Another way Linux is better: laptop support

I talked about this previously when I described my experience install windows and linux on the same laptop. I had the same experience with my friend's laptop; windows wouldn't recognize his network card or video card, whereas linux worked right out of the box. But here's something new.

For a while now, Intel has made processors that can "throttle" their speeds. The conventional wisdom is the faster the processor the better, right? Well, not if you're using a laptop. Then, it's "the faster the processor, the faster your battery drains." That's where throttling comes in. Your operating system can tell the processor when to throttle down in order to save power, and when to throttle up in order to maximize performance.

Here's how Linux is better. In Windows, you have to create "power schemes" through the control panel. When you unplug your laptop, you switch to a different power scheme. You can set a power scheme to throttle the processor down. But that means as long as you're running on battery, everything will be slower. And it's a pain to manage power schemes and switch between them.

Linux does it automatically. When you're not using your laptop, it throttles down. As soon as you start doing something processor-intensive, it throttles back up again. It does it on the fly, without you having to futz with anything. So, you get better battery life, and better performance at the same time. I love it.

SpeedStep - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia