Jeff Bezos is saying the quiet part out loud.

[joepie91@fedi.slightly.tech]

@andre_ourednik @terminaltilt You're likely significantly overestimating the difference, and it may not even be a positive one. Servers in datacenters get rotated out and disposed of on a fixed schedule, typically, long before they actually stop working - whereas consumer hardware often gets handed down until it literally breaks.

Not to mention all the technical and resource overhead of remote anything. That network hardware and corresponding power use isn't free to the environment either.

If you're looking for a way to materially reduce the environmental footprint of computing, I would suggest that "the advertising industry" is probably the first place to look instead. They're responsible for a vast, vast chunk of energy and resource usage in computing and networking, while providing marginal to no value to society - it's a purely extractive industry.

Even ignoring the web, look up the power consumption of a single one of those video ad units they put on train stations and in shopping centers, and you'll probably be reeling from just how environmentally wasteful all this stuff is - and consumer hardware will suddenly look like a drop in the bucket. As a teaser: virtually all of those advertising screens have audible active cooling despite sound insulation attempts.

So... no, there's really no environmental point in a rental model. Insofar it makes any positive difference at all, that sure isn't the intention behind it, and all it does is further support an extractive culture that destroys the environment with no consideration for anything but its own profits. You don't even get to choose whether the hardware is turned on anymore. That is not an environmental win.

[jsc@hcommons.social]

@terminaltilt Quite right. Good, fast, and cheap computers are easily available to everyone these days. OS and browser "upgrades" are a lie. C.f. Liquid Glass, anyone? An old Windows or MacOS box that won't receive an "upgrade" could run Linux and still provide SSL for secure transactions, messaging, images, video...but no, now your bank or business or travel website is like, oh, you've got to upgrade your browser! If anything the apologists for capitalism say is true, then enshittification will eventually drive people to sane alternatives.

[samuelmesa@mapstodon.space]

@terminaltilt Linux.

[endicottauthor@mastodon.social]

@luciedigitalni @terminaltilt Which is why I've never put things on the cloud.

[hellomiakoda@pdx.social]

@terminaltilt On the same note, here's a reminder. Your PC that "can't install Windows 11" because of hardware requirements will very likely run Linux with no trouble. One of the laptops I use almost daily is old enough it had a Windows 8 sticker on it.

[hellomiakoda@pdx.social]

@LorenzoBonomelli @terminaltilt 🤣️ I'mma call you Mark

[lerxst@az.social]

@cascheranno @terminaltilt …for you, maybe. Not everybody is as computer literate.

[shadows@beige.party]

@LorenzoBonomelli @terminaltilt Politicians in several countries have been trying to pass laws to force companies to put backdoors in encryption. Last year the UK hit Apple with a gag order and an order to remove Advanced Data Protection in the UK. The EU is constantly fighting with chat control. I think the chat control one is trying to force it at the OS level, which would be nearly impossible to enforce for everyone if the users still control the hardware. If we all move to hosted PCs, I can’t imagine privacy will be possible for too long.

Quickly searched links (I only have a short break to respond):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgn1lz3v4no

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/after-years-controversy-eus-chat-control-nears-its-final-hurdle-what-know

[lorenzobonomelli@mastodon.social]

@shadows @terminaltilt

Well, I guess you succeeded in the impossible task of convincing someone in an online discussion!

[gildilinie@beige.party]

@terminaltilt https://beige.party/@gildilinie/115897131353793243

[c_merriweather@social.linux.pizza]

@NormanDunbar @filobus @terminaltilt Various vendor in Europe are working on setting up their own cloud systems. Personally, I would trust a German cloud service much more than any US company. I already have a tuta.com email address.

(Rather ironic.)

[filobus@sociale.network]

@c_merriweather @NormanDunbar @terminaltilt yes, gafam aren't the only, there are many providers
It depends on your requirements, but they are in a nation that is in conflict with EU and it will be more and more
And they are locking an ai into every product, with no privacy, they could do industrial espionage, block or tear down their service under order of their authorities
Their is no more a reliable service
(When Ukrainian war started Kaspersky was removed from many business pcs)

[c_merriweather@social.linux.pizza]

@filobus @NormanDunbar @terminaltilt I'm betting on Tuta being safer for me, in California, than gmail or att.

[filobus@sociale.network]

@c_merriweather @NormanDunbar @terminaltilt the only thing, I've read that Tuta uses Amazon for dns (I've not looked into it any further, so I don't know if it's true o it it was true but no more o whatever)
@Tutanota