Laptop battery consumption

[Shannon McMackin]

mdovell at comcast.net wrote:
> One thing I like on Ubuntu is it gives me more specific information on 
> my laptop battery. Unfortutatly it is now down to 66%-75% range in terms 
> of power. Is there any way to recalibrate batteries in terms of making 
> them perform longer? I've heard some suggest you have it running with 
> very little and drain it and then recharge..does this sound right?
> 
Hardware vendors usually include tools for Windows that get the most 
life out of a laptop's battery.  Unfortunately, those tools aren't 
typically available for a linux environment.  The older the battery, the 
less capacity or charging cycles it has.  You can try tools like 
powertop or other methods to get the most out of battery usage.