16
votes
Is Linux more sustainable than Windows?
An interesting question you pose.
I'm writing my answer via a computer that is 7 years old and has been using GNU/Linux for 3 or 4 years. The battery or battery charger no longer works, but everything ...
- 3,417
11
votes
Accepted
Is it more environmentally friendly to use laptops or desktop PCs?
"To compare purely the electricity usage ... Desktops are clearly worse for the environment in this respect." — That certainly used to be the case, and still often is, but only because people buy/...
- 2,784
9
votes
Is Linux more sustainable than Windows?
Definitely YES.
As currently supported versions of MS Windows (7,8,10) now will have problem to run on older machines with RAM under 500MB and CPU under old Intel Core2/CoreM, you can find plenty ...
- 491
9
votes
Are there any adverse impacts if I keep WiFi router on all time?
According to this link, an average router will use 6w. Leaving it on all the time will therefore use approximately 0.14kWh per day - about the same as using a 60W laptop for 2.4 hours, or boiling a ...
- 773
8
votes
Is Linux more sustainable than Windows?
I will address just a tiny part of your (great) question. It seems to me that a key factor is the simple fact that Microsoft is a huge corporation, who delivers a software used by hundreds of millions ...
- 598
6
votes
Accepted
Wind farms using advanced technology (radar, AI, tracking) to shut down wind farm turbines when risks are highest for migratory and endangered birds?
The Netherlands
I am aware of 1 such wind farm in my country named 'Windpark Krammer'. This farm is located near 3 protected nature areas. According to their webpage that lists a few media articles (...
- 14.4k
6
votes
Accepted
What is the environmental cost of encrypting your communications?
In fact there is an actual increase in energy consumption, though not much. What is done at the end devices is one thing (the encoding-decoding part). This answer from stackoverflow provides a good ...
- 442
5
votes
Is it better to leave your computer on?
It undoubtedly uses more energy to leave a computer on than to turn it off. A PC will draw a few hundred Watts when on, compared to a few Watts powered down but plugged in.
The biggest hardware ...
- 2,077
4
votes
Is distributed computing more or less sustainable than centralised computing?
The terms are used in different ways in different contexts I'm going to define them:
centralised computing: every device does its own computing
distributed computing: device sends off as much ...
- 3,856
3
votes
Which printer font can I use to reduce ink consumption without impacting readability?
I found (parts of) 2 studies but as far as I can tell neither included readability.
1. Consumer Reports
At the bottom of the first article you link to, they credit the original source and link to ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Accepted
PNG optimization for website and environment impact
It's a better question than it appears at first. Consider the amount of energy consumed by data centres, the proportion of data held and transferred in graphic formats and the increasing use of png. ...
- 161
3
votes
What is the environmental cost of encrypting your communications?
AFAIK there hasn't been much research on this topic, at least not about energy consumption of encryption on a global scale. Most research I've seen is concerned with the impact of specific types of ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Accepted
How would you calculate carbon emissions of software?
Yes, you are on the right track. You need to measure or estimate how much less electricity is used after your optimization, and multiply that by the (average) emissions caused by generating ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Is it more environmentally friendly to use laptops or desktop PCs?
To add some numbers to the discussion, I found
a white paper from Fujitsu about a desktop (2018)
production energy usage: 6.8 GJ or 450 kg CO2 equivalent
use phase energy usage: 9.2 GJ or 30 - 500 ...
2
votes
Best strategy for turning off computer/laptop monitors to save energy but not reduce lifespan?
Modern monitors use LED backlights. LEDs are not damaged by being turned on or off.
In short; I can't see any reason why this would do anything to the lifetime of the monitor, and it has never been a ...
- 141
2
votes
What is the environmental cost of encrypting your communications?
Not much at all. Since we waste more electricity waiting for a page to load with your monitor on. You would probably reduce your environmental cost by reading faster and not staring at the screen to ...
- 265
2
votes
Is Linux more sustainable than Windows?
Windows 7 x64 is sustainable for the long forseable future and needs no more updates.
Only the browsers and other apps need updates.
The extended release Win 7 updates just disables Remote Desktop ...
2
votes
Is Linux more sustainable than Windows?
Your question itself is quite unspecified (although interesting):
Are we talking home-computing?
Are we talking server?
Are we focusing on power consumption?
Are we focusing on usage of older ...
- 157
2
votes
Accepted
Is a master's degree in computer science relevant for working in sustainable living?
Yes, definitely! While today we often think of sustainability considerations as secondary, up-and-coming, or even fringe, at some point in the future (hopefully soon!) they will be a standard and even ...
- 11.7k
1
vote
Which printer font can I use to reduce ink consumption without impacting readability?
I wish to look at this in terms of CO2 footprint, rather than ink consumption.
Some random source on the internet suggests that the CO2 footprint of a toner cartridge is around 5Kg for a new ...
- 1,230
1
vote
Is it more environmentally friendly to use laptops or desktop PCs?
Since a few years have passed, I think my original question has a better answer: mini PCs are better than either laptops or desktops. These are as low-power as laptops, or lower, while avoiding the ...
- 83
1
vote
Is it more environmentally friendly to use laptops or desktop PCs?
Desktops hands down:
Materials used
Aside from form factor, almost all of the components of a laptop could be plugged into a desktop and function as is. With that in mind however, laptop components ...
- 11
1
vote
Is distributed computing more or less sustainable than centralised computing?
Look at your system usage right now. Is anything near maxed out? Very unlikely. I'm only using 1% of my CPU right now. Although that must mean my system is using less power than if it was at 100%, it ...
- 61
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