[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #49056: Can we stop bundling default themes?

[WordPress Trac]

#49056: Can we stop bundling default themes?
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 Reporter:  crdunst          |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Upgrade/Install  |     Version:
 Severity:  minor            |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  close            |     Focuses:
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Comment (by bbceg):

 Replying to [comment:2 crdunst]:
 > Someone with time and the inclination could calculate the number of
 bundled downloads, per incremental updates, and the disk space/bandwidth
 consumed per year. Cumulatively, perhaps there's an energy wastage issue
 in this day and age of climate change? Maybe it's trivial, maybe it's not.
 Just feels like it's an 'always been the case, WP needs it' without
 challenging the pros/cons.

 I thought I'd have a crack at this calculation because I think it's the
 most compelling reason not to automatically install themes with every
 major update. The short answer is 1,937 tonnes of CO2 per new default
 theme released. Assumptions and sources:

 -According to Google AI there are 861 million WordPress websites
 -I'm assuming 75% updated to the latest version of WordPress and did not
 have the aforementioned flag set. -A quick Google brings up
 [https://observablehq.com/@mrchrisadams/carbon-footprint-of-sending-data-
 around] which doesn't link well(!) but suggests downloading 3 megabytes
 releases about 0.003kg of CO2
 -I'm not taking into account storage

 Even if you water these numbers down considerably there's an awful lot of
 CO2 being released here which could seemingly be avoided by providing a
 simple link and a button.

 When WordPress was starting out I imagine the default theme was used a lot
 of the time. These days I would expect that balance has shifted. But
 perhaps someone has these numbers...

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49056#comment:12>
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