Bonum Certa Men Certa

Environmentalism and Free Software Can be Viewed as Closely Connected and Help One Another



"Someday we'll all be free"

Waiting tables



Summary: Modest lifestyles are an overlapping pattern in the Free software community and green activists; there's room for alliances and collaboration, bettering society by reducing consumption and discouraging voyeurism

"Environmentalism" is a broad label or a generic term that typically alludes to well-being of nature, including but not limited to flora and fauna (air and water too may count). There are many branches to it and words like "sustainability" or "green" get thrown around quite a lot. The recurrent theme is non-intervention (or reduction in intervention with respect to one's natural surroundings).



"I met rms several times in the past and we always get along very well; the people whom he doesn't like and cannot get along with, in my experience, are probably not very pleasant people. He doesn't have much patience for them."Free software may sound like it's about price, but it is not "freeware" (or "shareware", which isn't really about proper sharing; see the licensing). Free software in the traditional and old sense is code one can freely share (not only binaries) and modify; this is reducing waste and replication of effort, but that's not the main goal as the principal objective is to obstruct subjugation of software users. Richard Stallman (rms) put it very well in his manifesto, which he wrote when I was a little baby. Stallman still lives a very modest life; when he travels to give speeches he flies "coach" (if flights are the only option), he doesn't own a car, and as far as we're aware he's still renting a place to live in. I met rms several times in the past and we always get along very well; the people whom he doesn't like and cannot get along with, in my experience, are probably not very pleasant people. He doesn't have much patience for them. If they can't stand him either, fine. They can go back to their Netflix (DRM) on some iPhone with a golden case. Vanity items don't always speak as favourably as those who have them would like to think. Frugality is nothing to be ashamed of.

The carbon footprint of rms is very small (excepting/annulling the flights, which I suppose are the sole option for physical presence that greatly assists his advocacy and raises funds). His dietary preferences/options aren't too demanding and he rarely eats out (no need to). When we met in someone's dormitory/flat in Oxford (a young couple who had helped facilitate his talk there) he insisted on very simple snacks, nothing too fancy. He came there by rail (train from London) and met me at the station. He's still living and acting like a student, except the partying and fashionable consumerism. He's backpacking in an urban setting/context. Nothing wrong with that; it's a form of exercise, too.

To a lot of geeks in the software freedom 'circles' the concept of Free software extends somewhat to a lifestyle. It's a life of moderate means, no unbridled greed (we don't judge one another based on wealth), limited spendings, and deep consideration for other people's endeavours/feelings (no need to bother people or reduce them to 'slave' status, e.g. people whose job is waiting tables -- a dignified, difficult and respectable job by the way, often more stressful that that of a "big shot" suit in some office).

"To a lot of geeks in the software freedom 'circles' the concept of Free software extends somewhat to a lifestyle."Many Free software users and developers are vegetarians and as figosdev noted several times in the past (in his long essays), FSFE had compared Free software to veganism or took advantage of veganism to promote software freedom at events (and vice versa). It sort of makes sense because the driver or motivator behind Free software is typically if not always ethics; and people who are attentive to other people's needs and feelings extend such sentiments of compassion to animals as well.

The "greens" or the "green movement" would be wise to openly (freely?) embrace or to liaise with the Free software community; we're natural allies in a lot of ways. People tend to base their lives and their expectations based on their peers' (or colleagues'). If more people thought like rms and lived like rms (he has no children by the way, by his own choosing), the planet would be better off and sentimental values cherished, solidarity improved, racism reduced, and nationalism blur away (Free software is almost always developed internationally once it becomes widespread; there tend to be no centralised 'headquarters').

Recent Techrights' Posts

August 2026 Microsoft Layoffs Are "Secret Layoffs" or "Silent Layoffs"
It's all about secrecy, isn't it?
Newer Not Better: Treadmill Updates Cause Problems
after 2 years the un-updated machines still fine
SLAPP Censorship - Part 136 Out of 200: Lawyers That Get Paid to Mess About
They were already outnumbered and understaffed
 
Sharing and Empathy
Be more like Stallman, not Linus
Fedora 'Community' Became 100% IBM Staff, Drawing Up Policies Like CoC and CoI (Where the IBM is Excepted From Conflict of Interest Policies)
IBM has in effect killed Fedora
Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Planner Season is Upon Us, Slop "Apocalypse", and USENET
Links for the day
Cuts at IBM, Allegedly More Shutdowns to Come, CEO Visits Complicit Media to Promote Lies and Products That Will Never Exist (Misleading Shareholders)
IBM is collapsing
Links 01/08/2026: GAFAM Falling Deep Into Trillion in (Secret) Debt to Keep the Slop Bubble From Popping Already, Anger Over "FIFA’s World Cup Privatisation Plan"
Links for the day
The Cyber Show on the Slop Bubble
new article about the implosion of the slop bubble
Links 01/08/2026: New York Times Trying to Inflate the Slop Pyramid Scheme (at Cost to Its Own Reputation) and "Iran Appears to Be Blasting Amazon Data Centers Off the Map"
Links for the day
Positive Political Momentum
Daniel Pocock is taken seriously by many people who contact us privately
Google "AI" is Plagiarism, the Case of Richard Stallman (RMS)
Why would anyone choose LLM slop over the originals, curated and fact-checked by domain experts?
Explaining That Software Patents Are Neither Legal Nor Desirable
Many of our readers work in the legal sector
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 31, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, July 31, 2026
Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Retirement, Bike Trips, Quake Stuff, Usenet Reborn
Links for the day
Links 31/07/2026: Microsoft Now Says Slop is Bad (LinkedIn Cracks Down on It), LinkedIn Narrows Down Size (No Expansion)
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: From Alicante to Munich: Another Smooth Ride
Campinos is intent on transforming what was originally envisaged as a temporary public office into his own permanent personal feather-bed
Daniel Pocock and the Important Observation About Threats of Cult-Like Behaviours (No Rationality, No Reason, Just "Mob Rule")
It's a threat to Europe's sovereignty
The "PIP Parade" of IBM's Lousy Management, Which Said "Blockchain" Was the Future
In a healthy company such a CEO would be punished for utterly wrong visions and predictions. Not at IBM...
SLAPP Censorship - Part 135 Out of 200: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) That Does Not Disclose Financial Activities Before August
It certainly looks like they keep losing the remaining women that still exist in the firm
Links 31/07/2026: "Climate Cover-Up Continues" and Pesticides "Cook the Planet"
Links for the day
Datacentre 'Boom' Sceptics Aren't Luddites, They Recognise a Threat to Human Survival (Not Limited to Climate Change)
Archaeologists very well know that no species will survive forever
Microsoft's Claims Are Based on a Big Lie
the bubble is coming to its hard limits
Don't Lose Sight of the Impact of "End of 10" (Vista 10)
GNU/Linux has taken off fast
Microsoft's Debt Continues to Steadily Increase, Not Counting Hundreds of Billions in Secret/Hidden Debt
The mass layoffs will carry on, maybe labelled LITE
IBM is Circling Down the Drain, the 'Growth' Comes From Beancounting Tricks and Salary Cuts
IBM was down 2.17% yesterday
Microsoft's "Headcount" Distracts From How Big a Cull It Had This Month
It also speaks of numbers "[a]s of June 30" though the "buyouts" were effective July 1 and since then well over 10,000 workers have vanished
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, July 30, 2026
Gemini Links 31/07/2026: Music, Journaling, and Longing
Links for the day
More Fake News From (and for) IBM, Nobody Ever Held Accountable for Fraud
Companies that turn a blind eye to their own corruption end up recruiting more corrupt people and sacking those who object to the corruption
Links 30/07/2026: Smol Document Server and More PalmOS-ing
Links for the day
Links 30/07/2026: Microsoft Refuting Its Own Slop Hype and "Amazon Is Gutting Its Hey Hi (AI) Division" (GAFAM Bubble)
Links for the day
Today The Register MS Published "AI" Spam and Fake Article by "Senior Technical Marketing Engineer"
unethical practices
Cult inquiry parliament leak fallout
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Protect Sources
Our #1 priority is sources
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Legal Concerns and Suspicions of Irregularities
complaints submitted to OLAF
The Era of Silence
So stay silent, remain hidden
GAFAM and IBM Dying in Massive Debt, Hence the Mass Layoffs (Increasingly Silent Layoffs That the Media Fails to Mention)
the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
we press on with this series
Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026