Userful Holds PC Giveaway in Celebration of 39th Anniversary of Earth Day

The Userful Corporation (News - Alert) is greening up desktop virtualization this Earth Day with a "PC" giveaway to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the global environmental event.

 

The Calgary-based company, a provider low-cost desktop computers, is giving away a free 2-user version of their software that is designed to turn one computer into up to 10 machines with the goal of allowing 100,000 people download the software and share their computer.

 

"On March 28 hundreds of millions of people turned off their lights for Earth Hour," said Timothy Griffin, president of Userful. "Events such as Earth Day and Earth Hour prove that a simple change worldwide can dramatically reduce global energy consumption and consequent CO2 emissions.”

 

While the actual effectiveness of events such as Earth Hour and Earth day have in reducing global energy consumption and CO2 emissions remains debatable, many technology companies have lined up to get in on the “green” technology movement.

 

Griffin points to positive examples from such countries as Brazil, where he says the government recently deployed over 350,000 Userful PC-sharing workstations into schools to an extraordinary affect.

“This alone will save 200 million kWh annually, the equivalent of turning 3.7 billion lights off for an hour,” said Griffin.

 

In a somewhat complicated formula, the company notes the  3.7 billion is based on 526kWh per PC per year for operation; 1818kWh per PC for production; electricity generated at 1.55lbs CO2 per kWh; 11,560lbs CO2 per car per year; 60W per light; and 8,060lbs CO2 per acre of trees per year.

 

“Now imagine if on Earth Day hundreds of millions of people decided to download Userful's free PC-sharing software to share their PC,” says Griffin. “The electricity and e-waste savings of this simple change would be incredible.”

 

In addition, according to the Userful team, in 2008 Userful's PC-sharing software saved over 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and is on track to save over 200,000 tons of CO2 in 2009, the equivalent of taking more than 35,000 cars off the road, or planting 50,000 acres of trees.

Because desktop computers sit idle while users do such mundane tasks as checking e-mail, surfing the Web, or typing a document, Userful's PC-sharing and desktop virtualization technology is able leverage this excess computing power to create an environmentally efficient alternative to traditional desktop computing, according to the company.

Up to 10 users can work on a single computer by simply attaching extra monitors, mice and keyboards.

 

"The free two-user giveaway doubles the utility and value of your existing computer with minimal cost," says Griffin. "In fact, if you already have an extra monitor and keyboard, it's like getting a free computer. Our goal is for 100,000 people to download the software and share their computer before Earth Day.”

As TMCnet has reported, electronic waste has become an increasing problem gadgets, cell phones, and mobile devices become more and more popular. In an e-waste report by USA Today, electronics that get recycled are typically sent abroad. At such locations, workers are being paid low wages to strip recyclable materials from unrecyclable, hazardous toxins.

 

For its part, using Userful products can reduce electronic waste by up to 80 percent, further decreasing its environmental footprint, according to the company.

 

Userful offers the features of a full PC including high performance video for less than $50 per additional seat in large deployments such as a recent 356,800 workstation deployment in Brazilian schools, and uses standard PC hardware. Savings of up to 90 percent in electricity use as compared to a  traditional PC-per-workstation solution are achieved with the solutions, according to the company.