Linux Mint Forums

Posted: **Sat Jun 09, 2012 12:28 pm**

The following is my short list of absolutely-necessary things I need from Mint for the laptop I use for writing.

very long battery life while using LibreOffice
things like my WiFi to simply work
support for the OS version (this seems to limit me to LM9 or LM13)
to avoid Gnome3 entirely

You might be wondering why I add the last one. It's simple. When I tried LM12, Gnome3 seemed to be hitting the HDD constantly and for no apparent reason, which (as with Windows 7 Home Premium x64) kills my battery life significantly. Another reason is simply the fact that most of the Gnome2 panel apps don't work at all with Gnome3, and (to my knowledge at least!) there are no equivalents for Gnome3. (BAD move on the part of the Gnome devs. Shame on them.)

Is this unreasonable? Is it even doable? If you've constructive things to relate, please do. Let's avoid a flame-war, please.

Posted: **Sat Jun 09, 2012 2:50 pm**

rdanner3 wrote:Is this unreasonable? Is it even doable? /color=maroon]If you've constructive things to relate, please do.[/color] Let's avoid a flame-war, please

Option 1, very long batter life, is more dependent on the manufacturer's hardware than the OS, although the OS does have some effect

The rest is doable, but the best option for the consumer is buyer beware, in other words do the proper research before picking a notebook/netbook or umpc for a Linux installation..

That isn't a flame-war, but the just work mantra is an impossible feat even for a popular OS, such as windows xx or Apple OS-X
--consider later printers, network cards, smartphones or other multifunction devices,

Posted: **Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:04 am**

I have no idea what wifi card you have so I can't tell you what OSes will work.

If Windows also has short battery life on your hardware, then it's usually a hardware problem such as an old battery.

Posted: **Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:31 pm**

DrHu wrote:
rdanner3 wrote:Is this unreasonable? Is it even doable? If you've constructive things to relate, please do. Let's avoid a flame-war, please
Option 1, very long battery life, is more dependent on the manufacturer's hardware than the OS, although the OS does have some effect

True, but any OS that constantly slams the HDD (as Windows is well-known for) is going to murder battery longevity. That has been proven pretty conclusively elsewhere.

DrHu wrote:The rest is doable, but the best option for the consumer is buyer beware, in other words do the proper research before picking a notebook/netbook or umpc for a Linux installation.

How many PCs or laptops are even designed for Linux anymore? I see maybe one every couple of years at best; most are specifically designed for (say) Win7 or Mac OSX. Linux, of course, tends to work better than either of those, simply because it doesn't make unnecessary demands. I truly believe that if Windows were properly designed that battery life in both Windows and Linux would be similar, if not close to identical.

DrHu wrote:That isn't a flame-war, but the just work mantra is an impossible feat even for a popular OS, such as windows xx or Apple OS-X
--consider later printers, network cards, smartphones or other multifunction devices,

True, but Windows comes rather remarkably close, but only because too many development houses concentrate all their effort on that one OS, excluding all others, which ultimately hurts everyone, IMO. Now, if Linux distributions would use a unified installer that worked in all distributions, that would undoubtedly help Linux become more popular by improving the user experience. Having to know whether you need the .deb or the .rpm, etc. is not always something that a Linux newbie would know.

Posted: **Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:36 pm**

AlbertP wrote:I have no idea what wifi card you have so I can't tell you what OSes will work.

If Windows also has short battery life on your hardware, then it's usually a hardware problem such as an old battery.

Under Windows 7 Home Premium x64, I had at most 3 hours; under Linux Mint 10, 7.5 hours under identical load during the same period. Pretty significant difference. As I recall from my test of LM12, it was comparable to Windows 7, which was shocking, and not a happy discovery. It is the reason I reverted to LM10, in fact.

WiFi is a Realtek RTL8192-VA2 (which I had trouble getting going in LM9 for some weird reason, as I recall; see http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=50416!), video is Intel-based, and likely baked onto the processor.

Excerpt from hardinfo, showing the video, audio and networking:

Code: Select all

VGA compatible controller		: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Audio device	        	: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
Ethernet controller		: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
Network controller		: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller (rev 10)

I mean, I know without doubt that LM9, LM10 and LM12 all work on this hardware, but the question is, given the fact that I often run untethered to electric, which of the OS choices in the original post would fit the criteria I have. Since I do not know, I am asking advice from others who (likely) do know the answer.

[EDIT: Have upgraded for now to Mint 13 to do direct testing. MATE seems very Gnome2-ish, which is very nice, although had to work with something other than Compiz as the compositor. Thankfully, there was a tutorial on how to set xcompmgr up for LMDE/XFCE that also worked (with one slight change) in MATE right here. http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=84076]

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