Greens: Vista means more dead PCs

megamaced

megamaced

Geek Geek Geek!
The Green Party has claimed that Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, could lead to a mass upgrade of PCs that will result in old machines being dumped in landfill sites....

Rather than opting for another proprietary OS, the Green Party argues that businesses should look into free software alternatives — such as Linux — as they don't require high-specification hardware.
Click to expand...

More @ ZDNET UK
 
Haha, yeah.

Coincidently, there was a computer dumped on my road this morning. I put it to one side and hopefully it will still be there when I finish work. I gave it a quick look over and I think it's from the original pentium era. Could make a good Linux server!

That's the second computer that's been dumped near where I live. :)
 
You know what the problem would be with people that really don't know anything of a computer (that don't know what a mouse is)?. They pay $800 for a new pc for Vista. But they only need to buy some new RAM for $100. So you dump a pc, and buy a new one for $700 extra :P
 
lol people never dump any thing like that over here hahaha wish every 1 dumps all their computers in the road lol
i will invite u guys if they do so lol
 
I might post a notice in my local shop:

"Upgrading to Vista? Going to dump your old computer? Contact XXXXX XXX XXX for someone to take it off your hands free of charge!"

Then I'd just run lots of PC's in my room at Uni :D
 
I really don't understand why some people choose to buy these new expensive PCs because all they are going to be doing to browsing the internet. Most casual users barely make use of what their current XP machines have to offer.

Honestly, most people don't need anything more then a gigahertz PC w/ 256MB RAM. Vista is giving them 100's of new features they will never ever use.
 
megamaced said:
I really don't understand why some people choose to buy these new expensive PCs because all they are going to be doing to browsing the internet. Most casual users barely make use of what their current XP machines have to offer.
Click to expand...

For the same reason people buy a sports car for their only vehicle...or ignorance and lack of research.
 
Well.....these days computers have become a way of showing people that they have money..i mean some guys like to boast about their 3.6GHz processor and their precious 512mb 3D card which they never use for anything

and windows vista will be another item in their items list

and some people think that having the latest gadgets and the latest software on the market will make them cool

because most of our guys wanna be cool i mean some ppl will do anythin thing to be cool
so of-course..they will go and throw their old computer for a new and expensive computer with windows vista

anyway i will stick to xp. when i think that xp cant handle what i do lol then i will think about using another os
 
Nice article Megamaced. This whole situation reminds me of the Parable of the Broken Window. Basically, before the Vista upgrade you have a working PC which runs well enough and generally does what you want it to. If you buy a new PC to run basically a more bloated version of the same thing, you've basically re-purchased two things you already had. That money could have gone someplace else, supported your local economy and got you some nice things. Not only that, but PCs contain toxic components which are very bad to put in landfills. So let's get the facts straight about the Vista "upgrade":

  • Waste of your money
  • Hurts local economy
  • Harms environment

That old PC could still be put to use as a very good Linux PC, since Linux uses less resources than XP. It would save you money which you could put to better use someplace else. And if Linux runs faster on your old hardware than XP did, imagine how much faster it would run on hardware built for Vista. Vrooom.
 
Maybe it's just me, but the only thing I want from Vista is DX10. Windows XP isn't perfect (and no OS is), but Vista gives me no compelling reason to upgrade. It feels like blackmail if you want DX10 you have to get Vista. Oh, and those DX10 games, like Crysis, don't require DX10. They will look prettier with it, but that's it.

I still play Deus Ex, Unreal, and UT 99, and it's not because of the graphics.

To me Vista is the NT5 family's ME: overhyped and underwhelming. Hard to say anything about the stability part right now, but it's got the bloat part down pat. If Vista actually delivered what it promised initially, it'd be a very compelling upgrade. As it is, I'm sticking with XP for now, and hopefully I can do so until MS comes out with Vista's successor.
 
Not just for you UK'ers. The US too. I hear about dumpster diving, but that's if the company doesn't have a compactor.
 
I haven't even tried Vista yet but the hardware requirements alone put me off. Vista requires state of the art hardware to fundamently do the same thing as Windows XP. Vista's minimum hardware requirements are something in the region of a 1 gigahertz processor with 512MB of RAM and a DirectX capable graphics card with 128MB of memory. That's the absolute minimum. Now I am not stupid. I would go so far as to say Vista's recommended hardware requirements should be treated as a bare minimum. If I had never used Linux before then I would probably accept Vista's hardware hunger as 'normal'. But the fact is Linux already has everything Vista has to offer and doesn't require the cutting edge hardware. Beryl, for example, can produce better eye candy on an old nVidia TNT! In fact, i've run Kubuntu on an old P2 333MHz laptop with 256MB of RAM. What does that say about Vista? Bad programming? Appauling waste of resources?

That being said, I am sure Vista is more secure and productive over it's predecessor, but with such a hefty price tag (especially for us Brits) I fail to justify the upgrade. I plan to visit PC World over the weekend and give Vista a try on one of their demo computers. But I can be pretty sure I won't be leaving the store with a copy of Vista in my pocket. :)
 
Sniper and myself are trying to see if Microsoft will send a copy of Vista Ultimate for review. I would like to try it out and see for myself what the deal is, as word of mouth doesn't always translate into better.
 
All Hail the Green Party!

Seriously considering voting for these guys (when i can!), there environmentally active & supportive or alternative OS's (even if it is just because they use less resources, and not any of the other benefits).

I find starting with the words "Its evil" is a good way to describe Vista, and then go into DRM, people hate the idea of there machine telling them NO! (for what they should be able to do, or even what they shouldn't)
 
I thougt that bill gates declared that drm wasn't a good solution. Why does he still integrate drm into his OS? drm = you buy a car in the US, then you'll drive to Canada. Suddenly at the border of Canada, the car stops working. 'You'll need to buy a new car for this contry' :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top