Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Chorlton's Big Green Festival

[green h]

When looking at a PC's lifecycle energy cost, what's been termed embodied energy plays a big part. There's been quite a lot written about it. Here are a coupe of links that may be of  interest :

 

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/06/embodied-energy-of-digital-technology.html

 

http://www.mech-elec.org.uk/for/sustainability/why_sustainability/embodied_energy.cfm

 

Basically, to properly considering the 'green' aspect of PCs, we need to include energy consumed over their entire life (including manufacture) and the effects of disposal. It would seem that when it comes to hi-tech equipment the greenest thing possible is to reduce consumption, much more so than with most other items the average person will buy or use. As is pointed out in various articles on this topic, this is because of the immense amount of energy expended during manufacture. It's also because there are some _really_ nasty things that often end up in landfill.

 

How does this fit in with free software? All of the reasons stated in emails so far plus a few more (and I'm sure there are others too).

 

One interesting aspect is not necessarily how efficient things are (many accounts have Windows 7, for example, running really well on older hardware) but relates to licensing software: To extend the life of a computer, it's often necessary to re-install software, particularly the OS and often certain key apps. This might be due to corruption or, increasingly, because the machine's been data-wiped.

 

To do this _legally_ would often mean a re-purchase of the OS or these key apps. Unless you use free software.

 

The experience I have of providing second-user IT equipment is that even pretty green people need to have a compelling commercial case. Compelling: ie the same or better, for noticeably less money. All of the above, coupled with Moore's law, actually sits up really well for free software. A side-effect of Moore's law, when coupled with the new IT equipment supply model is that, as everyone wants dual core machines, 3GHz P4 PCs are now available for around £100: Less than half the cost of a fairly bog-standard new PC with a 'basic' version of OS.

 

Anyway, soap box aside, maybe this could be a subject for a talk-plus-discussion at one of the FSUK-Manchester meet-ups, with a view to getting together some material to show the green side of free software?

 

Des

----- Original Message -----

From: Leslie I'Anson

To: Dave Page

Cc: address@hidden

Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 5:26 PM

Subject: Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Chorlton's Big Green Festival

Some excellent points Dave. I'll take them along on the day and if I
find the time will prepare a small handout.

Many thanks,
Leslie

On 15/01/2010, Dave Page <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Friday 15 January 2010 16:32:30 Luke Taylor wrote:
>
>> Surely Gnu/Linux being
>> slightly more power efficient than windows doesn't count?
>
> There's the argument that embedded Linux is significantly more efficient
> than
> other embedded operating systems on small hardware.
>
> There's also an argument that GNU/Linux runs better on older hardware,
> prolonging its life - I know that I have old Pentium etc. systems which are
> still perfectly usable with GNU/Linux.
>
> There's a counter-argument that new hardware is more power-efficient so is
> environmentally better; but there's a counter-counter-argument that that
> increased efficiency is offset by the energy cost of building the new
> hardware. I've not really seen any good full-lifecycle comparisons, and
> would
> be very interested.
>
> Dave
> --
> Dave Page <address@hidden>
> Jabber: address@hidden
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Fsuk-manchester mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsuk-manchester
>


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