Given that Earth Day came and went on April 22nd without hardly any notice in my office (I had suggested that perhaps we could all turn off our PC"s at the end of the day) it was indicative of the lack of  appreciation for the impact that North American habits have on our environment.

Previously Mark and I talked about 'Green Computing' based on the use of desktop virtualization and how it eliminates the need for many PC's, instead allowing for 1 PC to support multiple stations.  We also mentioned that in the Linux desktop space, LTSP can be used.

I work with IT professionals in several countries including Ecuador and Ghana, and it provides a stark contrast for our habits here in North America.  The need to 'supersize' our PC's creates an enormous amount of e-waste, which is either stashed away in our garages, improperly disposed of, or hopefully taken to a e-waste collection site.

A combination of hype marketing by PC manufacturers, the fast churn of new components, and OS's that require increasingly more resources lead to high consumer  purchasing.  As well, a lack of knowledge leads people to buy computers that have 10 times the resources they will ever need to simply web browse, send email or modify photos.

As there is a distinct lack by PC manufacturers to engage in end of life strategies for the tons of e-waste generated daily, what are the alternatives?  Countries around the world are passing legislation to ban the dumping of 2nd hand computers including Ecuador, Kenya, Uganda, and Pakistan.  One side of the coin, we applaud the efforts to stop the contamination and health effects brought on by the improper disposal of electronics after the 2nd life is done. on the other side, there are protests in Pakistan, that this movement has been fueled by likes of Intel in order to feed sales of netbooks and new PC's.

What role can Open Source or Linux play in this complicated game?  As most distros require far less resources to run well than any Windows install, the opportunity exists to extend the life cycle of refurbished PC's.  Trying to load and run even Windows XP on some of these machines is an exercise in frustration, where as Ubuntu or KDE would be a pleasure to run.

As these P4 machines arrive by the container load to many African countries from 'well meaning' charity organizations such as Camara who advertise that their refurbished PC's are installed in African schools to provide educational tools to some of the poorest people in the world, when in fact they sell the computers for 10 euros each and a margin is added by resellers who sell them to the schools typically for 40 to 50 euros, as well as charging for installation.

Also due to the almost non existent virus threat that is a benefit of running Linux, it allows for better use of the PC's since due to low bandwidth, anti-virus software is often not updated and machines become overrun and useless until someone re-formats them.  I can imagine how much time Internet cafe owners could save without having to re-format each and every machine each morning.

On a closing note, I interviewed Jhoanna Rosales, owner of Vert Monde (Green World) e-recyclers, recently established in Quito Ecuador.  She provided some great insight to the challenges which are faced by developing countries to educate consumers regarding e-waste.  The interview and show notes will be available in the coming days.