Old and Small Technology
a year ago
- #sustainability
- #technology
- #privacy
- Old technology refers to outdated tech, while small technology has a minimal footprint and lacks bloat or spyware.
- Old tech is often small due to historical limitations, but some modern tech like embedded systems also qualifies as small.
- Small tech benefits include being easy to use, private, peer-to-peer, zero-knowledge, non-colonial, personal, share-alike, interoperable, non-commercial, and inclusive.
- Old and small technologies like UUCP, Gopher, and Usenet offer advantages such as lower resource consumption, affordability, and environmental friendliness.
- Small tech promotes sustainability by reducing planned obsolescence and enabling older hardware to remain functional.
- Older tech, especially Free Software, enhances user control and privacy by avoiding modern privacy-violating features.
- Modern adaptations of old tech (e.g., NNCP, Gemini) incorporate improvements like encryption while retaining small-tech benefits.
- New developments in small tech include Meshtastic and Yggdrasil, focusing on secure, decentralized communication.
- Examples of old and small tech include UUCP, Kermit, Usenet, Gopher, Raspberry Pi, and Linux (depending on usage).
- Projects like the Small Web aim to apply small-tech principles to the modern web, while alternatives like Gemini offer lightweight browsing.
- Operating systems like Linux Lite and Debian (with lightweight desktops) work well on older or low-power hardware.
- Organizations promoting small tech include the Small Technology Foundation, Low-Tech Magazine, and the Plain Text Project.