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Re: [LUG] Microsoft Partner Magazine - Go Green article...

 

Rob Beard wrote:

> Buy a new PC, dump your old one as it won't be powerful enough to run 
> Windows Vista with all it's new pointless fancy effects.  We make money 
> from charging for something you don't need and the IT companies make 
> money by selling another pointless upgrade.

And the environment benefits by the huge increase in old computers and
monitors as people replace it with newer ones :-(

> "The second way to get greener is by recycling.  Short PC life cycles 
> means that millions of working PCs are trashed each year.  However many 
> charities can refurbish old PCs and distribute then to people who'll 
> benefit from a cheap computer, even if it's behind the cutting edge."

Short life cycles made worse by certain operating systems demanding an
almost exponential increase in power to run (at any usable rate) and by
selling all there customers up the "you must upgrade" path forcing
hardware upgrades to boot.

> 
> What they don't mention is that a lot of these PCs may end up running 
> Linux, and that in the end, they are only being replaced due to 
> pointless forced operating system upgrades from Microsoft.


Exactly, as linux distros can be tailored for the available processor
power, you can have all the silly bells and whistles if you like or a
very bare system. In fact a fully graphical system seems to require
considerable less processor ommph.

Lets also mention that many of these PCs are being sent to 3rd world
counties and loaded with linux like the Camroon project that is
mentioned from time to time on the list.

> 
> How I see it, if Microsoft was so fussed about saving energy, why did 
> they go down the usual route with the XBOX 360, triple core CPU's, and a 
> hefty graphics chipset rather than doing what Nintendo did - shrinking 
> the component sizes in the Wii and making it ultra economical?

Are any US companies, or even western companies at all interested in the
environment anyway?

> 
> Good old Microsoft, always able to spin things their way.

I only wish we had 1% of the ability of Microsoft marketing division, i
would be rich by now :-(


-- 
Robin Cornelius
http://www.byteme.org.uk

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