Green Ubuntu and open source issue.

[ntwknut]

I don't really know where to put this topic., so under education & science since part of it relates to energy consumption.
First of all I want to confirm that Ubuntu is terrific, both in philosophy and in the way it works!

This morning I was looking at "Easy Ubuntu" which is another great addition to the system, but I was surprised to see the inclusion of Skype there. Ubuntu and the Linux community generally despises the closed-source mentality, yet Skype is a shining example of how NOT to do things.They appeared long after the globally accepted VoIP standard SIP was established yet decided to go their own way using different signalling and codecs.
SIP is used on almost everything in the VoIP world in hardware and software so all these devices will interface readily with each other.....hasn't anybody noticed this?
Now as if it isn't bad enough operating a "closed shop" so to speak, what is another product of this inability to interface easily? Using SIP one can have a telephone connected to ethernet and hence to the world and it uses only milliwatts of power. With Skype you need to run their proprietary software which means leaving the PC on at any time you might wish to make or receive a call (just as with a "messenger" application).
So let's see what that means...perhaps there are 5 million users globally each using say 250watts on their PC's....that would be about 1,250,000,000 watts of energy being used.

[akniss]

Ubuntu and the Linux community generally despises the closed-source mentality

I don't think this is necessarily true. I use Ubuntu because it is my favorite distro. I use linux because I am more productive in the gnome environment than in windows. I really don't care if it is open source or closed source, and I would be willing to pay for it because it is the better product for me. I think there are many people who have similar opinions as me. The one thing we all agree on is that choice is good. If you don't like Skype, you have the choice not to install it. If someone wants to use Skype, EasyUbuntu is providing a simple route to do so.

[tweedledee]

This morning I was looking at "Easy Ubuntu" which is another great addition to the system, but I was surprised to see the inclusion of Skype there. Ubuntu and the Linux community generally despises the closed-source mentality, yet Skype is a shining example of how NOT to do things.They appeared long after the globally accepted VoIP standard SIP was established yet decided to go their own way using different signalling and codecs.

To clarify - Canonical (which ships Ubuntu) is generally for open source (although they make exceptions, e.g., for video drivers), and a large collection of people who develop the Linux kernel and tools are for open source (e.g., the GNU group). It is also the case that some distros don't really care, as discussed in this overview: http://www.linuxforums.org/reviews/overview_of_the_ten_major_linux_distributions.html . It's also not clear that the majority of USERS of Linux (as opposed to developers) really care a great deal.

Also, EasyUbuntu is not a Canonical project, and almost everything it provides is either closed source, proprietary, or somehow not entirely "free." Its goal is to give people what they expect when they transition from a Windows world (for the most part), and to give them to interface with the "closed" community (which is still the rather large majority). I personally don't use EasyUbuntu, but I have installed probably half of the components they provide myself - it's not that I want the non-free stuff, it's just that I need a certain amount of it to be able to function in an environment where nearly everyone around me is still using Windows, and expects that I can deal with whatever they throw at me.

SIP is used on almost everything in the VoIP world in hardware and software so all these devices will interface readily with each other.....hasn't anybody noticed this?
Now as if it isn't bad enough operating a "closed shop" so to speak, what is another product of this inability to interface easily? Using SIP one can have a telephone connected to ethernet and hence to the world and it uses only milliwatts of power. With Skype you need to run their proprietary software which means leaving the PC on at any time you might wish to make or receive a call (just as with a "messenger" application).
So let's see what that means...perhaps there are 5 million users globally each using say 250watts on their PC's....that would be about 1,250,000,000 watts of energy being used.

You are correct, but that doesn't necessarily translate to 1.25B extra watts of energy. The unfortunate reality is that many people leave their computers on 24/7 anyway, usually without setting any power management (that 250 can be significantly reduced even while on, but most people don't). My guess is that people who choose to use Skype are probably also more likely to be in the "always on" category than not, regardless of running Skype.

Really, the energy problem is not skype - it is the computer manufacturers. Take a look at a high end laptop these days - they draw maybe 75W. I run a secondary laptop that only draws 45W. That draw includes the LCD. Yet it's hard to find a comparable LCD for a desktop that draws significantly less power, and try to find a desktop with a maximum draw of under 200W - possible, but not easy. It seems to me a lot could be done to cut the power draw in desktop computers fairly easily, but since the majority of consumers don't care (probably have no idea how much power they use...).

In short, I agree with the sentiment you express, but you could perhaps also look at it as a trade of perhaps a small additional consumption of energy in trade for reducing the power of the monopolies in the computer industry by giving a subset of users exactly what they expect. Is that a good trade? I don't know.