hardware recycling

[Colin McGregor]

--- Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Colin McGregor wrote:
> > No, we seem to have hit something of a plateau for
> now. Hardware is NOT being rendered obsolete as
> > quickly as times gone by. So what if the newest
> CPU chip will make MS-Word (or other MS trash) run
> 50%
> > faster, it will not make a secretary type any
> faster, a fact well understood by most businesses.
> Thus
> > organizations like the one I am with have been
> seeing fewer donations.
> >   
> I've noticed this as well. It seems that desktop
> systems -- especially 
> those not doing multimedia -- long ago outran their
> operators' ability 
> to use them.

The heavy duty gamers are, as they have been for many
years, the ones pushing the hardware envolope. Even
the multimedia people take a back seat to the
gamers...

> I also agree with Colin's comments about Vista,
> which will obsolete a 
> lot of computers that most people will instinctively
> know have lots of 
> life left.

How many firms are still running Windows 98? It will
take a LOT to convince businesses to move to Vista,
and unless there is a MASSIVE improvement in features
(as happened when Microsoft went from Windows 3.1 to
Windows 95) the change over will be slow (glacial?).

> Is this an opportunity for Linux? Or will people
> will hang onto XP even 
> longer than they held onto Win95 and Win98? (I don't
> know anyone who 
> held onto NT.)

I expect XP will be around for a LONG time.

> > What is also happening is that new hardware costs
> for a decent performing new boxes is dropping, so
> the residual value on old boxes has been going
> through the floor.
> >   
> So does that mean that slightly old but perfectly
> functioning OS-less 
> PCs are available at REALLY cheap rates? I assumed
> that many donators to 
> places like Reboot have already written off their
> gear and are thankful 
> for anything they get. What's the going rate for a
> vanilla P3 system 
> with decent video?

Well, there is still some discussion inside the
Toronto Free-Net about prices we will be offering used
boxes at. So I am not willing to comment on that other
than to say not much for a complete package, PC,
monitor, keyboard, mouse...

> > Yes, this past weekend I was helping sort through
> over 1,500 PCs donated to the Toronto Free-Net
> separating
> > out the not-so-good from the total trash (there
> were some '386SX boxes and '486 boxes among the
> machines
> > donated, machines whose value can be measured in
> the cents per lb. the Free-Net can get from a scrap
> metal
> > dealer...).
> Do you do like Portland's FreeGeek, extracting the
> easily-separated 
> precious metals? They make significant coin by
> performing the first 
> phase of the scrap/salvage operation. Volunteers get
> free PCs in return 
> for contributing time.

No.

> > Things MAY change post the release of MS Vista,
> assuming MS can convince (do a snow job on?) a large
> > number of firms that the hardware demands of Vista
> are worth meeting. I doubt even MS's marketing
> department
> > can convince enough firms to go to Vista to make a
> major change. As stands, for the foreseeable future
> > hardware recycling is a bad business, one to stay
> away from and a business I want out of...
> >   
> I still really wish that someone could figure out
> how to tap the 
> marketable potential of these boxes as LTSP thin
> clients.

I've set-up LTSP boxes, and I am not sure how to make
such set-ups work well in places where you don't have
a dedicated IT department (which is most small
businesses). That in my books is the killer market...

Colin McGregor

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