On 10/02/11 17:27, ropers wrote:
> On 2 October 2011 18:57, Nick Holland <n...@holland-consulting.net> wrote:
...
>> A lot of us in the open source world do a lot with "recycled" computers
>> -- computers that have lived out their first life cycle, and now being
>> used for less demanding applications (i.e., non-windows). This requires
>> a little work on our part -- we need to make sure that decision makers
>> know that any machine locked into the Windows world (or even a
>> particular version of Windows) are of near zero value to reusers. When
>> they point out that they already hand the old machines over to recyclers
>> for free, point out the recyclers expect to make some money off their
>> action -- if they can't, your purchasers will need to PAY (or pay more)
>> for system disposal. This may be a harder change than not personally
>> buying a new machine from a restrictive vendor, but make it clear that
>> you see their talk about "green" computers complete bullshit if they are
>> not going to make it possible to recycle-into-production older computers
VVVVVVVVVVV I'm going to retract this part: VVVVVVVVVVVVVv
>> (another example: the manufacturers who now prevent you from using disks
>> they didn't provide in their machines, or prevent you from buying their
>> proprietary disk carriers without their over-priced, under-performing
>> disks. Value of machine after warranty expiration: Near zero).
>>
>> Nick.
>
> This is such an excellent, excellent point; I'd like to quote and
> repost that all over the place. May I?
Um. leave out the part about third party disks and carriers.
Upon closer investigation, I find one of the manufacturers I was aware
of doing (Dell) this reversed course, and (supposedly) will/does offer a
RAID firmware update that will remove the block. Bad idea, but good for
them for listening to customer complaints and reversing course. The
other mfg I was thinking of, I can't find any GOOD evidence one way or
the other (some people claiming they do block third party drives, others
saying, "no, works fine", others reporting "works but quirks", so this
may be just a matter of controllers designed and tested around only
"factory" drives, or faulty processes on the part of people reporting
problems, or ...?
Other than that retraction, feel free to quote me or put it in your own
words...
Nick.
