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Linux Rescues Battery Life On Vista Notebooks From Dell

Posted by timothy on from the wizard-behind-the-curtain dept.

nerdyH writes "Dell is preparing to ship two enterprise-oriented Windows Vista notebooks with an interesting feature — a built-in TI OMAP (smartphone) processor that can power instantly into Linux. The 'Latitude ON' feature is said to offer 'multi-day' battery life, while letting users access email, the web, contacts, calendar, and so on, using the notebook's full-size screen and keyboard. I wonder if someday we'll just be able to plug our phones into our laptops, switching to the phone's processor when we need to save battery life? Or, maybe x86 will just get a lot more power-efficient. Speaking at MontaVista's Vision event today, OLPC spokesperson and longtime kernel hacker Deepak Saxena said the project is aiming for 10-20 hours of battery life during active use, on existing hardware (AMD Geode LX800 clocked at 500MHz, with 1GB of Flash and 256MB of RAM)."

18 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. eh by Gewalt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, I hope it's at least damn pretty, cause being the runner up to "the real os" isn't really something to be proud of. But if its flashy enough, then people will like it and will increase their opinion of linux. Then again... is it going to say its Linux?

    --
    Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    1. Re:eh by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually I have a demo laptop I take with me to convince people. It's my work laptop it dual boots into Ubuntu and Vista.

      I show aunt millie Vista.. she oohs, ahhs, and clicks on a few things, I explain how the pop-ups are making sure that things she does are what she wants and tries t o keep her safe.

      I then boot into ubuntu and she goes, "wow! why does it boost so much faster?" then she oohs nd aahs even louder playing with ubuntu until I show her the "add software" item in the programs menu and say "you cant buy software for Ubuntu. You get it all free right here on this list, and had her install the Gramps family history program that really excited her. aunt millie installed a complex program on Linux. she cant install most anything on windows.

      needless to say, she wants me to install Ubuntu on her brand new computer and blow out the new Vista home install. I have done this to ALL my family that I support, except for my brother that must access a SCADA system for work they all use Ubuntu. And my brother had to downgrade to XP because the SCADA software is incompatable with Vista.

      If users use linux and Vista side by side, linux wins hands down even with the non techie crowd. The problem is that almost NOBODY is doing this.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:eh by Gewalt · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My own kids' computers are cheap arse dell dimensions that were leftovers from a project many moons ago. Kids are 5 and 8. I set both machines up dual booting Ubuntu and XP. Taught the kids how to switch from one OS to the other. Both choose Ubuntu for most tasks but will use XP happily enough for that rare game some odd family member bought them that only runs on windows.
       
      For the most part, I consider my kids will grow up considerably more OS agnostic than the average user, and I am hoping that will turn out to be a major advantage for them. (Oh, ya, and they also get to use my macbook pro occasionally too, but usually only when we are on the road, they like OSX the most but I'm a cheap bastard and cant afford to get them their own macbooks)

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      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    3. Re:eh by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      You guys need to slow down a bit. I don't know what kind of job requires you to access your email within 5 seconds, but I get a stomach ache just thinking about it.

      Seriously, nobody wants to wait two minutes or even one minute. But I have to chuckle when I think of any apple laptop user that "needs" his laptop to boot in 5 seconds. By the time he stirs his soy latte, brings out his iPhone ostentatiously, and makes sure someone's noticed the logo on the lid, that's 15 seconds right there.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:eh by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Which OS does your Aunt Millie use when she wants to play Crysis Warhead?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:eh by not+already+in+use · · Score: 3, Funny

      I actually saw a guy in Starbucks time his MacBook on boot. Went something like this:

      "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!"

      --
      Similes are like metaphors
    6. Re:eh by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Funny
      "I actually saw a guy in Starbucks time his MacBook on boot. Went something like this:

      "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!"

      I don't get it.....1, 2, 3, 14 ??

      So, you're saying people in Starbucks don't know how to count in any language?

      I suppose that explains how they get away with selling coffee at those prices.....

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Looks like we're going back to 1981... by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... when IBM PCs had BASIC in ROM which you could start instantly and (in theory) do some sort of work with without booting DOS. No bad thing IMO.

  3. I don't think it's the Linux by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Going out on a limb here, but I suspect the use of a mobile phone processor contributed a teeny bit more to the improved battery life than the Linux. (FWIW, I don't see any statistically significant battery life difference between Xubuntu and Vista Business on my own machine, but that's another story.)

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    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    1. Re:I don't think it's the Linux by Gewalt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You ever try to get windows vista running on a AMD Geode LX800? You are correct in saying that its the processor saving the power, not the OS, but without the OS, the processor wouldn't be an option.

      --
      Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
    2. Re:I don't think it's the Linux by Constantine+XVI · · Score: 3, Interesting

      8/10, this mode will be hackable. And since every program you mentioned is OSS, re-compiling for ARM shouldn't be that difficult (and someone's bound to throw together a distro for it at some point)

      --
      "I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
  4. 10 to 20 hours is easy... by squoozer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... you just need a very very big battery. Rather than quoting run time on battery we should probably start reporting the average power draw of the system idle and under full load.

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    I used to have a better sig but it broke.
  5. How about a solar cell notebook case? by digitaldc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about putting a solar array on a notebook case/cover that could power your laptop and any other items such as cell phones and music players?

    Seeing that batteries are a very limited resource, how about having the option to use the unlimited power of the sun?

    It also has a dual benefit of forcing you to get out of your parent's basement every so often.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  6. silly... by Timothy+Brownawell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder if someday we'll just be able to plug our phones into our laptops, switching to the phone's processor when we need to save battery life?

    That would be silly. Why not plug your foldable self-powered screen/keyboard thing into your "phone" when you need more pixels or want to type something long?

    1. Re:silly... by soupforare · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I really wish IBM's metapad got out of the prototype stage.

      --
      --- Do you believe in the day?
  7. Freedom from x86 by rbanffy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The interesting part, from my point of view, is that a free OS like Linux may foster the development of non-x86 binary architectures with different strengths.

    I said this before: I would love to see a notebook chip with multiple ARM (or OMAP, or MIPS or whatever) cores that could be powered up and down depending on demand and desired power consumption.

    The fact such machine would be completely Windows-proof would be a nice plus.

    --
    http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
  8. Re:For some people this may be enough by wiz_80 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Strange - my home machine runs OpenOffice instead of MS Office, and I can only remember one PPT that did not open right the first time in OOo. DOCs all come up fine, so much that when I need to do a lot of word processing I do it on the desktop with the nice keyboard and then transfer the file to the work lapdog. Never had any trouble, even with big multi-author documents with all sorts of highlighting and versioning.

    --
    " There is a rational explanation for everything. There is also an irrational one. "
  9. Re:For some people this may be enough by pandrijeczko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I lost one user from Kubuntu to XP Cracked Edition because she _needed_ to read those forwards that her friends with boring jobs send her.

    But presumably she didn't need it enough to go buy a proper licensed copy of XP?

    I don't intend bleating on about piracy and I really don't want to play the Linux zealot here, but I do wish people would compare "like for like". Far too many people seem to forget that XP and MS Office are commercial products that they *should* be paying for whereas Open Office and Linux are obtainable freely.

    If it was impossible to run cracked copies of Windows, MS Office and other Windows software and everyone had to pay for proper licenses, I'm sure a lot more people would take the trouble to actually try free software, rather than staying in a comfort zone and just assuming it cannot do what they need it to.

    As another poster has already said, I've never seen a PPT that I couldn't import in Open Office. Sure, I don't use all of Powerpoint's features but, in my experience, the compatibility seems quite good.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.