[ale] [OT] Laptop Battery Worth It?

[David Tomaschik]

On Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-07-13 at 22:44 -0400, David Tomaschik wrote:
>> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 8:47 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
>> > On Wed, 2011-07-13 at 17:02 -0400, david w. millians wrote:
>> >> But I'm weird, and don't really have to have that much umph anymore in
>> >> a laptop. It's not like I'm going to edit video on it, or compile the
>> >> OS from scratch. :)
>> >
>> > I primarily do development of various types, so beefy (to a sane
>> > upper-limit) is good.  My desktop, OTOH, can compile the entire linux
>> > kernel version 3.0.0 (make allmodconfig) in just over 13 minutes.
>> > That's what I do the majority of my heavy lifting with.  I cannot
>> > _stand_ to wait for compilation to take place.
>> >
>> >        --- Mike
>>
>> What kind of hardware are you running on your desktop?
>
> I have an AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1055T Processor, a 2.8 GHz (safely
> overclockable to 3.33 GHz) 6-core CPU, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM running on a
> 870A-G54 mainboard.  I have a single 750 GB HDD, two monitors, a BD-R(E)
> burner, and a DVD burner in this system as well.

<snip>

>> I'm in a place where I'm torn between the multiple-computer world, my
>> technology desires, and my budget (and desire to reduce my
>> eco-footprint).
>
> I use my desktop for pretty much everything: development, testing, and
> experimentation in virtual machines.  I regularly draw load on this
> system.  :)
>
>> I like to keep the "primary" copy of all my important work on my
>> desktop, and my laptop just checks data in and out, if you will.  This
>> means running my desktop 24/7, which is not exactly the most budget-
>> or eco-friendly.
>
> I think that what I would like to do eventually is have a few servers,
> for example at Linode, that work together cooperatively to provide all
> of the services that we require that do not need to be on the LAN.  This
> would include some things like my non-FOSS DVCS trees and the like;
> basically data and services that need to be available from wherever I
> am, no matter what system I am on.  That way I am less tied to the
> desktop.
>
> That said, I don't know if that means I'll use my desktop any less.  It
> is one of the few things that I am slightly irrational about:  I am
> _way_ more comfortable working on this system than any other.  In part
> because I have two monitors, in part because it's 100% snappy 100% of
> the time.  (Make that 98% of the time: "make -j12" in the kernel tree
> does tend to make it slightly jerky for a few minutes...)
>
> Also, the network connection is much better, being that it is gigabit
> wired.  I use this system both for work and for personal use, so it
> does, well, everything.
>
>> Additionally, I'd also like to have an environment where I can host a
>> number of VMs for testing/experimentation.
>
> If you can replicate my system, I'll tell you this:  It's _amazing_ for
> that.  Of course, to run it to full potential, you'll want a 64-bit
> operating system on it.
>
>> Too many things going on at once...
>
> Story of many of our lives, I suspect.
>
>        --- Mike

Maybe I'm just in the wrong place financially... no way I could afford
that hardware.  My current desktop is a C2D @ 2.0 GHz with 6GB of RAM,
dual 1TB drives in RAID-1 and a GeForce 8400GT.  It slows to a grind
under even 2 VMs running on it, and that's with a minimal Debian
install in the VMs.

I currently have 1 Linode that I use to host my website, git
repositories, and a few other things, but that's a mere Linode-512.
At times, it's already stretched on RAM.


-- 
David Tomaschik, RHCE, LPIC-1
System Administrator/Open Source Advocate
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com