Pay-to-use power settings.

[hellmet]

The future(?):
-Governments decide to mandate motherboard manufacturers to integrate aggressive power management into personal computers and servers.
Your computer is set to aggressive power saving mode by default: LCD turnoff in 1 minute, -LCD Backlight by xx%, HDD spin-off in 2 min, Reduction in CPU performance by xx%, standby in 15 minutes, etc.
-You get this power setting by default, for FREE! You then pay the govt. through the motherboard manufacturer to unlock other power modes : High performance, Timers Off, etc.



I think the biggest waste of energy is due to servers. They run 24 hrs a day at full performance even when doing nothing, simply generating heat that has to be dissipated away, again wasting energy.

It would be nice to have a Low-power mode for servers. Servers are by default on low-power mode (no stand-by though) and switch to high-performance only on demand. The govt. could charge extra for running servers and more for those servers running at full power throughout the day.


Ofcoure the code will probably be hacked in a few days (or minutes? :D), but does anyone of you think this would become a possibility?

[chriskin]

the possibility that all governments will choose to do so? no way

is it just around here, or governments take taxes from the energy one consumes?

[chriskin]

by the way, computers don't always work on their full potential (!)

at least my pcs don't , i don't know if i have something so advanced or whether everyone else around the globe has pcs like mine:P

[zekopeko]

I think the biggest waste of energy is due to servers. They run 24 hrs a day at full performance even when doing nothing, simply generating heat that has to be dissipated away, again wasting energy.

It would be nice to have a Low-power mode for servers. Servers are by default on low-power mode (no stand-by though) and switch to high-performance only on demand. The govt. could charge extra for running servers and more for those servers running at full power throughout the day.

You will be happy to know that Ubuntu Server edition is using aggressive power management by default. You can put servers in standby and wake them over the network when you need to do something.
Also take into account that companies that have server farms are self-mandating aggressive power management by default since the power bill is one of the things that they can save money on. That's why Google uses custom power supplies that have 90% efficiency rate.

[Sef]

Locked. Specualative politics. Political discussions are banned, unless it pertains directly to FOSS. If you have a news link, then please pm the link and I will consider reopening the thread.