The Pentium M can be throttled back much more than the P4 in laptops. It's a great laptop chip. But Linux support isn't as seamless as under Win2k.

I bought the Extra Life battery and the UltraBay battery (replaces the CD-RW). I usually just use the big main battery - it sticks out the back a little. I haven't done any test recently, but I think I can easily get 5+ hours out of it doing wireless stuff under Win2k. With both batteries under Win2k the meter said the life should be ~ 8 hours (with some of the power saving stuff turned on).

Under MEPIS, the power-saving stuff apparently isn't configured right. I think it's running full speed and the life with the big battery is ~ 3-4 hours. I haven't tried to figure out what needs to be configured...

I haven't noticed any degradation in the battery, but I don't use the laptop that often (it sits for a couple of weeks at a time sometimes, other times it's used every evening).

I think I got the batteries from a store on eBay.

HTH.

Cheers,
Scott.