Why not to use Google Chrome in your Power Savvy Laptop?

I had previously used and tested Google chrome for its Hindi (Indic) capabilities, and had quickly abandoned since it was giving trouble here and there. Recently, after going through a report about browser share – yes, Chrome is gaining share - I tested Chrome again.

To my horror, when I opened about 8-10 tabs in Google Chrome, my laptop’s on-demand CPU cycle remain steady at 100% status and because of this, my laptop goes red-hot and its battery drained more quickly than ever. Instead of usual Two-and-half hour back-up, my laptop’s battery drained completely within an hour.

Probably, this is because, Google chrome opens a new process every time when a user opens a tab, and hence it uses your precious CPU cycle, memory and – Well, your computer’s power at an unprecedented rate.

So, beware – use Google Chrome with caution especially when you are on Battery power.

I have used Opera, Konqueror (in Linux), Firefox, Internet Explorer, Epipheny – and found that Firefox uses least CPU cycles on its heavy usage. And, if you use Opera as RSS reader, otherwise a light browser, it too become bloatware.

Yet another reason to use Linux instead of (Windows) Vista

Yet another reason to use Linux instead of (Windows) Vista

Recently I baught BSNL EV-DO card that provides broadband (144 Kbps – 2 Mbps – averaging about 500 Kbps) on the go. I tried to run it on my 64 bit Windows Vista Laptop (a triple boot machine XP, Vista 64 bit & Ubuntu 64 bit) but failed. Driver simply failed to work. However, it works well in Windows XP environment.

Then I tried it on Linux. On my Ubuntu 64 bit Linux machine, running this device is pretty much straight forward. Here is how you can install and run BSNL evdo card in your Linux machine too:  (though you can do this with dozens of different methods with equal number of tools – classic Linux style!) 

1 – install kppp if you don't already have. Skip to section 2 if you already have kppp. Connect to Internet with some alternative method, and then use following command to install kppp in Ubuntu:

# apt-get install kppp

2 - Now, run kppp by giving command:

# kppp

On the kppp window that appears, click on Configure, then click on Accounts tab that appears. Click on New, and then provide connection name such as BSNL, and in telephone number, fill #777. Click OK. Further, click on Modem tab and then click on New. Give it a name such as evdo, then onModem Device dropdown menu, select /dev/ttyUSB0. Click OK twice to save setting. Finally, click on Connect button on KPPP main window. And, Bingo! Your evdo device connects to internet instantly.

Except KPPP installation, the method given above will work well in all  major latest Linux Distributions such as Fedora, Mandrive, SUSE etc.