Hi Alex,
On Tue, 3 Jun 2025 at 17:23, Alex <
alex@puer-robustus.eu> wrote:
> [ ... snip ... ]
> To, among other things, prevent unnecessary e-waste KDE has started the
> [End of 10 campaign][0] which was also featured by the DPL in [his April
> mailing][1]. The Debian project is an official supporter of said
> campaign.
>
> [0]:
https://endof10.org/
> [1]:
>
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2025/05/msg00001.html
>
> Now, I was thinking maybe Debconf would be a good opportunity to have
> Debian contributors (e.g. those maintaining the installer but not only
> them) help newcomers install Debian on their machines. Has anyone
> thought in this direction already?
I really like the intent of this initiative. I do feel conflicted though, on the basis that Microsoft is a sponsor of DebConf25.
To explain: I feel that there could be some moral hazard. Enabling people to continue to use existing hardware is great -- my understanding is that it's often the best way to reduce the carbon cost of that hardware -- the question in my mind is whether Microsoft's sponsorship of Debconf implies any awareness, principles and commitments in that direction, or whether it's unrelated.
So, as a potential installfest participant I'd be curious whether Microsoft would be: (1) providing hardware for the installations; (2) permitted to use their sponsor status to collect information about participant involvement (or non-involvement, even) in the installfest; (3) able to claim public relations successes as a result of supporting this effort, either publicly and/or in conversation with regulators?
Thanks,
James