3 ms·

I find the environmental impact argument here to be very dubious. Even if a Linux-like alternative were available for this hard drive, the vast majority of peop

by cactus2093 5y ago

I find the environmental impact argument here to be very dubious. Even if a Linux-like alternative were available for this hard drive, the vast majority of people would be unaware of that or not willing/capable of figuring out how to work it and would throw the device away and replace it anyway. And even if they did save the hard drive, they might just use the money they saved by not replacing it to upgrade their computer or phone a little sooner instead. Hard drives are a particularly bad example too because the risk of failure goes up as the device ages, so people probably should replace them after a few years of heavy use regardless of software support. We live in a rich society, electronics are relatively cheap, and people like having shiny new things. We will inevitably continue having more and more electronic waste. Right to repair type laws are great for consumers for many other reasons, but I don’t think they’ll make any kind of meaningful dent in the reduction of electronic waste.

myself248 5y ago
Hard drives are a mediocre example, but I have exactly such an enclosure sitting around that I use as cold-storage because I know better than to connect it to a network. If I want to get data off it, I set up an isolated segment in RFC3927 space. As a result, I've bought a new NAS-type device which does have supported software and which I can put on a live network with only minimal worry. (I still take backups of course, but not as thoroughly as I should.) That's a direct waste impact of the device being out of support. I like the form factor. I like the capacity. I wish I could just run Openwrt or something on it. (It's a Marvell SOC inside, so that's the likely target if I had porting skills.)
- edgeform 5y ago
  > If I want to get data off it, I set up an isolated segment in RFC3927 space. Do you really not see how completely unrealistic this is for the average consumer, and honestly the majority of HN readers?
  - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
    I get the impression they're only describing how they handle it (for the crowd here); I don't see any suggestion the OP thinks this is a reasonable expectation of ordinary consumers.

myself248 5y ago

Hard drives are a mediocre example, but I have exactly such an enclosure sitting around that I use as cold-storage because I know better than to connect it to a network. If I want to get data off it, I set up an isolated segment in RFC3927 space. As a result, I've bought a new NAS-type device which does have supported software and which I can put on a live network with only minimal worry. (I still take backups of course, but not as thoroughly as I should.) That's a direct waste impact of the device being out of support. I like the form factor. I like the capacity. I wish I could just run Openwrt or something on it. (It's a Marvell SOC inside, so that's the likely target if I had porting skills.)

edgeform 5y ago
> If I want to get data off it, I set up an isolated segment in RFC3927 space. Do you really not see how completely unrealistic this is for the average consumer, and honestly the majority of HN readers?
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  I get the impression they're only describing how they handle it (for the crowd here); I don't see any suggestion the OP thinks this is a reasonable expectation of ordinary consumers.