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hello I am new to Ubuntu ad using Ubuntu v12.04 on my Asus k53sv-sx521d laptop. I want to make sure that Ubuntu is not going to reduce longevity of my laptop or going to harm my laptop parts (hardware) . I will wait for (to the point)reply from you guys. Thanks in advance

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asus 7750G user here with 1 ssd and 1 500 sata disc. Have not had a single problem with things like heat, fans or hardware problems. – Rinzwind May 26 '12 at 12:25
    
the standard Ubuntu is safe to use. if you then mod the software that controls your hardware then you do so on your own risk. But most people don't do that. – Alvar May 26 '12 at 12:29
    
asus 1201n here, I only have heating issues in Windows... – Alvar May 26 '12 at 12:31
    
Wow, let's see: Dell Inspiron 8000, D420, EeePC 901/1001HA, Thinkpad T500, T520....never had a problem with stock Ubuntu. As for temp, most modern CPUs have hardware thermal shutdown beyond a point - even if you compiled kernel without temp sensing support, they will downclock and then "shutdown" if temps go too high. Thankfully we don't have those melting Athlon XPs anymore ;) – izx May 26 '12 at 13:27
    
At least Ubuntu keeps me safe from viruses which can otherwise damage my hardware.... – Ravi May 27 '12 at 7:39
up vote 1 down vote

Even my friend got the same laptop and I installed it a few months ago with Ubuntu 11.04 and its very nice, He didn't complained till date.

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This is anecdotal an should be a comment. – David LeBauer May 26 '12 at 23:06
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I can answer using as reference 3 HP Laptops and 1 Toshiba. 2 of the HP laptops have an Nvidia video card, the other HP and Toshiba have both an Intel card. This is what I have gathered from the past year and half (Since Ubuntu 10.04 up to 12.04):

  • Nvidia video cards (Using proprietary or open source drivers) create less heat and have less temperature than using them on the same hardware with Windows. In this case Windows 7. Of course the temperature I am talking about is not something like 72 Degrees Celsius. My tests are in Windows around 40-42 Degrees while in Ubuntu they are around 33 Degrees. Almost 10 degrees less. When playing the same game they go in Windows up to 49-51 while on Windows they go to 39-41. Not only this but in the case of the Nvidia 9800 that a friend has, he told me that Ubuntu tok care of the Video card so good that it never passed the 60 Degree limit he was afraid of. On Windows the video card was around 55 without doing nothing. 70 easy while playing. On Ubuntu it was 38. 50-56 while playing. He even bought 3 fans to cool down the video card. Does not need them anymore.

  • Intel Video cards run great and are the same thing on Windows than Ubuntu.

  • Hard drives LAST LONGER. This is something not much limited to Laptops. This tests have only been with HDD not with SSD. But I have tested around 30-40 hard drives in the ranges from 250GB up to 3TB. From Western Digital, Hitachi to Samsung and Seagate (Before the WD merge). Hard drives that have started to have problems have somehow being brought back to life in Ubuntu. Other hard drives that made a screech sound when rebooting do not make it when loading on Ubuntu. And the life span of Hard drives is about 2 years longer. I can vouch for this at least for a test I did buying 4 HDD Samsung Spinpoint F3 of 1TB each. 2 were used in Windows. 2 in Ubuntu. Guess which ones started dying out. Yeap, the Windows ones. They started developing a huge amount of bad sectors and not only that but one of them started making strange noises when booting or rebooting. After a couple of weeks of this, it died. The other one that was on Windows I moved it to Ubuntu and I am using it as backup right now. This was around May 2011. Basically a year ago and it is still working.

  • Hard Drives are faster. Tested this with a Samsung Spinpoint F3 and a 3TB Seagate. using Windows 7 versus Ubuntu 12.04 I could see (Not just a burst/cache but an actual stable speed) that on Windows 7 I was gettings around 50-60MB/s speed in all HDDs. In Ubuntu I got 90MB/s with the Spinpoints and 140MB with the 3TB Seagate. It was really taking advantage of the Sata and the technology around the HDD.

  • Hard Drives are better monitored. Have you tried Disk Utility. If I were a robot man (50% there already), my wife would be that utility. It has a very good way of monitoring the HDD and notifying you when they have a problem.

  • Battery Life - This was a problem for a long time in Linux. It was solved in the 3.3 version of the Kernel. I am guessing you would ask: But 12.04 is using the 3.2 version not the 3.3. you are correct but many features of the 3.3 were backported. This was one. Others like performance enhancements and video enhancements for Intel were also backported. So you have a 12.04 that has a very good battery life again.

  • Battery Recovery - If the following has happened to you, you can fix it with Ubuntu. Already tested on 3 laptops. If you have a battery that Ubuntu says has less Watts than it should you can discharge the battery until it is completely depleted. you can do this effectively with Ubuntu. Somehow it correctly makes sure the battery is 100% dead. Leave it charging for several hours (12 minimum) and then started up with Ubuntu. You will see an increase of at least 100%. Some cases like the HP DV6000 I have went from 88W power to 114W. I tested this and the laptop which never ever lasted for me over 2 hours (When new) lasted almost 3 hours. The good thing about Ubuntu is that it tells you have charge the battery is and how long it will really last after doing this "Battery reset". It does a beautiful job and analysing the battery, battery usage, power usage, etc..

you can get the idea after reading all of this that using Ubuntu or any other Linux OS for that matter should make your laptop last several months/years longer. Got an additional case of a cousin in Aruba that has an Acer REALLYY old model that was having problems with Windows XP and the battery, wifi and video. I install Ubuntu on the laptop. It is still working today. Guess what version of Ubuntu I installed.. 6.10. Almost 6 years ago his laptop was going to die.

In the end you can test both of them on the same hardware I see it for yourself. You can come to this question in a year or two to give your thoughts about how it all went.

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wow what a review!!!. i am impressed. – Arkaprovo Bhattacharjee May 27 '12 at 13:09
    
@Luisalvarado bullit point 1 seems to have a typo: 2x windows where 1 probabaly should be Ubuntu "When playing the same game they go in Windows up to 49-51 while on Windows they go to 39-41." – Rinzwind Aug 24 '12 at 7:05
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Sometimes we should be able to upvote 2 times :) – Rinzwind Aug 24 '12 at 7:07
up vote 1 down vote

Any Linux operating system is always safe to use... :)

Definitely better than...You know what i am saying...

There are so many people who also port Ubuntu to their MACs..!!

MACs are obviously costly machines..!! But Ubuntu runs in Peace with everyone.. ;)

You do not need to worry...Stay with Linux/Ubuntu and be the safest person on earth ;)

Just be sure you dont do anything Intentionaly as said in other answers..!! ;)

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He is asking about hardware damage, not software, viruses, etc. -- your answer would be appropriate in those circumstances. – izx May 27 '12 at 0:38
    
But I have not mentioned about software anywhere.. :) MACs are overall costly machines...with hardware...so i have rather mentioned that too :) – Nirmik May 27 '12 at 6:26
    
@Nirmik You are right. Macs are very costly plus you cannot install other OS on it. Apple controls their users! I love linux because of the FREEDOM! – Ravi May 27 '12 at 7:42
    
@Ravi...well yes...Linux is just the synonym to freedom...but hey..instalng linux on mac is verymuch posible! ;) n m a mac fanboy 2 :p – Nirmik May 27 '12 at 8:32
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guys focus this is about Ubuntu not mac :P – Arkaprovo Bhattacharjee May 27 '12 at 16:03
up vote 1 down vote

Ubuntu is always safe, on every hardware.

Remember to always properly shutdown or reboot your computer and everything should work well for a long, long time.

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@Alvar It can damage hardware? – TheGatorade May 26 '12 at 12:38
    
Shutting down by tapping the power button is a perfectly acceptable thing to do! Pressing the power button triggers an ACPI event which causes the shutdown dialog to appear. Click shutdown and the system will close down gracefully. – popey May 26 '12 at 12:55
    
@TheGatorade, yes, you can get it to damage hardware whenyou try to modify your system with advanced tools. – izx May 26 '12 at 13:31
    
@popey I meant shutting down the system by holding the power button for more than 5secs. – TheGatorade May 26 '12 at 15:55
    
@TheGatorade: I know, which is why I thought alvar might scare him/her off :P – izx May 26 '12 at 19:07
up vote 5 down vote

I want to make sure that Ubuntu is not going to reduce longevity of my laptop or going to harm my laptop parts

No. In general it is almost impossible for software to unintentionally damage hardware.

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except if you modify your fan speeds, or modify any other system critical stuff. – Alvar May 26 '12 at 12:28
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that's intentional >:D @alvar – Rinzwind May 26 '12 at 12:28
    
Unless one tries to run any random scripts that you might come across on the internet, unintentional damage possibility is near null. – saji89 May 26 '12 at 19:28
    
sounds safe then :D – Arkaprovo Bhattacharjee May 27 '12 at 15:59

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