Good power management ensures you don't waste power, which helps you draw all you need when you need it by the component that needs it. Good power management often helps overall performance. One thing that it often works against is latency, because it takes time to wake up things that are sleeping. But that is really not something you should care about if you're using a laptop. Your laptop is not servicing Google search results.

papermachete 7y ago
Performance is a solved problem nowadays, latency isn't. Especially with cloud-based software being pushed. The benefits of a tweaked linux kernel, such as liquorix are easy to spot. Yes, slightly reduced brute performance but large leaps in smoothness.
drewg123 7y ago
Yes, it often does in a broad sense. But there is a lot more to power management. Things like putting busses and devices into low power states when idle, and batching up I/O so that devices can spend most of their time in low-power states. Scheduler tweaks to idle most of the cores, etc.

lllr_finger 7y ago

My anecdotal evidence after searching for the "perfect" laptop OS across 2 laptops and various BSDs, a dozen Linux distros, etc.: the best power tuning you can do will still only get you around 85-90% of what you can in Windows (with no tweaks).

tedunangst 7y ago
I think this is generally true until you discover Windows Defender or the Logitech Updater or whatever has lost its mind and been spinning on CPU for the past three hours and now your battery is dead. I have a surface with pretty great battery life, but it's also rather fickle and you can lose hours of runtime because it slept on a pea.
tluyben2 7y ago
Anecdotal as well; on my X220 and GPD Pocket 1, I get over 40% more battery life under Linux than under Windows. Especially on the Pocket the difference is extreme. I do not use virus scanners (including win defender) on either platform and I check task manager/top etc regularly to optimise. On my Surface Go battery life on Linux is also better than under Win, not as extreme as on the other 2 devices, but significant.

nickjj 7y ago

I've been running native Linux on a $299 2015 Chromebook[0] for years and I get about 5 hours of casual programming, Youtube, browsing, etc.. In practice it works really nicely for what I use it for. A temporary portable computing device that isn't my main workstation but still gets a lot of use. [0]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromebook-cb35-into-a-linux-development-environment-with-galliumos https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/transform-a-toshiba-chromeboo...

xioxox 7y ago

I get excellent 8-10 hr lifetime on a Lenovo X1 Carbon and a Dell Inspiron 7590 with Ubuntu.

DanCarvajal 7y ago
Too me the X1 Carbon is a 16:10 aspect ratio screen away from being the perfect laptop.
- ngcc_hk 7y ago
  Want to get a linux notebook for running Ubuntu 18 Lts for my projects on fpga. Wonder carbon is ok as I like their keyboard but keyboard only. Need thunderbolt for my AI part as well.