making Ubuntu easy

[Lee Revell]

On Thu, 2006-05-25 at 22:18 +0200, Robert Spanjaard wrote:
> On Thu, 25 May 2006 19:44:28 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> 
> >> > Thats to be expected since it is running the CD drive almost
> >> > continuously and that sucks up a lot of power
> >>
> >> So it's normal for the CD to use as much power as the rest of the
> >> system combined? I don't think so. A shorter lifespan can be
> >> expected, but not _this_ short.
> > 
> > You'd be amazed how much power CD drives consume - there's some hefty 
> > current going into the laser,
> 
> I'd like to see your drive then. The usual DVD-beam usage is around 0.5 W
> (according to Sony, Apple has even lower values), with less than 50 mW
> output through the final lens. And that's for _writing_, reading is much
> lower than that.

I would expect the motor to draw more power than the laser.

Anyway, there's an easy solution - just install Ubuntu to your hard
drive.  Live CDs are not really a long term solution, but a way for
people to "test-drive" Ubuntu.

Lee