Linux: The Sustainable Choice for Computing and Environmental Responsibility

Sustainability is an increasingly important problem in computing. Reduce, reuse, and recycle is a famous motto for environmentally responsible consumption, but applying it to computer hardware can be challenging.

Many proprietary operating systems force a hardware upgrade upon you long before your old hardware is used up. If you own a computer with Windows, you’ve probably needed to purchase a new one to upgrade because your old one didn’t meet the hardware requirements of the latest OS. Apple doesn’t do any better, either. A 2017 MacBook Air I owned was essentially rendered obsolete by its age in 2024—no security upgrades beyond seven years.

By contrast, I run Linux on my five-year-old laptop, which still runs like new. Because the Linux kernel is more efficient with resources than Windows or macOS, it can run successfully on older hardware. I’ve never been forced to purchase new hardware to upgrade Linux.

Linux’s advantage is that it is free and open source. With a few notable exceptions, most Linux distributions are free of charge and not the product of a large technology company with profit in mind. Even businesses that offer Linux products know that profitability doesn’t lie in selling software and forcing updates but in stellar support of what their customers are trying to do with that software. Simply put, Linux is the best bet for a sustainable operating system.

Making Linux accessible

There was a time when Linux users were required to be more technologically savvy than the average computer user, but those days are a thing of the past. Most Linux distributions are as plug-and-play as their proprietary counterparts. Ten or more years old computers can quickly run any widespread Linux distribution without modification. Instead of defining a computer’s lifespan with the arbitrary benchmark of operating system support, you can measure it by the hardware’s life. That’s how it should be. Like everything else, hardware eventually fails, but we can control software.

This improved sustainability is suitable for my workflow, too. I have access to a wide range of free and open-source software and cloud-based systems that allow me to be creative while keeping my aging hardware out of landfills.

Reuse hardware, reduce electronic waste

When deciding to refurbish an older computer, first determine how it will be used. You don’t need lots of processing power if you are just surfing the web and writing with a word processor. But if you work from home and use your computer for video conferencing with Jitsi or one of the proprietary solutions, you will need more RAM and processing power. In that case, I suggest (based on what’s available in 2024) looking for an Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 with at least 8 GB of RAM.

Hardware purchase

If you’re not looking to upgrade but just need a computer, using Linux frees you from having to buy the latest hardware. You can easily find affordable laptops and desktops on FreeGeek and other websites that work well with Linux distributions. When you purchase a computer from FreeGeek, it comes with Linux preinstalled and tested. Additionally, you’re supporting a community with a mission to “sustainably reuse technology, provide digital access, and offer education to build a community that empowers people to realize their potential.”

No matter how you use Linux, it’s definitely worth learning and supporting. It’s an eco-friendly operating system that puts you in control of your data, your purchases, and your impact on the environment.