From owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 29 09:29:09 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2B20A16A418 for ; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:29:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from root@varusonline.com) Received: from rn-out-0102.google.com (rn-out-0910.google.com [64.233.170.186]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5BEA13C469 for ; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:29:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from root@varusonline.com) Received: by rn-out-0102.google.com with SMTP id e5so1571186rng for ; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:29:08 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.70.29.7 with SMTP id c7mr3904827wxc.1196327005369; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:03:25 -0800 (PST) Received: from Serval.local ( [24.153.116.131]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id i40sm4807529wxd.2007.11.29.01.03.24 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:03:24 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <474E80CD.3020803@varusonline.com> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:05:17 -0500 From: Jessica Mahoney Organization: Varus Online User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (Macintosh/20071031) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [Laptop] Battery Time X-BeenThere: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD Evangelism List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:29:09 -0000 Thinking about this for a while, I decided to post it. May not be much, but it is something. In July 2007 I acquired a brand new Compaq Presario V6000Z laptop. It came with the "High Capacity 6-Cell Battery" (6,000 mAh battery), an AMD Turion 64 X2 @ 1.8GHz, and I also got the "Imprint Finish" so I could get the FireWire and additional USB ports. For what it is, $1,000 wasn't that bad. It came with Windows Vista Home Basic. This system took about two minutes to boot, and sucked the battery dry in 90 minutes, even with all power-saving settings enabled (eeps!). Then I installed Linux on it. Linux had some serious stability issues, and even with everything I did, it was never all that stable, but it booted in about a minute. Linux did do better with battery time, clocking 2 hours. True, that's not much better, but still. Well, I've been using FreeBSD for my servers, and I have had a few FreeBSD desktops off and on over the years, so I decided to give it a shot. After installing FreeBSD and configuring the kernel/world, and then installing some ports, I noticed something wildly different, so different, that its freaking amazing. FreeBSD boots in a mere fifteen seconds (kernel: 11s; services: 2s; gdm+Xorg: instant; gnome-desktop: 2s). FreeBSD is just as amazing with battery time, as I can now get not just two, but four hours of battery time. Plus, its just as rock-solid-will-keep-running-until-the-sun-blows-up stable as I remember from every other machine I've used as a FreeBSD desktop. Quick recap: Windows Vista: 2 minute boot, 90 minutes of battery Linux: one minute boot, 120 minutes of battery FreeBSD: 15 second boot, 240 minutes of battery FreeBSD is pure awesomeness, made of awesome and win, featuring Power, Performance, Stability, and Reliability. I have also learned (from my laptop) that FreeBSD is also a Green OS, as it causes the hardware to use less power than other systems. ~Jessica