[GTALUG] Voting with our Dollars on Computing Future that Respects our Freedom.

[Stewart C. Russell]

On 2016-08-27 07:30 PM, Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
>
> If we are into playing mine is bigger ^h^h^h^h^h older then yours...
> I have a multibus NS16032 in my basement with an ST-506 multibus interface.

Uh, this isn't a game you want to play with Hugh around ...

I'm pleasantly surprised that the EOMA68 was funded, as it looked mighty
shaky going into the last few hours. I wish the future owners all the
happiness a new computer can bring.

Marketing a computer as entirely open, however, is going to be a tough
sell. It's very hard to get people to care about abstractions like
climate change or software freedom. What people do respond to is quality
of life changes. If the EOMA68 is truly a computer that will never die
because a manufacturer stopped updating a driver, that needs to be in
big letters in the first line of their pitch.

I'm unconvinced entirely on the argument that because (in theory) you
can repair an EOMA68, it's a “green” computer. Unless you can repair
multi-layer boards and SMT chips, it's so much e-waste if a component
fails. To be green, it would also need to prove:

* that it had best-in-class MIPS/mW rating;
* that the manufacturer has a full Extended Producer Responsibility plan
for cradle-to-cradle recycling built into the purchase price; and
* that all components have been ethically sourced, so no “blood
capacitors”* allowed.

cheers,
 Stewart

*: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan_mining_and_ethics