Hello Joseph, I yearly buy (or get by donation) old hardware to fix and distribute to my students, that are from low income households
This year I got six donated laptops that would have been destroyed otherwise, old hardware from 2005 - 2010, installed plasma and set it up for school children and IT students. I would thank publicly the company that donated those to me, codethink. And because plasma runs well in old hardware, this has been a breeze, I have been doing this for years and will continue to do so. Best On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 at 10:02 Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > as part of the /Blauer Engel 4 FOSS/ project I am currently working on a > handbook for eco-certifying desktop software, and the issues of > software-driven hardware obsolescence and the "tsunami of e-waste" are a > part of it. > > And I am wondering: Can the community provide a list of hardware they > keep out of landfills by running KDE Plasma + their distribution of choice? > > Perhaps I can include some of this information in the handbook to > underscore (again) how Free Software is more sustainable by providing > *users* the choice of when to retire their hardware. > > So, if you have a moment, and you would like to help me make of list of > hardware KDE continues to keep in use, can you send me the following? > > - Distro and desktop environment you use, > - hardware information (RAM, etc.), and > - bonus points if you know that other operating systems have > discontinued support for that hardware (and if possible a link). > > Also, feel free to share any stories that may be relevant. For instance, > I convinced my parents some years ago to switch to GNU/Linux when their > previous OS was pushing an update that gave them the unfortunate news > that "This device doesn’t meet minimum system requirements...". They did > not want to buy new hardware since the hardware was still new and worked > just fine. In fact, I believe the laptops were only 3 years old! I got > this email from my mom recently, and I quote: "I am glad that I switched > 95% of the time." > > Cheers, and thanks! > > Joseph > > Some information about e-waste (to be included in the handbook): > > - E-waste is considered the "fastest-growing waste stream in the world", > with 44.7 million metric tons generated in 2016. [1] This is roughly > equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel towers. [2] > > - In 2018, an estimated 50 million metric tons of e-waste was reported, > motivating the UN to refer to a "tsunami of e-waste rolling out over the > world". [3] > > - The numbers continue to rise: in 2021 an estimated 57 million metric > tons of e-waste was generated globally, a ~25% increase in just 5 years > from 2016. [4] > > - Less than 20% of e-waste is collected and recycled. [5] > > - Although it makes up only 2% of trash in landfills, e-waste > contributes to almost 70% of the toxic waste there. [6] > > [1] > > https://www.weforum.org/reports/a-new-circular-vision-for-electronics-time-for-a-global-reboot/ > [2] > > https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Climate-Change/Documents/GEM%202017/Global-E-waste%20Monitor%202017%20.pdf > [3] https://news.un.org/en/story/2015/05/497772 > [4] https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61350996 > [5] https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/international-e-waste-day-2021/ > [6] > > https://www.forbes.com/sites/vianneyvaute/2019/04/23/with-love-from-an-oregon-prison-how-eric-lundgren-is-going-to-help-you-recycle-all-your-electronics/ > > -- > Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss > BE4FOSS Project and Community Manager (KDE Eco) > OpenPGP: 8FC5 4178 DC44 AD55 08E7 DF57 453E 5746 59A6 C06F > > --- > KDE Eco: Building Energy-Efficient Free Software! > > Website: https://eco.kde.org > Mastodon: @[email protected] > Mailing list: > https://mail.kde.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/energy-efficiency > Matrix: https://webchat.kde.org/#/room/#energy-efficiency:kde.org > Forum: https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=334 >
