Power Management on Linux, Part 1

Power management on computers has three parts: selecting devices that are more power-efficient, tuning your systems to run more efficiently, and configuring systems to use less power during periods of inactivity. Servers, desktop machines, and laptops usually need different power management schemes; there isn’t a one-size-fits-all. The first step is finding the power hogs on your systems, so today we’ll learn how to measure hardware power usage. We’ll also expose and rein in power-hog processes, and next week we’ll learn some ways to get the most bang per watt on our Linux systems.