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Old and Small Technology

Old technology is any tech that’s, well… old. Small technology is any tech that has a small footprint: doesn’t require a powerful machine to run, doesn’t have a lot of bloat, doesn’t have anti-features like spyware and tracking. Technology that is old enough is almost always small because, by modern standards, that’s all that was possible back then. Some small tech is old, some is modern. Embedded systems are an example of modern small tech development in many cases.

We can start with system resources; a Raspberry Pi may be underpowered for many of today’s common tasks, but $40 can buy a computer that’s way more powerful than $200,000 machines from the 70s or 80s. There are also entirely new developments in the small technology field; for instance, Meshtastic and Yggdrasil both are focused on secure, private communications free from the need of large corporations. Operating systems such as Linux Lite, Raspbian, and Debian(when used in text mode or with low-footprint desktop environments like XFCE) can be useful on older or small hardware.

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