Permacomputing

The best way in to permacomputing, imo, continues to be: Get an old used Thinkpad. Put Linux or one of the BSDs on it. Use low-resource options: LDXE, i3wm. Go about your business driving this thing however you want to. Learn to live within its limits.<p>This is truly the computer as bicycle for the mind.

The landing page doesn&#x27;t actually describe what it <i>is</i>. Is it using old chips and writing low level code? Is it open source? You kind of have to <i>define</i> a movement somehow, right?<p>An example of what a permacomputing solution to a problem vs a traditional one would look like would do a lot of work here. Perhaps where &quot;ପໄଓ -:*´&quot; is...

I highly recommend reading this paper^[0] on permacomputing. It explains the concept in depth.<p>&gt; In this paper, we argue for the potential of permacomputing as a rich framework for exploring creative design constraints building on a long history of applying constraints in art, design and cultural practices.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;monoskop.org&#x2F;images&#x2F;6&#x2F;6a&#x2F;Mansoux_Aymeric_et_al_2023_Permacomputing_Aesthetics.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;monoskop.org&#x2F;images&#x2F;6&#x2F;6a&#x2F;Mansoux_Aymeric_et_al_2023_...</a>

Gotta mention: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;solar.lowtechmagazine.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;solar.lowtechmagazine.com</a>

From the text in the link below, it appears that permacomputing is primarily concerned about lowering how much energy you use on tech, and refurbish and reuse old technology.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;permacomputing.net&#x2F;getting_started&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;permacomputing.net&#x2F;getting_started&#x2F;</a>

I don’t think this concept really needs a brand and manifesto, especially not one that will obviously alienate anyone who isn’t a Marxist, etc., etc., etc. It’s not a tough sell to tell people that maybe the permanent revolution &#x2F; forced march of planned-obsolescent tech products isn’t a good thing for most people. Slapping a bunch of “COEXIST” bumper stickers on that is a better way to slow it down than to speed it up.

Lovely. More neo-liberalism in neo-hippy format. The next Burning Man: Save the planet, compute in older hardware.<p>Detractors: You can&#x27;t be anti-capitalist without being on the other side. Also, you can&#x27;t put individual issues above societal issues.