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"throwaway" devices"throwaway" devicesPosted Sep 15, 2011 11:19 UTC (Thu) by ndye (subscriber, #9947)Parent article: LPC: Coping with hardware diversity
My miserly side hurts thinking of "throwaway" devices in landfills: As a device ages, the customer learns the vendor has no interest in the holder of the physical property amortizing retail cost over time. (Case in point: Verizon leaving my HTC Incredible at Android 2.3).
Declining the "cult of the new" leaves one searching for solutions to stretch a device's useful life past the sales department's intent. FLOSS promises hope, and success amortizes other costs, including the environmental costs of manufacturing.
I don't want Linux surrendering those goals, especially where the vendors intentionally profited by FLOSS shortening their development cycle.
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"throwaway" devices Posted Sep 15, 2011 12:45 UTC (Thu) by linusw (subscriber, #40300) [Link]
I actually have an aversion against the entire "product lifecycle" concept. But me being a person still using the Commodore 64 from time to time I might be some exception.
But it's worth noting that systems like the Amiga and Atari ST which are considered landfill items in many places have excellent support in Linux 3.0, because people still love to hack them.
Whereas a comparatively new architecture like arch/cris isn't even compiling anymore if the linux-next autobuilds give a true impression.
So there is some tension between a hacker's view of that 1980's piece of hardware as a nice thing to hack on when they retire, and the general silicon industry's concept of hardware as something that has a planned support/life cycle, after which they pull the plug.
"throwaway" devices Posted Sep 18, 2011 9:12 UTC (Sun) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] I have the same innate feeling of waste when a piece of hardware I paid for goes to the landfill. But then I apply logic, and I realize that our most valuable resources are ones that don't occupy landfills when they are spent, and those are the resources we're trying to save by abandoning hardware to the landfill.In other words, the device that is amortized over two years and then goes to the landfill really is less wasteful than the one that is amortized over 10 years. The simplest application I find of this is the old equipment that still works, but I send to the landfill and replace because the cost of disposal and replacement is less than the cost of the extra electricity it takes to run it. But it also works for more complex resources like human labor and discomfort.
"throwaway" devices Posted Sep 20, 2011 14:53 UTC (Tue) by njwhite (subscriber, #51848) [Link]
I couldn't agree more.
One of the things I really love about FLOSS is how it can keep on supporting hardware well after its manufacturers have moved on. My main system was designed to be a short-lived netbook for casual users to enjoy for a year or two; I've used it for four (having had to replace various cheaply made components along the way), and expect to have it for a good while to come.
These 'throwaway' devices can remain useful or be repurposed for long after their manufacturers have moved on with free software; if they rely on lots of crappy non-upstream code, that's a lot tougher. A focus on upstream is important, even if not so directly for initial quality of the shipped product.
"throwaway" devices Posted Sep 20, 2011 16:09 UTC (Tue) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]
Agreed. I had a 4GB SSD netbook that I used for around a year or so before the 512MB of RAM and 900MHz Atom became too much of a pain to use for development. I ended up throwing a F13 or F14 Sugar install onto it and donating it to Kids on Computers.
"throwaway" devices Posted Sep 22, 2011 14:19 UTC (Thu) by fuhchee (subscriber, #40059) [Link]
"I ended up throwing a F13 or F14 Sugar install onto it and donating it to Kids on Computers."
Do you have a sense of whether the recipients have been using the thing, or whether it was thrown away / regifted?
"throwaway" devices Posted Sep 22, 2011 15:29 UTC (Thu) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]
Unfortunately, no. I'll see if I can track it down though.
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