There's been a lot of talk in the last couple weeks about the significant negative impact that Windows Vista will have on the environment. Almost 100% of this negative impact is the waste that it will generate by making millions of machines obsolete. The question becomes...would machines go obsolete as quickly if software people weren't coming out with fancy, but largely similar, operating systems all the time? The answer has been given to us by Linux: Yes...but not nearly as quickly. It turns out that machines that use Linux go obsolete roughly half as fast as Windows machines. And when they do go obsolete, it's because of hardware, not software (the switch from floppy drives to CD-Rs being a prime cause.) Thus, a world using Linux would be a world with half the computer waste (and, admittedly, halved sales for Dell and the rest.)
A widespread switch to Linux could prevent literally hundreds of thousands of tons of waste from going into landfills every year. Every computer not needed would prevent the use of 240 kg of fossil fuels. Spread that out over the 17.5 million computers that wouldn't be going obsolete every year and Linux could deliver the world a much more sustainable future. The good news is, the world looks like it's ready to upgrade from Windows. Most of Asia has switched <http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/55751.html>, as least in part, to Open Source Software (OSS); some countries, such as Indonesia, also think that Linux changes scofflaws into legit users. Cuba has reported a 500 percent increase in Linux<http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/2/19/7135>installation in two years; of course, they can't really get Windows due to export restrictions. Big Blue is giving a specific tutorial to switch from Windows to Linux<http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-roadmap.html>, and two out of three Dell customers are now demanding that *T*he Bird be pre-installed <http://wirelessisfun.com/2007/02/20/dell-powered-by-linux/>. -- Life is a game. Money is how we keep the score. iBlog @ http://blog.nishitshah.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
