Feeling slightly goofy this evening (it is Friday evening and I have had a glass of wine), I realised Microsoft has actually been 'Green IT' conscious for a long time - why you ask? Well the Windows "Recycle Bin" of course!
Good old Recycle Bin has been around since Windows 95 and has kept us safe from permanently deleting our virtual paper files (after accidently deleting them) for the past 13 years! Before Windows 95 we used to have the function to 'undelete' files (frought with danger - I remember when I deleted a lot of Windows system files from my PC in 1994 on Windows 3.11 after deciding they were just cluttering up the system and I didn't think I needed them - much to the frustration of the local computer store who sold my mum the PC - and yes I was very new to computers at that time!).
However the naming of 'Recycle Bin' may just be one of the 'prehistoric' steps in Microsoft's Green IT strategy...were they really thinking of environmental factors 13 years ago? Or was the naming of Recycle Bin, rather than 'Garbage Bin', just a marketing differentiation ploy? Our competitors have named their file dump features much less 'environmentally friendly' names - most called 'Trash' - oh come on guys a little bit of green IT fever here please!
I might contact one of the MS Product Managers to find out why they called it Recycle Bin instead of 'garbage bin' way back in 1994/5...if anyone has any knowledge on this, please post a comment!
