xfmedia: wakeups per second in idle, play time

[Kok, Auke]

Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
> On Thu, 31 May 2007 13:51:42 -0700 Grant McWilliams wrote:
> 
>>> But I also agree with Brian. Application like media player are
>>> always CPU active, maybe some more then other, but I think they
>>> will always be too CPU intensive to _really_ save power.
>>>
>> You didn't just say that did you? What do you have a larger chance of
>> saving gas on, a monster
>> V10 powered SUV or a Hybrid? The gross offender is an easier target
>> that the already
>> optimized isn't it?
> 
> Very true.  But sometimes things just can't be optimised any further,
> and will always be a hog.  Not saying there isn't room for
> improvement, but don't expect miracles.  You can't run a computer with
> the CPU off all the time.
> 
>> Watching this whole thread has been very similar to sitting in my
>> board meetings and listening
>> to the "we're loosing money on every one but the good news is that
>> sales are up" speeches.
> 
> Yeah, that's the way to influence people: tell them they're acting like
> bureaucratic marketroid idiots.
> 
>> The work you do here effects many more people that what you think.
>> I've got airplanes flying with 700 Linux
>> computers on them and 555 of them are playing video. This isn't just
>> about if one person needs to
>> use their laptop for the last 10 minutes while their on the airplane.
>>
>> I also realize the psychology of this. I'm ranting because it effects
>> me, others are saying it doesn't matter
>> because it doesn't effect them. If we make it the best we can then
>> others will use it and help instead
>> of completely engineering their own from scratch (yes it's happening).
> 
> Well, you've offered your time and help, so all I can say is... please
> post patches to bugzilla when they're ready.  I'm not getting a
> paycheck working on this stuff, so I work on what I find interesting and
> what I care most about.  Eeeking out every possible last kWh from my
> laptop's battery isn't #1 on my priority list.

that's fine, and we do need more people looking at this kind of stuff (and 
coding). After all, Xfce really has an edge on both Kde and gnome in this 
perspective (not only uses it less resources, the average powerconsumption of 
xfce4 in any mode -active or not- is far less than that of gnome and kde), and 
I'm interested in making it even better by providing a clear point where a 
direct huge impact can be made...

I'll unplug the powercord and post some battery consumption numbers in mWh later 
tonight, so you can get an idea how much drain we're actually talking about, and 
I'll try to find out whether the 200wps in idle can be fixed easily in xfmedia 
itself or if it's xine's fault

Brian, I really don't mind that you clearly put it that you don't have time. But 
please, if you don't have time, don't diss constructive ideas from other people 
right away. You are much better off ignoring (and useful) us completely and 
working on something else instead.

Besides that, just for kicks, install powertop and a tickless kernel with 
TIMER_STATS, unplug your powercord and give it a try, will you?

Auke