4 ms·

Or you could run Linux on Linux hardware and get the full hardware support and sweet battery life without the Microsoft spyware.

dmitrygr 3y ago
> sweet battery life Linux has never been this, and likely never will be. On any hardware supported fully by both, Windows will always have better battery life. Back when I was a thinkpad user, i'd literally live in a vmware workstation linux VM on windows, and THIS had better battery life than linux natively on the same thinkpad.
- bombela 3y ago
  I came to assume the battery only exists to act as an uninterruptible power supply as I travel to the next power outlet ;) It feels like over the past 10y Linux only went from 2h to 3h of battery life. While MacBook went from 3h to 13h.
  - captn3m0 3y ago
    You’re comparing an OS with a specific device. In the union case (Asahi Linux on MacBook), the battery life is much higher than 3h. Not yet 13, but soon should be close.
    - bombela 3y ago
      Let's hope it will be close. MacBook has twice the battery capacity as a run of the mill thinkpad. So 6h of battery would be the default I expect. More than that, and I will be impressed. Note that I have been using Linux for 20y. And I fully accept the short battery life in exchange of the tooling and freedom I get with Linux.
  - monsieurgaufre 3y ago
    This is what i experienced as well. 3h on light battery use. After having read every how-tos and used tlp, auto-cpufreq, powertop, ... I hate to say it, but, for me, it is the price to pay to not have to deal with Windows anymore. I'm on Ubuntu right now, but have tried with other distros in the past. YMMV.
  - diffeomorphism 3y ago
    Battery life of hackintoshes never was that impressive or was it? But if you want apples to oranges instead, then even in its very basic, hacky state linux on that macbook gets 8-10 hours: https://twitter.com/AsahiLinux/status/1500039345142923269?lang=de https://twitter.com/AsahiLinux/status/1500039345142923269?la...
    - bombela 3y ago
      That's pretty good indeed! I don't like the keyboard layout (I want my delete key!). But that's a minor inconvenience compared to how good the machine appears to run Linux.
- pleb_nz 3y ago
  I had a Lenovo p15 running fedora for a while and got 6 to 8 hours battery life whilst working which was approx. the same as the original OEM windows install. So it might be a case by case situation.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  I don't know what you mean by "supported", but the HP EliteBook 845 G8 (amd 5650u) I'm typing this on has noticeably better battery life under Linux than Windows. Ditto for its cousin with an 11th gen i7. They get around 5-6 hours on Linux, and around 4 on Windows. Windows also likes to spin those fans while sitting around doing nothing. Oh, HP recommends Windows 11 (tm) (r) (c). Both worked 100% from day 1 on Linux. But both laptops had issues during the first year under windows (no webcam on the amd, boken external screen output on the intel), so maybe they don't qualify as "supported by both".
  - doubled112 3y ago
    Support is a funny term anymore. Who is supporting it? I have a pair of ASUS VivoBooks that BSOD on Windows every third or so boot with the NVMe they shipped with. That is the supported, manufacturer shipped OS. On any Linux distro I've installed they run without issues. They also pass any diagnostic I have tried. Battery life wise, some laptops I have get better battery life on a Windows install, and some get better battery life on a Linux install. Very hit and miss here.
  - BizarroLand 3y ago
    I have a lenovo laptop that gets 4-5 hours battery life on Windows and about 70 minutes on Fedora Linux. I suspect part of it is due to some incompatibility with the nouveau graphics driver, but it's not been a big enough problem that I had to solve it yet.
- oneshtein 3y ago
  > Linux has never been this, and likely never will be. Chromebook and Android works very well. They use Linux kernel.
  - dmitrygr 3y ago
    Neither uses the GNU userspace, which is what people mean by "linux"
    - oynqr 3y ago
      So where does that leave Alpine?
      - remix2000 3y ago
        s/GNU/Freedesktop/
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
  It should be noted that Lenovo's power management software (pre Win10) played a big part in users' happy battery experiences.
- trelane 3y ago
  > On any hardware supported fully by both This hardware does not exist, or at least it's exceedingly rare. something most folks miss is that the OS supports the hardware (though for Windows it's more the drivers than the OS, but I digress), but equally (and perhaps moreso) the hardware supports the OS. Modern hardware is full of code (almost always proprietary), in ACPI, in EFI, in the EC, in all the devices. You cannot (without significant engineering effort) make the hardware support both OSes equally.
- Jnr 3y ago
  That is not true. Maybe it is your experience but it is not universal. And you have to look at that particular device you used. Depending on the distro you most likely will have to do additional configuration to enable different power saving features on Linux. From the Thinkpads I have seen and used (last one in 2023) I haven't yet seen one that is "fully supported" out of the box on Linux and all of them required some degree of tinkering. By the way Arch wiki has a nice overview on configuring power saving properly, in case you ever need it in the future: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management
  - trelane 3y ago
    > Thinkpads I have seen and used (last one in 2023) I haven't yet seen one that is "fully supported" out of the box on Linux and all of them required some degree of tinkering. Yes, that is my limited experience with Thinkpad as well. This don't ship with Linux and are not Linux Hardware. They're Windows hardware.
- mdhen 3y ago
  It's actually gotten a lot better in the last 3 or so years. Especially with power-profiles-daemon. I think it's pretty much at par with windows at this point. Assuming you are running an up to date kernel.

dmitrygr 3y ago

> sweet battery life Linux has never been this, and likely never will be. On any hardware supported fully by both, Windows will always have better battery life. Back when I was a thinkpad user, i'd literally live in a vmware workstation linux VM on windows, and THIS had better battery life than linux natively on the same thinkpad.

bombela 3y ago
I came to assume the battery only exists to act as an uninterruptible power supply as I travel to the next power outlet ;) It feels like over the past 10y Linux only went from 2h to 3h of battery life. While MacBook went from 3h to 13h.
- captn3m0 3y ago
  You’re comparing an OS with a specific device. In the union case (Asahi Linux on MacBook), the battery life is much higher than 3h. Not yet 13, but soon should be close.
  - bombela 3y ago
    Let's hope it will be close. MacBook has twice the battery capacity as a run of the mill thinkpad. So 6h of battery would be the default I expect. More than that, and I will be impressed. Note that I have been using Linux for 20y. And I fully accept the short battery life in exchange of the tooling and freedom I get with Linux.
- monsieurgaufre 3y ago
  This is what i experienced as well. 3h on light battery use. After having read every how-tos and used tlp, auto-cpufreq, powertop, ... I hate to say it, but, for me, it is the price to pay to not have to deal with Windows anymore. I'm on Ubuntu right now, but have tried with other distros in the past. YMMV.
- diffeomorphism 3y ago
  Battery life of hackintoshes never was that impressive or was it? But if you want apples to oranges instead, then even in its very basic, hacky state linux on that macbook gets 8-10 hours: https://twitter.com/AsahiLinux/status/1500039345142923269?lang=de https://twitter.com/AsahiLinux/status/1500039345142923269?la...
  - bombela 3y ago
    That's pretty good indeed! I don't like the keyboard layout (I want my delete key!). But that's a minor inconvenience compared to how good the machine appears to run Linux.
pleb_nz 3y ago
I had a Lenovo p15 running fedora for a while and got 6 to 8 hours battery life whilst working which was approx. the same as the original OEM windows install. So it might be a case by case situation.
vladvasiliu 3y ago
I don't know what you mean by "supported", but the HP EliteBook 845 G8 (amd 5650u) I'm typing this on has noticeably better battery life under Linux than Windows. Ditto for its cousin with an 11th gen i7. They get around 5-6 hours on Linux, and around 4 on Windows. Windows also likes to spin those fans while sitting around doing nothing. Oh, HP recommends Windows 11 (tm) (r) (c). Both worked 100% from day 1 on Linux. But both laptops had issues during the first year under windows (no webcam on the amd, boken external screen output on the intel), so maybe they don't qualify as "supported by both".
- doubled112 3y ago
  Support is a funny term anymore. Who is supporting it? I have a pair of ASUS VivoBooks that BSOD on Windows every third or so boot with the NVMe they shipped with. That is the supported, manufacturer shipped OS. On any Linux distro I've installed they run without issues. They also pass any diagnostic I have tried. Battery life wise, some laptops I have get better battery life on a Windows install, and some get better battery life on a Linux install. Very hit and miss here.
- BizarroLand 3y ago
  I have a lenovo laptop that gets 4-5 hours battery life on Windows and about 70 minutes on Fedora Linux. I suspect part of it is due to some incompatibility with the nouveau graphics driver, but it's not been a big enough problem that I had to solve it yet.
oneshtein 3y ago
> Linux has never been this, and likely never will be. Chromebook and Android works very well. They use Linux kernel.
- dmitrygr 3y ago
  Neither uses the GNU userspace, which is what people mean by "linux"
  - oynqr 3y ago
    So where does that leave Alpine?
    - remix2000 3y ago
      s/GNU/Freedesktop/
WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
It should be noted that Lenovo's power management software (pre Win10) played a big part in users' happy battery experiences.
trelane 3y ago
> On any hardware supported fully by both This hardware does not exist, or at least it's exceedingly rare. something most folks miss is that the OS supports the hardware (though for Windows it's more the drivers than the OS, but I digress), but equally (and perhaps moreso) the hardware supports the OS. Modern hardware is full of code (almost always proprietary), in ACPI, in EFI, in the EC, in all the devices. You cannot (without significant engineering effort) make the hardware support both OSes equally.
Jnr 3y ago
That is not true. Maybe it is your experience but it is not universal. And you have to look at that particular device you used. Depending on the distro you most likely will have to do additional configuration to enable different power saving features on Linux. From the Thinkpads I have seen and used (last one in 2023) I haven't yet seen one that is "fully supported" out of the box on Linux and all of them required some degree of tinkering. By the way Arch wiki has a nice overview on configuring power saving properly, in case you ever need it in the future: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management
- trelane 3y ago
  > Thinkpads I have seen and used (last one in 2023) I haven't yet seen one that is "fully supported" out of the box on Linux and all of them required some degree of tinkering. Yes, that is my limited experience with Thinkpad as well. This don't ship with Linux and are not Linux Hardware. They're Windows hardware.
mdhen 3y ago
It's actually gotten a lot better in the last 3 or so years. Especially with power-profiles-daemon. I think it's pretty much at par with windows at this point. Assuming you are running an up to date kernel.