Recycle Old Computers by Repurposing Them, Not Retiring Them
- 2008.02.15
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In many, many ways I am preaching to the choir here. If you are an avid reader of Low End Mac (and who isn't?), I can't help but think that you are predisposed to hang on to your old computer until the last possible moment and even then pass it on to a family member or friend in need.
Now I don't know why Mac users are more sentimental than PC owners, but I will note that there doesn't seem to be a site called Low End PC on the web. [Editor's note: We tried, but nobody cared. dk] Perhaps it is just the huge number of hardware manufacturers on the PC side.
I don't really know why this is so,
but I know most of this site's readership will get a little misty eyed
when I mention that my student aide just dusted off one of our Mac Classics (in our little Mac
museum on campus) and started it up. Yep, it worked. And no, you can't
buy it from me - it's not mine.
Technology no longer marches on - at this point it's a sprint. Today's cutting edge computer becomes tomorrow's landfill.
If you're like me, you can't help but think that the old and not so old should be useful in some fashion. Most of our developed countries in this world have up to date hardware and software, but the third world lags behind us in this field as well as many others.
Does a third world classroom need the latest Dell, Apple, or Toshiba? Or do they just need a ethernet equipped box with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse? Do they need the latest processor and gigabytes of RAM, or do they just need a processor and some memory? Do they need tabbed browsing or just a browser? Do they need the latest edition of Microsoft Office, or do they just need a word processor? Do they need the One Laptop per Child, or do they just need laptops?
My wife's school district has a contract with Apple that allows her IT department to give her a new laptop every three years. So what happens to all the laptops that are turned back in? There is a booming market for used Apple iBooks, so I don't have many worries that the laptops are still being used by someone, somewhere and in some capacity.
We
used to have a bunch of old Power Mac 8600s and 7500s (remember SCSI?), and after
wiping and removing the hard drives, we sent them away. At the end of
this year, all our G3 desktops are going. Now G3s of this vintage can
run Mac OS X 10.2.8, and wouldn't they fit nicely in a Third World
country's school computer lab? The old G3s could provide a window to
the world that these children might not otherwise have.
I don't know if I feel that a government program....
Oh, my God! Hillary Clinton just materialized next to me! How did she get in here without a hall pass? Oh, I see . . . I said the words "government program" and . . . Oh, my God! Bill Clinton just materialized next to her! I better stop before Chelsea shows up.
And now back to reality. Public or private, shouldn't we have a "Computer Corps" full of retired computer maniacs traveling to the Third World with the computers that are not as advanced as the latest and greatest? That's a lot better than languishing in a landfill or being ripped apart by Chinese recyclers.
Remember to keep reusing that 'puter!
Recent Recycled Computing Columns
- Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, 07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
- The Mac Future: Snow Leopard, MobileMe, and the iPhone/iPod touch, 07.01. Apple will leave the PowerPC behind with OS X 10.6 while expanding the Mac's presence on the Internet and in your hand.
- Xubuntu on Pismo: It works, but it's not as easy as the Mac OS, 06.16. Linux runs well enough on this old PowerBook G3, but something as simple as switching to another WiFi network can trip you up.
- More in the Recycled Computing index.
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Mac Pro overclocking, Windependence with Darwine, Blu-ray for Macs, and more, Mac News Review, 07.04. Also more on running Leopard on non-Apple hardware, Ubuntu on a Mac mini, the first autofocus webcam with Zeiss optics for Macs, and more.
- Mac of the Day: 'WallStreet' PowerBook G3, May 1998 - WallStreet offered 3 screen sizes and CPU speeds from 233 to 292 MHz.
- List of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
- The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03. Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
- More links in our archive.
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