Buy! Buy! Buy! - into Openness (Linux Journal) [LWN.net]

Buy! Buy! Buy! - into Openness (Linux Journal)

Posted Apr 3, 2007 18:39 UTC (Tue) by wlach (subscriber, #23397)
Parent article: Buy! Buy! Buy! - into Openness (Linux Journal)

"It might mean replacing an ageing PC with a new Dell machine rather than upgrading the motherboard and adding more memory."

Isn't it a bit callous to be encouraging the generation of yet more e-waste in this day and age? I love Dell as much as the next guy, but I think I'll save my pennies for a few nice meals at my local restaurant or something.

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Buy! Buy! Buy! - into Openness (Linux Journal)

Posted Apr 3, 2007 21:01 UTC (Tue) by i3839 (guest, #31386) [Link] (1 responses)

Newer hardware is more power efficient than old one (if you don't go
for the raw performance tuned, insanely expensive "top of the line"
hardware). Same for TFT versus CRT.

As for the waste generated: It depends on how often you buy new hardware,
but if it isn't more often than, say, once every 5 years, it's really
nothing compared to your average garbage output. Besides, a lot can be
recycled. Better to worry about your car and airplane usage.

Of course, the above rationale won't give you a warm and fuzzy feeling,
like keeping the old and noisy, energy draining hardware would do.

(All that said, I find it strange that people update their hardware so
often without apparent reason...)

Buy! Buy! Buy! - into Openness (Linux Journal)

Posted Apr 4, 2007 13:45 UTC (Wed) by wlach (subscriber, #23397) [Link]

Aside from the fact that most garbage isn't nearly as toxic or difficult to dispose of as e-waste, I pretty much agree with your assessment. I still maintain that it's pretty silly to ask people to buy stuff they don't need for "Linux's sake".