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Ubuntu’s declining popularity was a hot topic on the Internet recently, with a number of sites using Distrowatch's annual web rankings to ring alarm bells for the popular Linux distro. But there were those who looked askance at these reports -- and quite rightly so, accusing them of grossly exaggerating the extent of Ubuntu’s alleged decline. Whatever be the true extent of its decline, the fact is Ubuntu is still a very popular Linux distro and Canonical will have another chance of redeeming itself with Precise Pangolin in a few months’ time.
What better way of regaining lost ground than by luring back users with new features and enhancements. Ubuntu kernel engineer Colin King discussed one such improvement in a blog post on Tuesday. While admitting to below-par power saving features inside previous releases, King assured everyone of Canonical’s commitment to reducing battery consumption in Ubuntu this time around.
“There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence of specific machines or power saving features behaving poorly over the past few cycles,” he wrote. “So, armed with a 6.5 digit precision multimeter from Fluke I've been measuring the power consumption on various laptops in different test scenarios to try and answer some outstanding questions.”
Some of the answers to the Ubuntu power-saving puzzle include the implementation of PCIe Active State Power Management (ASPM) and “putting USB and PCI controllers of devices like Webcams, SD card controllers, Wireless, Ethernet and Bluetooth into a lower power state.” However, Aggressive Link Power Management (ALPM) is still being tested for reliability and may or may not find its way into Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.
King wants volunteers to help in the testing of these power-saving solutions by sparing “just a few tens of minutes” for some of the tests on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/PowerManagement.
Image Credit: Canonical
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Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/opulent_rigs_0
[2] http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/11/dare-to-be-different-ubuntus-popularity-is-not-declining/
[3] http://smackerelofopinion.blogspot.com/2011/12/improving-battery-life-in-ubuntu.html
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/aspm
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/battery_life
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/laptops
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/netbooks
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/notebooks
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/power_management
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/precise_pangolin
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/ubuntu_1204
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news