[Slightly OT] Laptop battery draining in Lenny

[Mark <mamarcac@gmail.com>]

I am curious how others on this list manage their laptop batteries while using Debian.  From doing some research, there doesn't appear to be many (if any) software solutions for draining a laptop battery completely, before recharging.  So what do people on this list do - just keep running Debian on battery power until the battery totally dies, which sometimes doesn't give you ample time to shut down properly?  Or do you shutdown  when the battery reaches, say, 5%?

I just ordered a few laptop battery replacements off ebay and would like to manage them better than the ones I inherited, which were mostly dead by the time I got them.

Thanks for any ideas.

Mark