xfmedia: wakeups per second in idle, play time

[Brian J. Tarricone]

On Thu, 31 May 2007 12:30:17 -0700 Grant McWilliams wrote:

> 10-15 minutes is not huge? I think it's monstrous.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree then.  Most of my non-AC-powered
laptop time is on planes, and given the total flight time, not using my
laptop for an extra 15 minutes isn't the end of the world.  Obviously,
opinions and usage patterns differn.

> I have a 3 hr
> battery and only get 2 hrs on Linux if I have the screen dim and I'm
> not doing much. Windows gets 50% more
> life out of the battery than Linux does and I have a feeling it's
> because we don't think 10-15 minutes is worth our
> time.

Your feelings are one thing -- hard data as to what's actually causing
the problem is another.  I've found that simply tweaking power
management parameters on Linux can give you a good extra 30 minutes.
Are you using 'laptop-mode'?  If not, give that a try.  Beyond that,
it's far from certain that it's the applications you're using that are
reducing your battery life.

As another random not-so-useful data point, I tend to get better
battery life on my laptop under Linux than under MacOS.  Go figure.

> If 4 apps were optimized this much I'd get another hour. Yes,
> that's huge and I would even go as far as saying
> it would influence my purchasing decisions for hardware/software. 

If that actually were the case, I'd agree.  You're not going to get a
linear increase in battery power by 'fixing' a certain number of
applications.  The law of diminishing returns probably applies pretty
well here.

> It's important, I think we should keep looking at this
> stuff with a fine tooth comb.

Please don't misunderstand: I'm not saying that looking into these
issues is a waste of time or that increasing battery life isn't a great
idea.  I'm just saying making arbitrary decisions as to what to work on
based on fuzzy data is a poor use of most people's time.

Who's this 'we', by the way?  Are you volunteering your time? ^_^

	-brian