Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices) [LWN.net]

Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices)

Posted Jul 16, 2007 21:53 UTC (Mon) by bk (guest, #25617)
In reply to: Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices) by muwlgr
Parent article: Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices)

The only problem is the 3hr battery life. I'd expect these devices to have at least 5-8hrs per charge to be fully useful (similar to a cellphone or ipod).

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Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices)

Posted Jul 17, 2007 0:04 UTC (Tue) by dkite (guest, #4577) [Link]

I would be willing to spend another $2-300 for a full day's worth of
battery life.

If cheap is the goal, $200 is fine. If mobile usefulness is the goal,
then the competition is, what? How much does one have to pay for a laptop
that can be used all day? I don't think the $500 machines can do it.

Derek

Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices)

Posted Jul 17, 2007 5:03 UTC (Tue) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

Even without turning off WiFi, you may find that the Foleo's 5 hours is enough to work all day - most people don't use a computer all day, as they also have meetings, phone calls, lunch, etc, so this could be fine for an 8 hour day. For a longer day, just turn off WiFi when not needed, and turn down screen brightness etc.

Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices)

Posted Jul 17, 2007 5:01 UTC (Tue) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

Palm quotes 5 hours battery life with WiFi on and screen at default brightness (65%), which is significantly better than my heavy Dell D600 laptop with two batteries. The problem (for Palm only) is that Palm isn't lying about battery life the way most manufacturers do, so they look bad...

Slim Linux laptop has potential (LinuxDevices)

Posted Jul 18, 2007 7:55 UTC (Wed) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

With Linux's newer powermanagement features.. Things like the new wireless stack (the dscape thing, what is it called now? n802.11?), powertop, tickless kernel, etc etc should help to extend the battery life on the thing.

How about another hour or so?

I am actually kinda excited about this laptop. For 2 reasons.. Firstly, personally I want one. Secondly, every review I've seen online always had people wanting to buy one, or several, just as a toy.

The thing is so cheap it should be popular just as a sort of secondary thing. But cheap, small laptops like this can possibly be a huge foot-in-the-door for Linux-on-the-desktop.