I've been looking for a reliable way to test the power consumption among different desktop environments, but it seems Phoronix Test Suite just runs third-party binaries in the terminal instead of something closer to the real usage of a DE -- which makes me think that it's actually scary that we find any difference (i.e. https://www.phoronix.com/review/ubu-1704-desktops/4).
Does anyone know if there's a more realistic way of testing this, including UI tests, like file manager operations, connecting to a network, accessing programs from the main menu, minimizing/maximizing windows, alternating programs, etc)?
Thanks