Low power Linux: wattOS

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Dirge
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Low power Linux: wattOS

Post by Dirge » Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:11 am

I just thought I would throw this one out there.

"WattOS, as its name suggests, is focused on low power usage and having a small footprint – allowing it to run on older, less powerful hardware. Makes new machines screaming fast also"

http://www.planetwatt.com/

nwbdan
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Post by nwbdan » Fri Jun 25, 2010 10:23 am

Would this be useful with laptop computers?

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Fri Jun 25, 2010 11:09 am

Looks like one could do the same with any Linux distro just by turning off (or not installing) a lot of services.

ntavlas
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Post by ntavlas » Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:09 pm

Indeed I prefer to start with a minimal Debian/Ubuntu installation and then add the packages I need. It`s a pain in the beginning but once you`ve figured out the dependencies you`ll probably end up with something lighter than all those "lightweight" distros.

Another thing I`ve noticed is that LXDE which is often the prefered lightwqeight DE, is more cpu intensive than XFCE and even Gnome. XFCE takes a bit more memory but is consistently more responsive when minimizing/maximizing/moving windows on a PIII @ 833mhz.

Dirge
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Post by Dirge » Sun Jun 27, 2010 3:50 am

nwbdan wrote:Would this be useful with laptop computers?
I don't see why not, its based on ubuntu and aimed at minimising/saving power.

nwbdan
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Post by nwbdan » Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:57 am

I always meant to start getting into Linux. Maybe I'll just put this on my laptop after the exams are over and fiddle with it throughout the summer.

alecmg
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Post by alecmg » Sun Jun 27, 2010 11:59 pm

I am very sceptical of linux distros created for specific purpose. Espessially ones that are ubuntu spinoffs
The main big distros can usually be modified to same goal too.

laptop-mode is a great package available to most distributions. It is all-in-one power saving center.
And then add powertop to monitor your CPU power state and tweak whatever causes for wakeup from idle.

I use Arch linux myself. Fastest package updates and can be modified to your goal without compiling/tweaking everything manually

Dirge
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Re: Low power Linux: wattOS

Post by Dirge » Sat Oct 01, 2011 3:00 am

Finally someone has published a review of wattOS and it doesn't look too good. According to the guys at Phoronix
WattOS R4 also doesn't appear to have any definitive power-savings advantages over Ubuntu 11.04, but in fact the average power consumption under the Natty Narwhal is slightly lower.

andrewsrobert
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Re: Low power Linux: wattOS

Post by andrewsrobert » Wed Nov 09, 2011 5:11 am

Low power Linux(wattos) is based on Ubuntu 10.04..it works good with older and less powerful hardware.
Even if you are non-technical but still you will be okay with the way the desktop works if you used full-fat Ubuntu before.

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