laptops should use performance governor when on AC power, not on demand.

[Shaya Potter]

Binary package hint: powermgmt-base

Ubuntu always use the ondemand governor. there's no way this is the right decision for most users. I think most users only want their cpu performance scaled when on battery power, not when connected to an AC. There's no way for on demand to provide as good as an experience as performance, so when on AC where it doesn't matter, it should use the performance governor.

just my 2cents

[Flávio Etrusco (etrusco)]

Weird, I have the impression Ubuntu has the behavior you want. Actually I always add a CPU Frequency Scaling applet to change the governor to ondemand or powersave because I try to my notebook to run silently - when/while the performance feels adequate. Unfortunately the ondemand governor doesn't seem as responsive lately as it used to be.

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Most people can't tell the difference because ondemand speeds up as soon as you start putting load on the cpu. The general consensus is that the power and heat saved is beneficial even to desktops, and most especially to laptops, even when on AC power. This behavior is intentional, and so not a bug, so I am closing this report. Discussion of policy choices should be done on the ubuntu-devel mailing list.