Studio

Johanna Bennett investigates a worthwhile deal to turn one computer

into two —but there are some pitfalls...

It seems it’s true: you can turn your home PC into two — for free.

Green PC company Userful is based in the US, but you can download its

software here in New Zealand. It sounds like a great eco-idea: the company talks

about how any computer in use actually wastes lots of capacity. This capacity

could be used by another person (or ten others); all you need is an extra monitor,

a USB keyboard, a mouse, plus, of course, the Userful software.

To make sure it was legit, actv8 checked out the Userful website, and

started downloading the online CD you need to install if you don’t have Linux

on your home machine (this is the free, open-source software you need to run the

Userful program). Then I stopped. Not because there seemed to be anything

wrong with the program, but it uses BitTorrent to download the files to your

computer and there have been some problems with BitTorrent. So check with

your parents before downloading. I then turned to the Userful program

itself and started downloading one of the packages, but, at over 30Mbit/s, I

stopped again. That’s not a lot in many households but it is in some, so do

check with your parents first as, if they have a small download limit, you could

end up eating into it big time. If you do decide to go ahead, Userful

looks like a pretty sweet deal: you get more than one computer in the house,

so lots less fighting with brothers and sisters (and parents, too). One thing the

Userful site doesn’t tell you, however, is that the two users and their equipment

need to be close together. The eco-software is used in schools

and offices in the US and will also help you reduce your carbon footprint. Userful

says it saved 13,250 tons of carbon emissions last year — the equivalent of

taking 2,300 cars off the road — and the website includes lots of other

statistics. For example, ten ‘Userful’ computers can save 15 tons of carbon

dioxide emissions a year. And even with just the two-for-one deal, you could

probably make a small dent in your electricity bill and save some emissions.

The giveaway deal allows you to either download a Live CD — for

those without Linux — or download an alternative for Linux users.

Links:

Activ8