Windows Update is now carbon aware

15 points by praving5 2 years ago | 14 comments
  • clnq 2 years ago
    Wow… saving the planet by moving half a Watt of power consumption per PC to a greener time slot. I don’t think I have ever heard someone do less about emissions and brag about it.

    I’m sure it will look good on paper in some report - 500 tons of CO2 saved in a year globally or whatever. Just… ignore all the hardware obsolescence they tried to impose by Windows 11 requirements.

    • Beltalowda 2 years ago
      I wll strt mttng vwls frm my cmmnts t rduc nrgy cnsumptn. Svng th plnt n vwl t a tm!
      • clnq 2 years ago
        Since the text is black for most Hacker News readers, and more text turns off more pixels on their screens, my carbon pledge is to increase the number of vowels in my messages by 15% by 2055.

        To compound the carbon-negative effect of my pledge, I will bully people into replacing their supposedly obsolete displays with OLED ones that actually dim/turn off those black pixels. Yes, that'll put carbon right back where it belongs.

        • DwnVoteHoneyPot 2 years ago
          Yu cn’t rmve vwls (or any lttr) frm bgnnng or end of wrd bcse it’ll be too hrd to rd. Fr exmple, “mttng” ws a tgh one to dcpher.

          You can eevn scrbmle the wrods, but as lnog as you lavee the frist and lsat ltteres, it’ll stlil be reabadle.

          • tazard 2 years ago
            This was the MacBook strategy
            • thewisenerd 2 years ago
              this will break current implementations of brotli, please dont!
          • oifjsidjf 2 years ago
            How long until I won't be able to run my CPU at max power unless I pay an extra carbon tax?
            • paulryanrogers 2 years ago
              Depends. How long will voters remain ignorant or apathetic about externalities?

              Then again, you may already be paying a carbon tax based on your current energy usage, and therefore paying more when running energy intense CPU/GPU workloads.

              Regardless, this change is good for everyone as it should lower their energy bills and reduce the likelihood (however modestly) of straining energy systems.

            • danjc 2 years ago
              Ugh. Insufferable green virtue signalling.
              • karmakaze 2 years ago
                This might come back to bite MS. If we make all apps and OSes carbon transparent, then it could become visible that Windows is the least efficient of popular platforms and we should stop running it.

                I do like the apps consuming most battery listing on Android. If any app that I don't use much appears there I uninstall it. Do desktop OSes have this?

              • kotaKat 2 years ago
                Okay, but I'm getting sick of being shamed by Windows 11 about my carbon emissions with the various other system suggestions like my backlight being "too high". How do I turn them off?

                Not my fault I have a light deficiency that requires I have to crank lights to full to be able to see.

                • Torlan 2 years ago
                  Or they can just stop using Electron in their apps
                  • hulitu 2 years ago
                    > Windows Update is now carbon aware

                    Well, in the future, maybe it will become bugs aware, that is, they will start fixing bugs instead of doing greenwashing.

                    • dzhiurgis 2 years ago
                      My estimates for iOS’ same daily charging feature was about one coal plant
                      • berry_sortoro 2 years ago
                        [dead]