Fedora Users — ACPI implementation

I don't know if this is the "correct" forum for addressing this question/problem but I have been impressed by the responses and attitudes on this list. I have been using RedHat for three years and I have RH9 on my presario 2800 laptop. Works really fine, but I can't tell how much battery power is left when running on battery. I've tried to understand how to enable ACPI, but recompiling the kernel was the easiest part of the process to understand. I am not a newbie, but the process far surpasses my computing skills.

I've read that other distro(s) implement ACPI "right out of the box". Is there any chance for the upcoming release to have this feature enabled by default on the laptop install? Gus Degreef