[ltp] How bad is this (on a scale)?

[Jason Brooks]

Most of this is probably from the Graphics Chip, radio chip (wifi/bt)
and chipset IO (audio/usb/fw/etc...) power states. Some of the
hardware drivers do not have every power setting that you may need to
give you good battery life. You don't really need to run the gpu at
top speed to draw a window on the screen. You also don't need all of
the usb ports to be active. You don't need external display headers to
be active. etc... etc...
You also have to take into consideration that by default vista & 7
park your hard disk constantly to save power. (that louder clicking
sound that you hear some times when your not doing to much) It will
wear the drive out doing this (I have 2 dead sata samsungs to prove
it) but it does give you a lot of time on a battery (since it most
programs run from memory and save data when needed)

Almost all of these things can be done in linux or by disabling stuff
in the bios that You don't need. The drivers will get better.

When I first put linux on my HP DV 9700 I had lost 2.5hrs of battery
time. Now I get as much as vista gave me. It only took a year to do
it. Now if LTS distros can catch up I will be set.


-
JaY