[sclug] Who has the key to your Vista PC?

[ed]

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 22:20:12 +0000
Tom Chance <tom at acrewoods.net> wrote:

> A little hyperbole never hurt our chances of getting into the
> Saturday edition of The Guardian :-) But in general the wasteful
> disposal of old machines is a really awful trend, and whilst
> obviously a lot of people will just upgrade the software, the
> hardware requirements for the full glitz plus the DRM technologies
> that will lock out or tone down basic functionality without recent
> hardware is bound to drive a lot of upgrades. Computers are
> horrifically resource intensive to build and they're not usually
> recycled. The packaging, certainly an issue, pales in comparison.
> This is interesting to get some different angles on this issue:
> http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39285704,00.htm
> 
> As the PR stated, switch to Linux and there's simply no need. Plus
> you avoid the whole DRM debacle, promoting the notion that IT is
> there to enlarge our creative, communicative, business etc.
> opportunities in a sustainable society, not to drive profits in a few
> major corporations, abuse our consumer rights, damage the environment
> and deepen the brows of millions of PC users trying to upgrade!  

the manufacturing process is expensive, but why are we upgrading
anyway? why doesnt software become *MORE* efficient with time, rather
than less? seems daft to me, programmers get more skilful over time,
why don't they write with c more than with c#? surely it's better to
become more sophisticated rather than less.

probably boils down to money..

i'm sure we're all working in our favourite wm right now, for me, xfce,
loads of functionality. no beryl or anything running, i like it 2d, but
its and infinitely more efficient way to work than in explorer.exe,
which is limited.

i notice that vista does not seem to even have virtual desktops. that's
surely the single most liberating thing that the opensource desktop
delivers. unless the functionality has improved, why is this vista
release going ahead? the users will notice only that there are some
interface changes and the functionality really is just about the same as
it was in 2000.

i'd want my money back, that's for sure.

speaking of which,
http://www.s5h.net/linux_news_reader_article_9479.html
i wouldn't give up a month's scratch for it.

> > and... when are cd's going to be bio-degradable? that'd be neat. im
> > sure the average person has one or two spindles worth of cds.  
> 
> You can at least recycle CDs. I believe somebody quipped on Slashdot
> that Linux distros are probably responsible for a fair few coasters
> that used to be the next big thing to test ;-)  

yes i noticed that on /. or COLA.
 
> Regards,
> Tom [who no longer lives in the SC :( ]  

i hope your move went well.

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