Hi,

I have tried a lot of versions of Linux and most of them allmost halve the battery life.

I have a Lenovo Z570 laptop with Nvidia GT520M Graphics Card. Also, it uses UEFI based BIOS (Not really sure what this means, but this has caused a lot of booting issues, like, multiboot not working etc).

I will be thankful if someone could answer the following questions:

1) What is the version of Perl and Python that comes shipped with CentOS 6.2?

2) If I download a CD Version, will it have Perl/Python and GCC bundled along with it? I am planning to play around with Perl mainly and would need GCC to get the CPAN Modules working. Network availibility is a limiting factor so wanted to know if a CD Version would contain all these.

3) My battery life with Fedora 16 /Scientific Linux 6 is almost half of what I would get from Windows 7(BUT, windows is serious pain :) ) . Can I expect better battery life with CentOS 6.2 ?

4) I have noted dual booting issues with all except OpenSUSE. Looks like the EFI (or UEFI) is causing it. Anyone has a laptop with UEFI and worked around this problem?

I will be very thankful if someone could let me know.

Welcome to the CentOS fora. Please see the recommended reading for new users linked in my signature.

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Your questions are all over the map. You will generally get better help if you use a concise subject and question in each topic.

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You could have determined that by browsing the package set in a mirror.
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The installation media contains all available packages, and starting with an install from DVD media is usually the best way to achieve a working system with the components you need, and without a lot of extra baggage. The LiveCD/DVD media are primarily useful for compatibility testing, test-drives, and rescue; although they are now installable to disk.

Use of CPAN and other types of Source Installs is discouraged. Package-based systems should use packages if at all possible. Many if not most of the things available from CPAN are available as packages from 3rd party repos such as RPMforge.

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There is no general answer to that question. Battery life will depends on how you configure power options, and the load on the system.

SL6 and CentOS-6 are built from the same sources so there should be no substantial difference, nor any compelling reason to install CentOS if you have a working SL system. See the Migration Guide if you want to transition to CentOS. OTOH - a fresh install may be easier if you have not got a lot invested in the SL installation.

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Not I.

I generally try to avoid dual-boot if possible, and instead use Virtualization. A forum search for UEFI may be helpful.