Microsoft Has Green Potential, Linux Currently Green

Over at the geek-news site Slashdot there recently was a post about how Microsoft can save energy by changing some minor code. Slashdot readers also had a neat discussion regarding power consumption and computers. The community (not surprisingly) concludes that Linux is just as good – if not better – than Windows at conserving energy.

“The author figures that the upgrade would affect 100 million computers and that the power cost savings could hit $7 billion per year. CO2 emissions would be cut by 45 million tons. But what about the impact on computing?”

Green Wifi

green wifi logoGreen Wifi is a non-profit organization that wants to bring free wifi access to the internet using solar power. They are using off the shelf products installed with linux to keep costs as low as possible. The reasoning behind providing internet access is that development require easy access to information, and what better way to disseminate mass amounts of information than the internet?

This is the essential question though:
Why Green WiFi? A number of non profit entities focus on addressing the digital divide by providing internet access to developing areas. Green WiFi addresses one of the biggest barriers to success: the lack of reliable electricity in developing areas required to power the network.”

Google Does Good

Some recent news about that massive search engine Google. The company has announced that it has joined a US lobbying group, the ODF Alliance, that supports the Open Document file format. Open Document is a Free (as in free speech) document format, an alternative to the standard Microsoftâ„¢ .doc format. It is nice because it allows for a more accessible document than propriety software formats.

Having Google throw it’s weight behind supporting ODF will hopefully have a positive impact on the adoption of the open file format. ODF is also supported by Sun Microsystems, IBM and Novell, among others.

Google has also decided that they want to try to save the world with their vast wealth through their charitable organization Google.org. Wired has a nice interview with the man who is in charge of this billion dollar initiative from Google.

Google makes Adsense, which we use here at ThingsAreGood.

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