Thinkpads Forum

I'm currently running Windows 7 on my X61s and would like to add Ubuntu in a dual boot setup. My only use under Ubuntu will be for browsing and email.

Which Ubuntu release works out of the box without requiring lots of manual tweaking?

How is the battery life under Ubuntu as compared to Windows? Is there an equivalent "Maximum Battery Life" power plan similar to Windows?

Any experience with running Ubuntu entirely from RAM so the hard drive can spin down, hopefully providing improved battery life?

I'm using Linux Mint 13 in almost all my X6x non-tablet machines, which is another Ubuntu-based distribution. For browsing and emailing everything works ootb. Normally I just add Chromium, aflash plugins and some tools I like and that's it.

I haven't' played around with battery options, since mine are all almost dead, but I tried Powertop a bit. The German sister forum has also some interesting info in English, like this one: http://linrunner.de/en/tlp/tlp.html

My 2 cents... Hopefully it helps as starting point.

Cheers

T

I`m running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on x61s without any issue, with 2 gb of RAM, and SSD. Works fast and slik. Btw with Unity shell, for saving display space.
Two tips, install specific TP kernel http://thinkwiki.de/Ubuntu_tp-Kernel and some conky for monituring temperature and you are fine.