Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

TomB17 · 2010-05-26 17:03:46

I just installed Windows 7 on my laptop last week. This machine had been running Arch linux/kde.

Power usage with Win7 is way higher. It's a dell m1330 with the extended battery. With Linux/kde, I was going 4~5 hours comfortably with wireless turned off. With Windows 7, I'm getting 2~2.5 hours with no wireless.

What's more, the machine is getting hot just left of the track pad. It never got this hot with linux.

For what it's worth, I don't mind Windows 7. My biggest issue with this new environment is Outlook/Exchange. Both blow, in my opinion.

Also, I prefer OpenOffice to MS Office 2k7 but it's not the biggest deal.

.... just a thought.

orschiro · 2010-05-26 19:37:01

That's interesting though. I often read or hear that laptops running windows have a much longer battery time.

Do you use some special power management tools with linux?

Regards

.:B:. · 2010-05-26 20:53:19

I'm quite sure some stuff is not set up right on your Windows installation (power consumption profiles and such?). As for Outlook/Exchange, you'd have to pay for that as well. Doesn't come with any Windows version (except for maybe Outlook Express), so I fail to see how this is part of the 'perspective'...

TomB17 · 2010-05-26 21:23:35

orschiro: No special PM drivers in Arch and none in Win7. Both were installed "out of the box" and run that way.

I've got power management turned on in Windows 7. I think it's doing what it can. I'd probably be well advised to stop various services to help the PM conserve power but I haven't gotten around to it yet. In Linux, I did nothing special but then Arch is pretty lean.

.:B:. wrote:

As for Outlook/Exchange, you'd have to pay for that as well. Doesn't come with any Windows version (except for maybe Outlook Express), so I fail to see how this is part of the 'perspective'...

I purchased three licenses: Win7, Office 2k7, and Visio 2k7

I've always found Visio to be extremely powerful. It's sadly lacking in the Linux world. MS Office, however, is not as good as OO, IMO.

How is it OK to have a perspective on OO versus MS Office but it's not valid to have a perspective on KMail versus Outlook?

... so I have a perspective and that perspective is that I don't care for Outlook 2k7. It's reasonably powerful but the usability is crap, compared to kmail. On the positive side, Outlook always starts. Kmail starts about 4 times out of 5 with 1 out of 5 starts giving me an akonadi error. ... so that's positive in favor of Outlook.

Spacenick · 2010-05-26 21:34:56

So what did make you switch? Are you still dual booting, because it doesn't seem you are opposed to Linux.

ngoonee · 2010-05-26 22:52:17

In my experience windows gives much better battery life than Linux. Of course, my Arch install is filled with everything and the kitchen sink, while my windows install doesn't have anything running. The PM is better though, and I can undervolt much more aggressively on Windows.

Just can't get anything useful done

Bralkein · 2010-05-27 13:38:14

It is my understanding that good power efficiency depends on a lot of subtle optimisations in the device drivers, which are often missing on linux, especially where the drivers are not written by the hardware vendor. I think you're probably quite lucky to have better battery life than on Windows What make/model is your laptop?

I wonder if we won't see Linux overtaking Windows as the best choice for portable computing in the future if these ARM netbooks ever materialise with OSes like Meego, Chrome and Android spurring efficiency improvements in both kernel and user lands. Gimme a Tegra 2 netbook with a decent distro to run on it with full Flash support and I'm there

stqn · 2010-05-27 22:11:25

ngoonee wrote:

I can undervolt much more aggressively on Windows.

I'm curious... Why do you say that? I copied the voltage I got using RMClock under Windows (XP) to my Linux setup, and it works fine... (under-volted pentium-m)

ngoonee · 2010-05-27 22:43:24

stqn wrote:

ngoonee wrote:
I can undervolt much more aggressively on Windows.
I'm curious... Why do you say that? I copied the voltage I got using RMClock under Windows (XP) to my Linux setup, and it works fine... (under-volted pentium-m)

Just my experience. My RMClock on windows was down to 19 * * * * * while in Linux anything below 25 * * * * * would crash the system repeatedly.

TomB17 · 2010-05-28 00:49:19

Spacenick wrote:

So what did make you switch? Are you still dual booting, because it doesn't seem you are opposed to Linux.

I'm an IT contractor and my contract is with an organization that is fork lifting open source in favor of Microsoft DNA. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, in that it was multiple organizations and they had to choose MS or OSS. In the end the CEO, oddly a former Microsoft employee, went with MS after what I'm sure was an objective evaluation.

kokoko3k · 2010-05-28 07:30:36

I never tried windows 7, on an asus 1005ha i've tweaked here and there my arch and now battery life is the same/higher than xp (dual boot), while idling.
But i think that as long as it requires an antivirus installed or push you to use bloated software, windows will drain more power.

jack.mitchell · 2010-05-28 09:34:09

1. Openoffice is available for Windows.
2. Is Areo taxing your graphics card?

sand_man · 2010-05-28 14:05:04

Windows 7 uses pretty aggressive prefetching, maybe that is causing it.

TomB17 · 2010-05-28 19:25:24

jack.mitchell wrote:

1. Openoffice is available for Windows.

Thanks but if OO was sufficient, I'd still be using Arch.

jack.mitchell wrote:

2. Is Areo taxing your graphics card?

Good question. The machine gets hot, even when I leave it idling over night.

The speed of Win7 is OK. It's not blazing fast but some things are faster on Win7 while others were faster on Arch/KDE.

Anikom15 · 2010-05-29 17:16:51

I'm always fighting to keep my laptop cool on Linux, and I use all the different power saving techniques. But, no matter what I do, my cores seem to get to 80°C on a cold night.

toad · 2010-05-29 17:53:16

I've got a Thinkpad T41 and on Arch I rarely exceed 40° Centigrade even though compositing is on (KDE). No idea what an M$ OS would give as my first act was to get rid of it. Before that both Sidux and Kubuntu achieved similar temperatures. With KDE3 I even managed low thirties.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-05-26 17:03:46

Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#2 2010-05-26 19:37:01

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#3 2010-05-26 20:53:19

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#4 2010-05-26 21:23:35

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#5 2010-05-26 21:34:56

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#6 2010-05-26 22:52:17

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#7 2010-05-27 13:38:14

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#8 2010-05-27 22:11:25

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#9 2010-05-27 22:43:24

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#10 2010-05-28 00:49:19

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#11 2010-05-28 07:30:36

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#12 2010-05-28 09:34:09

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#13 2010-05-28 14:05:04

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#14 2010-05-28 19:25:24

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#15 2010-05-29 17:16:51

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

#16 2010-05-29 17:53:16

Re: Perspective: Power consumption - Windows 7 versus linux/kde

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