FreeBSD I LOVE YOU

[Anthony Atkielski]

Matthias Buelow writes:

MB> And where do you think would they "find" this "junk PC"?

The first world could send it to them, instead of throwing perfectly
good PCs into a landfill.

MB> Don't you think that's a bit condescending?

No, I think it's pretty realistic.  Right now a lot of completely
usable PCs go into the trash.  Why not put them back to work instead?
The most obvious way to use them is for people and organizations that
cannot afford to buy new machines, and the Third World contains more
such people and places than the First World.  It makes a lot more sense
than trying to sell them Microsoft Longhorn at $400 a pop and requiring
them to spend $1000 each on PCs powerful enough to run that OS.  Of
course, in some countries they just pirate the software, but they still
need hefty hardware to run it, and that cannot be pirated.

MB> They can perfectly well buy new machines at local retailers (there
MB> are some in bigger cities) for a fraction of the money that it would
MB> take you to ship'em your old rustbucket.

I wasn't suggesting doing this on an individual basis, but in a more
organized way.  Additionally, they can recycle their _own_ machines in
this way, since for every person with a PC today in the Third World,
there are 100 or more without one.  If you have an OS that will run on
anything, you can continue to use the older PCs indefinitely.  If
everyone has to run Windows XP SP2, then the older PCs will just gather
dust, even though many people still may not have a PC.

All of this applies in the developed countries, too, of course.  Why
throw away two-year-old PCs when you can use them for something else?
Indeed, I wonder where all these PCs are going, since people "upgrade"
constantly.  You'd think there'd be a huge used-PC market, but I hardly
ever hear of anyone buying a used PC (and if one is running bloated OS
or application software, sometimes only the fastest thing on the block
will do).

-- 
Anthony