request | are you keeping (unsupported) hardware in use by running Plasma?

[Tomaz Canabrava]

Hello Joseph,

I yearly buy (or get by donation) old hardware to fix and distribute to my
students, that are from low income households

This year I got six donated laptops that would have been destroyed
otherwise, old hardware from 2005 - 2010, installed plasma and set it up
for school children and IT students.

I would thank publicly the company that donated those to me,  codethink.

And because plasma runs well in old hardware, this has been a breeze, I
have been doing this for years and will continue to do so.

Best

On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 at 10:02 Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss <joseph at kde.org>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> as part of the /Blauer Engel 4 FOSS/ project I am currently working on a
> handbook for eco-certifying desktop software, and the issues of
> software-driven hardware obsolescence and the "tsunami of e-waste" are a
> part of it.
>
> And I am wondering: Can the community provide a list of hardware they
> keep out of landfills by running KDE Plasma + their distribution of choice?
>
> Perhaps I can include some of this information in the handbook to
> underscore (again) how Free Software is more sustainable by providing
> *users* the choice of when to retire their hardware.
>
> So, if you have a moment, and you would like to help me make of list of
> hardware KDE continues to keep in use, can you send me the following?
>
> - Distro and desktop environment you use,
> - hardware information (RAM, etc.), and
> - bonus points if you know that other operating systems have
> discontinued support for that hardware (and if possible a link).
>
> Also, feel free to share any stories that may be relevant. For instance,
> I convinced my parents some years ago to switch to GNU/Linux when their
> previous OS was pushing an update that gave them the unfortunate news
> that "This device doesn’t meet minimum system requirements...". They did
> not want to buy new hardware since the hardware was still new and worked
> just fine. In fact, I believe the laptops were only 3 years old! I got
> this email from my mom recently, and I quote: "I am glad that I switched
> 95% of the time."
>
> Cheers, and thanks!
>
> Joseph
>
> Some information about e-waste (to be included in the handbook):
>
> - E-waste is considered the "fastest-growing waste stream in the world",
> with 44.7 million metric tons generated in 2016. [1] This is roughly
> equivalent to 4,500 Eiffel towers. [2]
>
> - In 2018, an estimated 50 million metric tons of e-waste was reported,
> motivating the UN to refer to a "tsunami of e-waste rolling out over the
> world". [3]
>
> - The numbers continue to rise: in 2021 an estimated 57 million metric
> tons of e-waste was generated globally, a ~25% increase in just 5 years
> from 2016. [4]
>
> - Less than 20% of e-waste is collected and recycled. [5]
>
> - Although it makes up only 2% of trash in landfills, e-waste
> contributes to almost 70% of the toxic waste there. [6]
>
> [1]
>
> https://www.weforum.org/reports/a-new-circular-vision-for-electronics-time-for-a-global-reboot/
> [2]
>
> https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Climate-Change/Documents/GEM%202017/Global-E-waste%20Monitor%202017%20.pdf
> [3] https://news.un.org/en/story/2015/05/497772
> [4] https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61350996
> [5] https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/international-e-waste-day-2021/
> [6]
>
> https://www.forbes.com/sites/vianneyvaute/2019/04/23/with-love-from-an-oregon-prison-how-eric-lundgren-is-going-to-help-you-recycle-all-your-electronics/
>
> --
> Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss
> BE4FOSS Project and Community Manager (KDE Eco)
> OpenPGP: 8FC5 4178 DC44 AD55 08E7 DF57 453E 5746 59A6 C06F
>
> ---
> KDE Eco: Building Energy-Efficient Free Software!
>
> Website: https://eco.kde.org
> Mastodon: @be4foss at floss.social
> Mailing list:
> https://mail.kde.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/energy-efficiency
> Matrix: https://webchat.kde.org/#/room/#energy-efficiency:kde.org
> Forum: https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=334
>
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