Marc Coquand wrote an article on his blog titled “Why I Like NetBSD, or Why Portability Matters”. I haven’t used NetBSD, but the one thing I do know about it is that it has a reputation for being able to run on any piece of hardware you throw at it.

Software engineers often argue against “premature optimization” as wasteful. Why bother doing the often deep, often difficult work of optimizing a piece of code if it won’t actually make a difference in how efficiently the software runs? Coquand takes it a step further, recounting a passage from The Unix Philosophy by Mark Gancarz:

it makes little sense to try to optimize software for existing hardware. Instead, it is better to upgrade to newer hardware when available, and ensure the software is portable

He says: having a portable system, one that runs on lots of hardware, makes older hardware viable for a much longer time. That’s good for your bank account and good for the environment.

Marc also talks about Permacomputing, a philosophy that asserts that we should do what we can to extend the usable life of hardware, and focus on making optimal use of the resources we have. A sustainable approach to computing.

I love that there are people out there thinking critically about how to make use of the computing resources we have now, how to keep old systems running. It’s refreshing to ponder how to use technology from this angle, instead of relentlessly charging ahead with the new, faster, shinier. So much of the latter approach implies that the tech that came before is worthless, and that’s simply not true.