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UK Greens Declare Vista Bad For Environment

Posted by kdawson on from the riding-the-hype dept.

schwaang writes "The UK Green Party says that Vista's DRM requirements will force many unnecessary hardware upgrades. Quoting: 'There will be thousands of tonnes of dumped monitors, video cards, and whole computers that are perfectly capable of running Vista — except for the fact they lack the paranoid lock down mechanisms Vista forces you to use. That's an offensive cost to the environment. Future archaeologists will be able to identify a "Vista Upgrade Layer" when they go through our landfill sites.'"

10 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Linux is bad for it too by suso · · Score: 5, Funny

    Linux users probably use more CD-Rs because versions of Linux have come out more frequently than versions of Windows. Think of how many Linux CD-Rs you've written since Windows XP came out years ago. Probably enough to make plastic to make a monitor casing?

    1. Re:Linux is bad for it too by ap0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Plus, since many people keep around old computers and throw Linux on them instead of properly disposing of them, they are sucking up power unnecessarily.

  2. Am I missing something? by Erwos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm kind of confused. You see, the laptop I bought a couple years ago, which apparently has no support for HDCP or any of those other copy-protection measures, actually runs Vista _just fine_. In fact, my desktop, which is a relatively old AthlonXP 2500+ machine, ALSO doesn't need to be upgraded, beyond maybe getting a little more memory.

    Look, DRM sucks. But DRM is no excuse to just start making up FUD. Vista is a hog, but blaming it all on DRM seems pretty inaccurate. Saying that everyone is going to start filling landfills just because their video card doesn't support HDCP seems like it's crossing over into "deliberately lying".

    --
    Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
    1. Re:Am I missing something? by kjart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Have you tried playing Blu-Ray on said laptop? HD-DVD? If you did, I think you'd find that you can't play it in high definition. It will downgrade the signal if you try to play it on your 2-year old Celeron, and will not play in full 1080p glory.

      I doubt that a two year old laptop will have a Blu-Ray drive, so no, I don't think it would be able to play one. People will have to upgrade to enjoy such things, but this has nothing to do with Vista.

      The bottom line is we aren't getting what we paid for.

      Yes, I would tend to agree, but I don't think this has anything to do with the features in Vista or any other OS for that matter. It is the content producers choice to use DRM on their content and they are rightfully to blame for it.

    2. Re:Am I missing something? by BFaucet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You should only have to upgrade your optical drive to view HD content. If you're running Vista, however, your older monitor that is missing the HDCP (that has absolutely NOTHING to do with quality) will have to be replaced despite it's full ability to display HD content. THAT is the concern. Not that you'll have to upgrade the whole laptop.

      A lot of folks like being able to upgrade only what's needed on their system. Vista is just making it so you'll need to upgrade stuff for the sake of getting their DRM shit working. Even if your system is already capable of doing all the whiz-bang stuff.

      Fuck it. I've been using Win2k/Ubuntu and have yet to have a reason to install XP. I doubt I'll feel the need to move to Vista. I'll just drop Win2k when things stop supporting it. Why should I drop $200 for something that'll require me to drop another $1000 for no new functionality?

      --
      -Derick
  3. stupid by otacon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Future archaeologists will be able to identify a "Vista Upgrade Layer" when they go through our landfill sites No we won't...the same reason we don't have a mainframe layer or black and white TV layer and the same reason we don't have a sword layer...people aren't going to buy new stuff to run software that does the same stuff...if you are going to buy a new computer and it comes with vista great, but people are really overestimating the market demand as far as the average PC user and even most 'advanced' (I use that term loosly) users.
    --
    In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
  4. Vista defaults to Standby, not Power off! by xaxa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The "Shutdown" icon in Vista no longer shuts down the computer -- it just puts it into standby! To shutdown properly you have to select the option from a tiny menu. This is going to waste a lot of energy, since people won't realise the difference.

  5. CompSci students - heads up! by Rufty · · Score: 5, Funny

    Free linux workstations coming soon to a dumpster near you!!!

    (Worked for my Masters, could work for you, too...)

    --
    Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
  6. Re:How many dgrees by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Vista's DRM will support High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) which will regulate what types of periferals (monitors, sound cards, video cards, etc.) that can show, play, encode, decode, etc. the content. For example, you may not be able to watch a movie (or only be able to watch it at lower definition) unless your video card monitor and sound card are all approved by Mircosoft. HDCP will only be supported by new components hence the need to upgrade. Monitors are paricularly harmful to the environment because they contain quite a bit of lead. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question678.h tm

  7. Re:Strange... by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Two year old isn't really old, is it? My main desktop is from beginning 2003 and it's still a nice machine.

    I found a perfectly functional P-IV 1.9GHz/512Meg RAM/40Gig HD/Dual-headed-matrox in the dumpster at the recycling centre. Booted it up, and a spyware infested Win2000 popped up in my face. That was fixed with a Linux install. How old is the machine I just described? It's perfectly capable of running WinXP. Vista, probably not all that much....

    People throw away the nicest machines if for them it "behaves broken" or "because a newer version is out".

    Those greenies may have a point, but I foresee golden times for dumpster divers....