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We are facing an announced environmental disaster, but this time it’s not the fault of distracted citizens or “not very virtuous” motorists. No, this time the problem is higher up: short-sighted technology policies, aimed mainly at revenue and the forced turnover of hardware, are creating perfectly avoidable mountains of electronic waste.
The hi-tech multinationals keep pushing cosmetic updates, operating systems that “miraculously” stop being supported, and processors that become obsolete not because of real limits, but because of strategic marketing decisions.
All of this, of course, in spite of the much-touted “green policies”. Yet when the big companies decide to scrap millions of working computers, the environment suddenly stops being a priority.
Why do we talk about hypocrisy? Because we got our hands on a laptop that, according to the logic of the multinationals, should already be “ready for the bin”:
Dell Inspiron 17 5000 (5749)
CPU: Intel Core i3-5005U (2 cores / 4 threads, 2.0 GHz, 5th generation)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500
SSD: 1 TB (great upgrade, very fast)
RAM: 8 GB DDR3L 1600 MHz
Display: 17.3″ HD+ (1600×900)
We installed Debian Linux, a free, lightweight and up-to-date distribution. The result? The computer flies.
Smooth browsing, email handling with Thunderbird without the slightest problem, perfectly decent multitasking.
In practice, a laptop from almost ten years ago is still perfectly usable. Do we really want to accept that millions of devices like this end up in landfill just because a multinational decided they are “no longer compatible”?
The only truly sustainable, green progress is the one dictated by intelligence.
As long as technology policies keep being dictated by quarterly profit instead of common sense, we will keep digging the environment’s grave with our own hands.
And no, it won’t be the fault of those who don’t change their smartphone every two years or those who don’t buy an electric car. Sorry. It will be the fault of those who, in the name of the “new”, knowingly decide to make everything else old.
