From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 20 03:40:55 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC3A116A4CE for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 03:40:55 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp9.wanadoo.fr (smtp9.wanadoo.fr [193.252.22.22]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E65F43D2F for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 03:40:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr) Received: from me-wanadoo.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mwinf0909.wanadoo.fr (SMTP Server) with ESMTP id 72DDB240010C for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:40:54 +0100 (CET) Received: from pix.atkielski.com (ASt-Lambert-111-2-1-3.w81-50.abo.wanadoo.fr [81.50.80.3]) by mwinf0909.wanadoo.fr (SMTP Server) with ESMTP id 4EB3D2400109 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:40:54 +0100 (CET) X-ME-UUID: 20050120034054322.4EB3D2400109@mwinf0909.wanadoo.fr Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:40:51 +0100 From: Anthony Atkielski X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Message-ID: <98643558.20050120044051@wanadoo.fr> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <41EEF6A6.7040801@incubus.de> References: <1527489.20050119210646@wanadoo.fr> <41EEF6A6.7040801@incubus.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: FreeBSD I LOVE YOU X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 03:40:55 -0000 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