[rescue] Sun / Linux LX50 -Rebuttal

[vraptor at employees.org]

On 19 Sep 2002, Steve Pacenka wrote:

>
>So what external events are going to shock the computer industry into
>socially efficient behavior?  There are currently no market rewards to a
>company that sells computers that would definitely last ten years.  Or
>to a company that would guarantee that their software will be supported
>that long.  (Microsoft will not let such a software company survive that
>long, and they'll certainly not do that themselves since they are
>greedily addicted to a short-interval upgrade cycle.)

Part of the reason that I continue to be an Apple user is that I
*don't* have to have the latest and greatest to stay abreast of
things.  My Pismo (G3/400) with simply a memory expansion handles
OS X fine.  I put in a bigger HD, and cannistered the original
in a FW case for sneaker net.  My beige G3/300, also with memory
added, and USB/FW combo card is also decent on OS X, though a
video card would give me the added benefit of running games,
which I'd like to do.  I got the Pismo by trading in a 5300.
I paid my last company $200 for the beige and added about $80 for
the memory, and $100 (retail, didn't want to wait) for the USB/FW.

Both of these computers' age, were they x86 boxes, would make
anything other than Win 95 or 98 a nightmare.  And 98 would
still creep along.

>I have some hopes for government fees that try to build in disposal
>costs into the up-front sale cost.  Something that is designed to be
>discarded or fall apart into toxic junk after three years deserves a
>$500 fee up front as a deterrent.  Unfortunately this does nothing about
>Microsoft in the driving seat.  Maybe as part of the monopoly penalty
>their applications source code ought to be dumped into the public domain
>after three years, so others can keep it alive and make it interoperate
>better with the free world if M$ will not.

Keep your eyes on California wrt the recycling cost being levied.
Unfortunately, since they are talking about making it applicable
only to computers manufactured in CA, it's likely that in the
short term, it will have a negative impact on CA economics.

=Nadine=