this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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There’s two things you might be talking about here:
The old way of making sure nickel cadmium batteries didn’t degrade, which was to discharge them all the way and charge them back up all the way. Your new laptop is almost certainly using lithium ion batteries which are chemically “damaged” more through that process than just leaving them plugged up all the time.
You could be talking about the old way of dealing with charge controllers, where the controller relied on the bios or os to tell it what to do and didn’t “know” how to respond to batteries at different stages of charge. This hasn’t been the situation for like fifteen years. Nowadays charge controllers go “yup, ready to go boss, 12345mah of charge, 90%” when some bios or os polls them.
You don’t even need to manually keep your battery in the 20-80 range nowadays since almost every charge controller automatically monitors temperature and adjusts charging parameters to not damage the battery. It’s not like the old days where the charge controller was just an ic controlling a fet acting as a slucegate between the battery and the power brick.
Heck, lithium ion batteries nowadays last longest the longer they’re plugged in. Running them to <10% every charge cycle actually diminishes battery life!
Tldr welcome to the future, don’t worry about it!
Sort of. The charge controller will limit charging current if too far outside normal temperature ranges. But it will still charge all the way to 100% unless you manually limit that with the settings on your device.
That's actually incorrect, charging a Li-ion battery to 100% is significantly worse for it than charging to 80%, and keeping it at 100% plugged in is even worse. Which is why most devices will have the option to stop charging at 80% or near there instead of going all the way to 100%.
Charging while warm is also much worse than charging below 50 degrees F or so.
While you’re right that going all the way up to the 4.2v that the battery is rated for is worse than if it just stayed at 4v, by not discharging to half or more you’re reducing the charge cycles which directly correlates to longer life.
Ultimately in lieu of a charge controller or os that does that for you, the easiest way for a user to extend battery life without going psycho mode is to charge they phone, eat hot chip and lie.
I know all the macs and iphones have that predictive charging thing where if you’re always leaving your phone or computer or phone plugged in overnight they’ll keep it around 80% or so till about an hour before you wake up and charge the rest of the way then.
Windows computers have something called smart charging but I don’t have any experience with it.
Theres a bunch of different ways to control charging in Linux.
It really seems like this is a solved problem and I’m glad to not be worrying about plugging and unplugging my phone to maximize my battery life.
Generally all correct, here is a resource with a lot of in-depth information and additional links:
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries
Thanks for the detailed reply! I learned a lot from it. Cheers!