Improve Your Linux Laptop's Battery time with TLP

Having a well optimized operating system is crucial for any mobile computer user. Linux didn't used to do that well as far as power usage optimizing was concerned, in my humble opinion it was Ubuntu developers that decided to put forward some real efforts into optimizing their operating system. Sure there were software utilities such as 'Laptop Mode Tools' and disk spin down software etc, but it was Ubuntu that had the ambition to optimize things.

Now there are couple of tools that you can use to improve the battery usage of your Linux laptop, but among them, my favorite tool is called TLP. The reason I love TLP is because it's very easy to set-up, and the default set of optimizations it applies to the system is works extremely well. That said, if you know what you're doing, then you can always manually tweak the settings to get the best out of your Linux laptop.

Most Linux distributions host TLP in their primary repository these days (Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Manjaro etc) and if you're using Ubuntu then you can install it using the below command:

sudo apt install tlp

That's pretty much it. TLP might ask a question or two while installing, choose either 'Yes' or 'No' and you're done. Once it's installed make sure to reboot the computer as well.

How good is TLP in real life?

Well, in my experience, without any manual configuration, TLP is easily capable of reducing the power of your laptop by 20-25%. And so far I've tested it on 5 different laptops and each time it has done its 'magic', so if you're feeling that the Linux operating system is giving you short battery life (say compared to Microsoft Windows), then I highly recommend that you try it out. Good luck.

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