Title: The Old Computer Challenge v4 (Olympics edition)

	Title: The Old Computer Challenge v4 (Olympics edition)
	Author: Solène
	Date: 24 June 2024
	Tags: oldcomputerchallenge nocloud life
	Description: The Old Computer Challenge announcement for the year 2024.
	Grab your old hardware and have fun for a week.

	# Introduction

	This is the time of the year where I announce the Old Computer
	Challenge (OCC) date.

	I recommend visiting the community website about the OCC if you want to
	connect with the community.

	Old Computer Challenge community

	The Old Computer Challenge history

	The Old Computer Challenge v4 poster, by @[email protected] on Mastodon

	# When?

	The Old Computer Challenge 4th edition will begin 13th July to 20th
	July 2024. It will be the prequel to Olympics, I was not able to get
	the challenge accepted there so we will do it our way.

	# How to participate?

	While the three previous editions had different rules, I came to agree
	with the community for this year. Choose your rules!

	When I did the challenge for the first time, I did not expect it to
	become a yearly event nor that it would gather aficionados during the
	trip. The original point of the challenge was just to see if I could
	use my oldest laptop as my main computer for a week, there were no
	incentive, it was not a contest and I did not have any written rules.

	Previous editions rules were about using an old laptop, use a computer
	with limited hardware (and tips to slow down a modern machine) or limit
	Internet access to a single hour per day. I always insist on the fact
	it should not hinder your job, so people participating do not have to
	"play" during work. Smartphones became complicated to handle,
	especially with the limited Internet access, all I can recommend to
	people is to define some rules you want to stick to, and apply to it
	the best you can. If you realllyyyy need once to use a device that
	would break the rules, so be it if it is really important, nobody will
	yell at you.

	People doing the OCC enjoy it for multiple reasons, find yours! Some
	find the opportunity to disconnect a bit, change their habit, do some
	technoarcheology to run rare hardware, play with low-tech, demonstrate
	obsolescence is not a fatality etc...

	Some ideas if you do not know what to do for the challenge:

	* use your oldest device
	* do not use graphical interface
	* do not use your smartphone (and pick a slow computer :P)
	* limit your Internet access time
	* slow down your Internet access
	* forbid big software (I indented to do this for 4th OCC but it was
	hard to prepare, the idea was to setup an OpenBSD mirror where software
	with more than some arbitrary line of codes in their sources would be
	banned, resulting in a very small set of packages due to missing
	transitive dependencies)

	# What to do during the challenge?

	You can join the community and share your experience.

	There are many ways! It's the opportunity to learn how to use Gopher
	or Gemini to publish content, or to join the mailing list and
	participate with the other or simply come to the IRC channel to chat a
	bit.

	# I can't join during 13th to 20th July!

	Well, as nobody enforces you to do the OCC, you can just do it when you
	want, even in December if it suits your calendar better than mid July,
	nobody will complain at you.

	# Conclusion

	There is a single rule, do it for fun! Do not impede yourself for
	weird reasons, it is here for fun, and doing the whole week is as good
	as failing and writing about the why you failed. It is not a contest,
	just try and see how it goes, and tell us your story :)