Green. Think about that for a few minutes.  What does it meant to you? Does it mean:

• clean water and air?
• using reusable bags at the grocery store?
• downsizing your car so you use less gasoline?
• driving less?
• using public transport?
• refurbing a computer so you don't have to buy a new one?
• reusing things?
• recycling?

It means all of those things to me.  It means reducing my carbon footprint by carpooling with my family when we go somewhere (instead of meeting there).  It means that I collect my trips together so I use less gas.  It means I shut off my computers at night.  It means I turn down the heat in the winter and the temperature up on the air conditioner in the summer.  It means using an electric mower.  It also means recycling everything I can. I've found a political party that fits with what I believe.  I once thought third parties existed to "steal" votes from the main two parties. The more I think, I see that the two-party system is not working.  I notice that we're not yet out of Iraq, we've got record high fuel prices, no public transport in my hometown, we've got record unemployment, etc.  We need a change. Something different.  Something Green.  That's why I won't be supporting Obama or McCain for president.  I'll be supporting McKinney/Clemonte for president and vice-president this year. If you want change in our political system, vote real change.  Vote third party.

Does Linux make for greener computing?  I hope so.  Our world is too filled up with garbage as it is.  If Linux can let an old computer have some life for somebody who just needs to surf the web, type papers, and do some instant messaging, I say "go for it".  Too many people "need" the newest type of computer they can get.  I can see if you are a gamer (but then why don't you just buy a PS2/3, Gamecube or Xbox/360 and be done with it?) but everyone else who just uses their computer for 'net, word processing and communications doesn't really need anything more than a basic Linux box with those features.

Now, if somebody does CAD work, music editing, some sort of Photoshop work or something else that has a specific function, then they might need the newest, shiniest version of Windows out there.  They may even need a Mac.  But, for general computing (the things I mentioned above), most people don't need anything more than a basic box running (I'll hazard a guess and probably get shot down here) a Pentium III with 128 or 256 megs of ram with a low-resource desktop environment (Xfce or Fluxbox, etc).

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