Comments for Linux Prevents Obsolescence: Could Reduce E-Waste by Millions of Tons of per Year at http://www.ecogeek.org , comment 1 to 55 out of 20 comments http://www.ecogeek.org Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:38:54 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-31216 If you want all the GNOME/KDE bells and whistles, then you'll need at least a recent Pentium system, and even then it may stall. - wholesale from china Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:13:11 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-19988 Retired recently, read Microsoft's warning on my machine at home, realized my company was no longer paying license fees, being law abiding, shut my computers off, got a friend to download Ubuntu for free from net, installed it, sweat bullets , it worked fine! Still using Ubuntu after many years. I simply do not buy products not supporting Ubuntu - their loss, not mine! For an older guy with limited resources, the old box works much better with Ubuntu, no more trips to the M$ dealer to get hard drive speeded up every few months, no more 'blue screen of death' episodes with data losses, no more virus problems, smooth trouble free computing and great happiness, Thank You to Ubuntu who ever you are! Poor kids at my church switching to Ubuntu on older cheaper second-hand boxes say it is better than not having computers at all. The Great Depression is upon us, give generously to the folks at the food banks, send old clothing to churches, we need it desperately and the future doesn't look to bright for the poorer among us either. Older computers with smaller Linux systems on them are still good for homework for the kids with less at home. Don't forget them, they may become the programmers of the future for America, so donate your old boxes, but stay legal, load them with Ubuntu first! Love our country and respect its laws, If you didn't pay for your OS, switch to the free and legal one, Ubuntu, and stay legal! - Uncle B Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:20:22 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-11451 I have tested Windows Vista vs Linux on my laptop : autonomy on Windows : about 1h45 autonomy on Linux : about 2h45 Reactivity : Windows : long startup, no reactivity Linux : speeder startup with the best reactivity ( 3D desktop effects activated ) Conclusion ? My work is faster ( consumation is optimised in time ) and consume less energy ( for the same work ) on Linux. Just Use It ! - FloMo Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:16:54 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-11301 When I started using computers and became fascinated with them, we were at the windows 3.0 stage. I got heavy into computers in the win98 stage. Ever since then, I have been the "Tech Guy" for all of my family and friends to call when the didn't understand something. I cannot tell you how many times I have installed and re-installed windows because the user was the computers worst enemy, or because windows became incapacitated from viruses. I always knew about linux in the back of my mind but never tried it. For years. One day, I got infested myself with viruses and had to reformat MY shit. I called a friend of mine bitching about my hassle and he told me to try mandrake. Well, I researched it and it turned out that mandrake, at the time, had just transitioned to mandriva so I downloaded and installed it on my laptop. I played around with it, loved it, BUT... some devices weren't recognized and I hated the dependency hassle. RPM sucked, So Then I tried ubuntu. Ubuntu recognized ALL of my LAPTOP peripherals (Imagine That) except my Dial-up modem (Linuxant, Greedy Fu*kers, but I didn't care). and APT-GET was a snap. I have been using ubuntu ever since, and in fact, as I type this post, I am doing the wonderful AUTOMATED UPGRADE from Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon. I will never go back to XP as primary. I do however run windows XP (dual Boot) because my Girlfriend likes Diner Dash and WINE has yet to implement Direct X easily. Linux ROCKS JC - xboxmods Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:40:41 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-7881 In the last month alone I've rescued a Pentium IV and two Pentium III's that had been tossed out on the street for trash pickup. Each computer had a very minor hardware problem that was easily fixed by going into my supply of computer "junque" parts and then give a fresh coat of Linux...and voila! Good as new computer! If the Wintards want to keep wasting their money buying new hardware to run their bloated Windows operating system let them...and we Linux users will not only have a perpetual supply of free as in freedom and free as in free beer software, but we'll have a perpetual supply of free hardware too! - Canuckistani Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:29:51 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-6822 I hate Linux...is very hard to work with I'm glade that I have alternatives. - residential drug treatment center Mon, 05 Nov 2007 02:12:13 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-5624 We could all learn from Linux based technology. I guess in any field there will be products with higher quality but it's our duty to take technology one step ahead. - Narconon Vista Bay Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:27:10 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-2193 ...at least a try at it: Facts: - Windows has the advantage that there is _one_ manufacturer with _one_ distribution. - This full control makes it easier for 3rd parties to develop and deploy e.g. driver updates. - MS offers a complete Windows Driver Kit, and "qualification programs" to make sure a driver works with the OS. - Linux on the other hand, offers the chance to _solve_ a problem you might have with the core OS. Much more than you can ever with Windows, because with Linux you can look up the OS source and have it fixed if necessary. (And if you cannot do it yourself you can find or hire someone who can. Guaranteed.) - OpenOffice vs. MS Office is more or less a matter of "being used to". I now work for a company that almost exclusively (*1) uses OpenOffice, and after years of using MS Office I found little I could not do almost the same way in Open-O as in MS-O. Some things actually work better (e.g. "Save as PDF", only to name one). (*1)The only reason Open-O is not exclusively used are _customers_ sending us documents, which sometimes must be converted using MS tools. Who will be able to read these documents in, say, ten years? - Landfills are certainly not a problem for the U.S., as there is also not the matter of fuel consumption (for manufacture and transport). The rest of the world might think otherwise. - Correct: 'sole' Linux-users are currently mostly people who are experienced and/or conscientious enough to do so. - Intel/AMD and Microsoft have both benefitted from the ever growing spiral of OS demands vs. new hardware developments. It will be interesting to see if this can be kept up at the same pace with the new "ecology" trend. t.b.c. - QBert Fri, 04 May 2007 22:21:18 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-2008 http://ada.bydgoszcz.pl/movies-anal-sex.html | movies anal sex | [URL=http://ada.bydgoszcz.pl/movies-anal-sex.html]movies anal sex[/URL] | - lola Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:14:37 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1831 OK - I have an old Celeron with one G hard disk and 96m RAM as a desktop at home. I only use it for internet and some office stuff. It is too weak to do this with XP since SP2 and anti-virus basically killed it. I am going to have to buy a new PC if I saty with MS but I want to see if instaling Linux could save me the troble. I know nothing much about computers or how to install an OS. So, is there a Linux solution for me? - Philosophe Sat, 31 Mar 2007 10:34:50 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1695 [quote]Go Linux! But: Is this causation or correlation? Could it be that the majority of people with Linux tend to be the kind of people that don't upgrade as often? Could it be that owing to the greater number of games on the Windows platform (requiring high end hardware) means that users need to upgrade more. Don't get me wrong, I dig linux, but the interpretation of the results of the report appear specious to me. Daniel [/quote] No... While the latest version of most distributions needs pretty up-to date hardware to run. More so than winXP (but certainly less than vista), you can still install a current distribution on a P3 with 500mhz and 256mb of ram, and it will run as fast - you just need to use a more lightweight desktop environment. Ubuntu has made great efforts with Xubuntu... So you don't need to set up anything, you don't need to know anything, and you can still run the latest ubuntu on "old" hardware. But it's still the same system, it supports the same programs, and the same hardware! In windows you can't change the desktop enviroment, so this might be a little harder to understand. A linux system works more like windows did when you still had it running on top of dos, and windows was just a program that ran on dos. (kind of) - oskar Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:01:41 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1686 I've been using Zenwalk Linux on several machines in my home for over a year now - including 1 P1 with 128mb of RAM. It works perfectly well, which is a sight better than it behaved with the version of Windows 98 it was running previously. Unlike Puppy or DSL, Zenwalk is a full-featured linux distribution that just happens to have the added benefit of being light on resources. Every once in a while I have to edit a text configuration file - but not often, and less often with every release. Just wanted to point out that there are many distribution alternatives, and that while some of the most popular are also the most resource-hungry, if you dig around a bit you're likely to find a distribution that will suit whatever your particular needs are. - Phil Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:13:42 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1684 Very good article, for a very good subject. And the fact that more and more countries are switching to Linux is good and encouraging. There's just one thing : "And, these days, it's as simple, as usable, and almost as pretty, as OSX [...] anyhow." Lolol :) Well, it depends of course of the person using it. Sure, for someone loving to ditch into computers and sofware it's true. But for almost everyone else, it's not. There're so many people out there who doesn't care how their computers works so long that it does what they need it to do: researchers, graphists, musicians, businessman, you name it. For all those people, who I think do represent the big majority of computer users, Linux is NOT ready to be their home computer operating system. And Vista is neither, that's for sure :) But you cannot compare simplicity and usability of Linux and Mac OS X. Ask this to any researcher on CHI (Computer-Human Interaction), and they will laught. Ask my grand-mother to boot, surf, read/send emails, look at her photos on a linux and you will kill her. It's already hard enough for her on Mac OS X ! :) And about prettyness... well, taste is a personal matter, that's for sure. But a fact is that all Apple products are signed by a team of well-known and professionally recognized designers. And it's the prefered environments of all creatives people. Now, sure, that's not a proof, because there cannot be any proof, taste is a personnal matter. But that's clearly an indication. K. - Kyle Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:39:04 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1683 linux is a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - benyazid Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:47:07 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1681 Go Linux! But: Is this causation or correlation? Could it be that the majority of people with Linux tend to be the kind of people that don't upgrade as often? Could it be that owing to the greater number of games on the Windows platform (requiring high end hardware) means that users need to upgrade more. Don't get me wrong, I dig linux, but the interpretation of the results of the report appear specious to me. Daniel - Daniel Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:29:46 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1677 As john posted above, keeping stuff out of landfill isn't the only benefit. The production of new PCs uses tremendous amounts of fossil fuels, water and hazardous substances. With increasing availability of renewable electricity (wind, wave, solar and hydro) the ongoing eco-costs of running a system can be mitigated by switching to an energy supplier that uses renewables. The laptop I'm typing this on right now is a Toshiba Portege 3480CT, with P3-500 and 192 MB of RAM. It was made in 1999 or 2000, I think and running Ubuntu with the Enlightenment 17 window manager, I get a speedy desktop system and with eye-candy too. Before this laptop I used a Compaq Deskpro EN with P3-550 and again 192 MB of RAM, and I got great performance. Remember kids, that these systems were blazingly fast when they came out...! It's not physics or your perception of time that has changed... it's the bloat in your fat operating systems and applications. It's a crime that so many millions of good computers are dumped every year. - Harry Hexagon Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:45:20 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1676 One advantage of using Linux is that it is possible to deploy low power thin clients. Applications run on the server and accept input and display their output on the thin client display. how to: [url]http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/LTSP_Server[/url] power savings: [url]http://www.cutterproject.co.uk/Technical/power_consumption.php[/url] - sam Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:36:29 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1675 Or you could just run Windows XP :)- Gnome crawls with less than 512mb of memory. In my experience, Vista run sparingly is lighter on resources. Sorry, dudes- this is a loaded argument. You could run legacy Windows, which is technically more supported- get all your drivers online (no CD usage) - and continue to truck on 10 years into the product's life cycle- and you'll even have a smoother and nicer kernel and interface. The Windows XP kernel, technologically, is years ahead of linux still. - Alex N Thu, 08 Mar 2007 20:48:01 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1674 Once all you MS idiots try Vista, you will be disappointed and move to OSX or Linux anyways. And for the record, Linux supports more hardware than Vista. - dan Thu, 08 Mar 2007 20:41:54 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/green-software/459#comment-1668 I've tried Fedora Core, Suse, and Ubuntu and I have not liked any of them. I tried to see what the big deal about Linux was, and I see that it's not really all that warranted at this time. The biggest issue I had was application compatibility and plug-in issues. I could not get flash player to install without going into the command line, that's ridiculous. Tried to run Windows Apps under Wine, forget that. I like to game on computers and Linux doesn't do that, therefore I can't use it for pretty much anything. I tried it for work tasks and those weren't quite done right either. I've used MS Office and OpenOffice.org, as a matter of fact, for 3 weeks I switched that on all of the computers without telling anyone. I even named the desktop shortcuts Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc. People began complaining to me for templates, spell check, and stuff like that. I noticed that people weren't getting as much done, so I switched back to MS Office. People responded to that really well. Linux is nice as a second or bargain-bin OS but as a primetime OS for the regular consumer, it's far from being ready. Any by the way, I use Vista presently with IE7, and it hums along faster than XP w/SP2 with IE6. - Eric Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:16:59 +0100