this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Analysts have warned Windows 10 end of life plans could spark a global torrent of e-waste, with millions of devices expected to be scrapped in the coming years. 

Research from Canalys shows that up to 240 million PCs globally could be terminated as a result of the shift over to Windows 11, raising critical questions about device refreshes and the responsibility of vendors to extend life cycles.

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[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 15 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Someone should open a business taking free perfectly good laptops people were going to throw out, putting Linux on them, and reselling them.

Goodwill could do this with anything they get donated.

[–] agegamon@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago

Free Geek here in Portland OR used to do this. Might still be doing it too, but I haven't been back there since 2018 so I'm not 100% sure.

But yeah, the last I was there, you could walk in and just buy a refurbished laptop or desktop with Linux on it. They would even give guidance on what people needed if they weren't tech-savvy.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I've seen this done. Store lasted for a bout a year, which is longer than I would have expected given the obsolete e-waste they were selling for extortionate prices. This was only a few years ago, but most of the laptops they were offering still had 4:3 displays and disc drives, that's how ancient they were. Hell, one of them had a floppy drive.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That’s wild. There’s a place here in Melbourne that sells refurbished Dell Optiplex’s. They’re ~8yrs old and still perfectly functional machines. For $100 you can get a full setup with a 16:9 monitor, keyboard and mouse. If you’re on unemployment they’ll sell it to you for $50 so you can look for work online.

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 3 points 9 months ago

That seems like a much better way of doing things.

[–] AceTKen@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

The I.T. firm I run does this except we donate them to nonprofits.