On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Bob Friesenhahn <bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote: > On Fri, 18 Apr 2008, Shawn Walker wrote: > > > > > > > > > In my opinion the user should always be in charge. > > > > > > > The only reason the user would need to be in charge is because the OS > > is doing it wrong. > > > > The OS has more information and is better able to determine exactly > > what the best performance for a system is. > > > > In what way does the OS have more information? How does the OS usually > gauge the intent of the user?
The OS knows what the load on the system is, how many processes are waiting, etc. It can get a good measure of how long the user is waiting for the system to complete its tasks. While the OS may not be able to perfectly guess the intent of the user, making an educated guess, or getting it right most of the time is better than forcing the user to make all the choices. Windows, in general, as an example, usually gets power management right on my laptop without me doing anything at all (other than perhaps dimming my screen). > When I use the term "user in charge" I am not talking about things that the > OS can do best like slowing CPUs and powering down drives (i.e. responding > to the user's requested intention). I am talking about specifying the > user's intention. Ah, good. Those were mainly the things I was talking about. > If the application is in charge, then I will have my application disable > all OS power saving modes while it is maximized since want my application to > be fast. When my application is minimized I will enable all power saving > features in order to encourage use of my application. That's where opportunities come in for the OS or applications being able to tell the OS that "I'm not busy right now, so I don't need extra power". > What does the application know that I (the user) don't? It knows when its busy or trying to do something. The application may be performing operations that the user has no awareness of. The short of it to me is this: What is more efficient? You, as the user, having to tell the system each time that you expect maximum performance from an application, or making the system smart enough to figure that out and do the right thing in the first place? -- Shawn Walker "To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." - Robert Orben
