Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
We need to think beyond just "Linux"
Europe, northern America and even eastern Asia report extreme heat, very high temperatures (it's not limited to those areas). In China some places report temperatures in the 40s (Celsius), Japan feels tropical to some, and Mediterranean weather is coming back to Manchester next week. Yes, it's back to the 30s. We're not here to argue with people who deny that global temperatures rise over time; those who speak against the science don't matter to us because they have all sorts of personal issues, including rejection of scientific data, which is also observable by those of us who remember cooler days, cooler seasons etc.
In recent years a lot has been said and published (thousands of articles) about overuse of energy. It's not limited to fake 'currencies' and so-called 'hey hi' (slop). It sometimes seems like the more energy the nation produces, the more people will simply use that up... unless prices surge. That's a problem. On top of that, the over-production issue is exacerbated by companies like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, IBM etc. Repairs and upcycling could very well reduce energy use associated with mining and manufacturing.
Then there's the aspect of Free (as in freedom) versus proprietary. Some hours ago an article was published to say "Linux Is Dropping Certain PCs" (they mean the kernel). It's hardly a secret that Microsoft is trying to force people to buy new PCs for Vista 11 whilst at the same time working to ensure nothing is available except Vista 11. It's not only unnecessary, it's evil for all sorts of other reasons.
Not only Microsoft does such stuff, going back several decades (almost 20 years ago the Free Software Foundation (FSF) had a "Bad Vista" campaign due to that waste*). Apple too has a habit of deprecating support for "old" products.
For people like me who still use electronics from 30+ years ago it's not hard to see that such planned obsolescence is a choice (made by companies), not an inevitability. The word "planned" is meant to imply there was a plan to make things obsolete, typically for no reason other than to increase sales (and to make products temporarily cheaper by choosing sloppy components, made of cheaper materials that degrade poorly over time). It could be dubbed "planned failure" - for these products are ticking time bombs. They're made to not last long and are also hard to repair (repairability isn't a design factor).
Last week I learned that OpenMoko, a device almost 20 years old, is getting old code/patches removed from Linux. Even if they could make the devices boot into a newer Linux, there's planned obsolescence at the network/carrier level: (baseband-level stuff)
They can make very old phones usable again. But they don't. They just remove stuff.
It is sometimes joked or entertained that Linux isn't Free software, set aside the debate about blobs (and GNU Linux-libre as a response). The development process is strictly controlled by large corporations (they buy that power through the Linux Foundation) and although anyone can fork the kernel to make some branch with old code still intact, the project is far too large and moves way too fast. Sooner or later that branch gets left way too far behind. So the incentive for branching just isn't there.
To keep energy use low and manufacturing at "minimum" (least required for society to get by) we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux". The planet might depend on it. Or rather, humans' survival on this planet.
In a way, permacomputing comes to mind. "Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network technology inspired by permaculture," says permacomputing.net. There are several other movements related to this one. They tend to associate closely with Free software because of the sharing aspects, as well as "right to repair", reverse-engineering, and "Open Hardware" (or free designs). █
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* With 4 days left in the fund-raiser, FSF is 5 members short of 50% towards goal, but they will extend this date as usual. The FSF, unlike Linux, talks about the planet and concepts like sustainability.