Hello , I read year or more ago that in linux if you have say p4 2.66 ghz and all you are doing is listening to songs then linux would automatically decrease the system's speed , busspeed etc coz its useless + it increases hardware efficency , they dont become uselessly hot and thus also decreases hardware's wear n tear I dont claim it was exactly as i said ... so i just wanna comform sorta thing happens or not .... if yeah then to what extent .... i mean really it does that or is it limited to certain things only.???????
on the other hand what abt microsoft windows ? does it do this ..... if yeah whats its extent of conserving resources?

Some kernels do this with some processors. It's the same deal in Windows. This is part of the Centrino's bag of tricks for increasing battery life.

It's called stepping, and it is used to save power on laptops.

SOME KERNELS..... so is there a way i can determine if my linux kernel does that?
----- STEPPING.... can it be done on DESKTOP ..
**** if yeah for both or even one of them plz tell me a howto or gme a link

cd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/

If it says directory not found, then probably your kernel is not compiled with CPU freq scaling or your cpu doesn't support it.

Also try /proc/cpufreq if you are using an older system.

Read this thread (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=268091)

There is also "laptop mode" which is part of the newer kernels :
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/laptop_mode/

cpufreq can also be compiled as a modules, so if you have no /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/, then try modprobing cpufreq (or maybe cpufreq-<something related to your cpu>).

Do a make {x,menu}config and look in Power management->CPU Frequency scaling. This will show you what processors are supported.

I am not in my box right now .... will report back here after working ASAP