2023 Challenge

[zero cool]

This year the challenge returns to its roots: using a SLOW computer for seven days. This will be achieved by various means with any hardware:

Limit your computer's CPU to use only 1 core. This can be set in the BIOS most of the time, and on Linux you can use maxcores=1 in the boot command line, on OpenBSD you can use bsd.sp kernel for the duration of the challenge.
Limit your computer's memory to 512 MB of memory (no swap limit). This can be set on Linux using the boot command line mem=512MB. On OpenBSD, this can be achieved a bit similarly by using datasize-max=512M in login.conf for your user's login class.
Set your CPU frequency to the lowest minimum (which is pretty low on modern hardware!). On Linux, use the "powersave" frequency governor, in modern desktop environments the battery widget should offer an easy way to set the governor. On OpenBSD, run apm -L (while apmd service is running). On Windows, in the power settings, set the frequency to minimum.
Of course you can also simply use an old computer.


Participation

This year's challenge will start on the 10th of July 2023, and end on the 17th a week after at midnight.

We hope you will join us in the challenge or just hang out with the community. The past years have shown us that the challenge has something for everybody, often resulting in some unexpected effects which turn the participation into a learning experience. Everyone participates in a way that matches their personal skill.

Whether you are a complete IT noob or a hardcore hacker, you are welcome to join! There are no prizes to win, but you might just learn a thing or two.

Join the IRC channel #oldcomputerchallenge, and let us know about your experience in the form of a gopher phlog, blog post, or in your Gemini capsule, and share the link with us, so that we may publish your story.