[SOLVED] Cheapest long battery-life reliable systems to put a GUI *nix or Windows on?

DynV

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Aug 13, 2009
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I ordered
Fire HD 8 tablet, 8" HD display, 32 GB, latest model (2020 release), designed for portable entertainment, Black
Manufacturer: Amazon, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
Sold by: Amazon.com.ca, Inc.
CDN$ 79.99
Condition: New
but it's still not set to be delivered, thus still cancelable.

What are the cheapest long battery-life systems to put a GUI versions of GNU/Linux or Windows? That includes tablets & netbooks. I could install both Windows & a GUI version of GNU/Linux, but for the former I need it to come with it when it was sold and the key it was installed with. The Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet is stated to have a 12 hrs battery-life, so something with only 4 hrs wouldn't be enough. I'm open to buying used as long as there's an easy & free way to return it if it's not as described (ie eBay) and that the description mention the battery-life. Please avoid unreliable systems.

Thank you kindly

Update 1

Rephrased to exclude Android, Chrome OS and the like.
 
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The main thing I care about is battery-life, and after that how many and the kind of software/app I can put on it.
Do you care about anything else? Because if you're looking for cheap and long battery life, it often comes at the cost of performance. And even if you can eke out some performance, that often eats into battery life because the advertised battery life was measured under the best case scenario.

This is especially the case if you want a Windows device. Yes you can run Windows on surprisingly cheap, low end hardware, but it's not a pleasant experience once you move past the basics. And most things you can buy don't come with Linux, you'd have to install that, which I'll point to my last post why that's not a good idea...

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
I ordered

but it's still not set to be delivered, thus still cancelable.

What are the cheapest long battery-life systems to put a full OS on? That includes tablets & netbooks with Windows & GUI versions of GNU/Linux (the latter I could install myself only if it's possible to do so (as in unlocked or easily & reliably unlockable)). The Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet is stated to have a 12 hrs battery-life, so something with only 4 hrs wouldn't be enough. I'm open to buying used as long as there's an easy & free way to return it if it's not as described (ie eBay) and that the description mention the battery-life. Please avoid unreliable systems.

Thank you kindly
How is this question any different than your previous one -- https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/very-cheap-full-os-system.3727311/#post-22474626 ???
 
Putting your own OS over the device is a great way to basically give the bird to any sort of efficiency you were trying to achieve. Assuming the device comes from a reasonably big enough company to put work into it, the device is configured and tweaked to work efficiently as possible. Putting any other OS on it removes those tweaks.

As an exercise, try getting Gentoo Linux on a computer. If you can't stand that, then you shouldn't try putting another OS over the one the device came with and tweak it to get the baseline efficiency.

That's also assuming you can even put another OS on the device.
 

DynV

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Maybe it came with Windows and something else was put on it, wasn't that implied in the OP?

The main thing I care about is battery-life, and after that how many and the kind of software/app I can put on it.
 
The main thing I care about is battery-life, and after that how many and the kind of software/app I can put on it.
Do you care about anything else? Because if you're looking for cheap and long battery life, it often comes at the cost of performance. And even if you can eke out some performance, that often eats into battery life because the advertised battery life was measured under the best case scenario.

This is especially the case if you want a Windows device. Yes you can run Windows on surprisingly cheap, low end hardware, but it's not a pleasant experience once you move past the basics. And most things you can buy don't come with Linux, you'd have to install that, which I'll point to my last post why that's not a good idea if battery life is your goal. You're also not going to find "cheap" Windows devices that can even attain a battery life in the double digit hours.

Considering you're fixated on using the Fire 8 as a baseline, finding something for ~$100 USD or less, with 12 hours of usable battery life, running a modern full desktop OS, is basically finding a unicorn.

But please let us know if you do find it.
 
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DynV

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I'm thinking the vast majority of my tablet usage will be split between
  • e-Reading and
  • email use, web browsing & video streaming
which I assume almost all tablets can do.

I'm wondering how much more it would be to have access to everything, or almost; I don't foresee but I might want to do a bit of graphical editing, or office suite use, once in a while. Also if I did end up with it, I could use it as a backup for my main system, and with the tablet plugged into a power outlet, the demands on it shouldn't affect the battery. If the price of being able to have access to everything, or almost, is > 40% then I'd content myself with what's in the 1st paragraph.

I have been looking for one in malls, Amazon and online catalog/store of local stores.