[Info-vax] Linux power management (was: Re: Don't worry, HP's project...)

[Paul Sture]

In article <slrnkm9de3.38a.brad at coyote.earwicker.home>,
 Brad Hamilton <brad at coyote.earwicker.home> wrote:

> On 2013-04-09, MG <marcogbNO at SPAMxs4all.nl> wrote:
> > The overall Linux power management capabilities are poor, this is
> > hardly a secret either.  That largely kills the experience on the
> > laptop/notebook, well, for me anyway.
> >
> 
> Can you quantify, "poor"?  I ask, because I use Linux Mint 13 on an older
> Lenovo with 1st gen Intel Dual-Core.  XFCE, instead of Mate or Cinnamon,
> allows me to use hibernate and sleep with few problems, as opposed to
> Mate, Cinnamon, or Ubuntu Unity.

The later versions of Mate, Cinnamon or Gnome required better graphics 
than my 3 year old budget tower system has.  XFCE is fine on that 
however, and for consistency I use it elsewhere.

> > As a matter of fact, even some big name Linux developers/contributors
> > have been critical about this, even fairly recently.  (Remember, for
> > instance, that article that was shared here, a while back, about the
> > co-founder/creator of GNOME that spoke out?)
> >
> > I run Linux Mint x86-64 on an older Acer 5536.  It barely works, it
> > feels more like a 'poorly cooled computer with a low-grade UPS'.
> > I'm actually going to try FreeBSD on it soon, since I can then at
> > least also use interesting things like ZFS and the "jails".
> >
> 
> I avoided using FreeBSD years ago, because the wireless device drivers were
> poor/nonexistent.  That experience may have changed by now, but I won't risk
> an otherwise "stable" platform.  I may experiment on a "throwaway" laptop.
> [...]

For those who don't have spare hardware, FreeBSD sits nicely inside  
VirtualBox running on either Linux or Windows.

However, unlike Windows or any of the other Linux clients I have run
under VirtualBOx, FreeBSD doesn't get the latest time from the host when 
resuming after a suspend.  This might make it less suitable for use on a 
laptop.  There is of course nothing to stop you closing a FreeBSD client 
rather than suspending it (or investigate other ways to get the correct 
time after a suspend).

-- 
Paul Sture