Since most of us here are KDE users
As seen here:
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/community-fun/surveys-polls/477759-desktop-environment-do-you-use-opensuse-you-can-click-more-then-one-if-applicable.html
I thought we should know this.
http://dot.kde.org/2012/10/08/kde-manifesto
Innovation to ensure that new ideas constantly emerge to better serve people
Who was the brainiac who came up with the ‘new idea’ of removing the ability to see the remaining time on the battery widget. Gosh!
I really enjoy kde, and am thankful for the developers for there great work. Honestly, why’d they have to remove this option though.
On 10/14/2012 03:26 AM, knightron wrote:
> Honestly, why’d they have to remove this option though.
somewhere i saw a discussion that went something like:
the number of minutes offered wasn’t very accurate…that is, it might
say you and hour left and then 30 minutes later say you have five
minutes left…and, then last to ten minutes…
why? because it is all a wild guess based on present measured voltage
decrease rate (or something) and it can’t possibly always be right
because if you (or the system) goes into (or out of) a high energy
needed task (say, lots of read/writes…high usage of wi-fi…etc etc
etc) the prediction made seconds ago during low usage is all wrong.
so, why report 2 hours remaining when 10 seconds from now it might be
either 1.5 remaining or 2.5 (because the present energy use changed).
imo the slowly decreasing number of ‘bars’ in the desktop icon is good
enough for me: in my KDE i begin with 5 bars of power, when it gets down
to two i start paying attention…without needed to see if it said i
have three hours left or one…
and, it wasn’t one “brainiac” but rather a bunch of pretty bright folks
who just faced the reality that it wasn’t worth doing all the behind the
scenes calculations to support such a wildly unreliable guess about
how much time remained if the current use rate remained constant
(which it was unlikely to do).
–
dd
I wish it still had it, even if it is inaccurate at times. sigh. oh well, there are alternative battery monitors; my winging stops here.:\
Time remaining is mostly useless information.
My laptop promises me 6 hours of work:
I simply play some HD video for an hour, and it says I’ve got one hour left.
Then I just leave it where it is for another hour, and it tells me I’ve got one hour left.
What is useful, is the percentage indicator, that tells me the battery only has 30% of it’s capacity left. And that works, you can set it in the battery monitor’s preferences.
On 2012-10-14 10:32, dd@home.dk wrote:
> On 10/14/2012 03:26 AM, knightron wrote:
> and, it wasn’t one “brainiac” but rather a bunch of pretty bright folks
> who just faced the reality that it wasn’t worth doing all the behind the
> scenes calculations to support such a wildly unreliable guess about
> how much time remained if the current use rate remained constant
> (which it was unlikely to do).
Then instead of guessing how many minutes left of battery there are,
which is impossible, tell us how many amperes·hour left there are, which
is an exact figure (if it can be calculated at all).
On top of that, say the current, min, max and average current flow, and
I’ll take my chances with really appropriate info.
>:-)
Instead, they can give an estimated battery time left with an error
bracket, which is just as good. Say 30 minutes plus/minus five hours. :-p
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
I think most users would be satisfied with the percentage indicator mentioned above by Knurpht, that includes me. Its easier for them to relate to, and commonly used as in mobile phones, and graphically in devices e.g. digital cameras.
On top of that, say the current, min, max and average current flow, and
I’ll take my chances with really appropriate info.
Interesting for the 0.xx percent of academics who happen to run linux + kDE on their laptops. 
On 2012-10-15 12:46, consused wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2496085 Wrote:
>>
>> Then instead of guessing how many minutes left of battery there are,
>> which is impossible, tell us how many amperes·hour left there are,
>> which
>> is an exact figure (if it can be calculated at all).
> I think most users would be satisfied with the percentage indicator
> mentioned above by Knurpht, that includes me. Its easier for them to
> relate to, and commonly used as in mobile phones, and graphically in
> other devices such as digital cameras.
Yaaa
I was being geeky :-p
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
> Who was the brainiac who came up with the ‘new idea’ of removing the
> ability to see the remaining time on the battery widget.
I’m sure the ‘usability’ group took a look at it.
They like to look at things and say, “Hmm, intelligence is required to
operate this.” and then have it removed.
On 10/15/2012 05:42 PM, GofBorg wrote:
> “Hmm, intelligence is required to
> operate this.” and then have it removed.
LOL!!!
today, Linux is NOT for everyone…lets face it, some folks are not
intelligent enough to even run a Mac…
if we dumb down Linux so anyone can use it, it will be MORE restrictive
(less choice) than everything else out there…
–
dd
Am 15.10.2012 20:58, schrieb dd@home.dk:
> if we dumb down Linux so anyone can use it
then you get android 
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.5 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.9.2 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 11.4 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | lamp server
On 10/15/2012 09:14 PM, Martin Helm wrote:
> then you get android
yep, and so far i like it…for what it is, that is…its kind of a
basket of useful application to do useful things in a mobile environment…
but, the choices are not very many!! which sure cuts down on the amount
of futzing time!! which in turn, drives down the fixing time to about
zero! yea!!!
–
dd
Am 15.10.2012 21:34, schrieb dd@home.dk:
> On 10/15/2012 09:14 PM, Martin Helm wrote:
>> then you get android
>
> yep, and so far i like it…for what it is, that is…its kind of a
> basket of useful application to do useful things in a mobile environment…
>
Oh I like it as well for what it is, I use it on a tablet.
That something is “dumbed down” is not always bad, it can be a benefit
for certain use cases.
The price one pays is of course the lack of flexibility and restrictions
in what can be done with it easily, if it does the job it is designed
for this is of course ok.
Beside all the things which I do not like about KDE (and there were and
are several like the akonadi/strigi/nepomuk story and some smaller
issues) it has a high degree of flexibility the way you can customize it
to your liking (in terms of usability as well as appearance), that is
what makes me using it.
And this flexibility includes that if I do not like a design decision
for an applet/plasmoid/whatever it can be replaced by something else
which does the job in the way I like (even if that substitute is not
designed for KDE in the first place) that is the real strength.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.5 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.9.2 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 11.4 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | lamp server
Recently installed ptbatterysystemtray from the Razor-qt desktop, and am using it in kde. I am liking it very much since remaining time got removed from kde.
> then you get android
>
I was going to say Gnome…
Am 17.10.2012 19:35, schrieb GofBorg:
>> then you get android
>>
> I was going to say Gnome…
>
LOL
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.5 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.9.2 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 11.4 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | lamp server