Good points.
Check out as a possible alternative:
1) riot.im 2) matrix.org
Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
51–60 of 180 posts
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#52I am not sure who this guy is, but he seems a little out of this world.
Stallman warned people in detail about the dangers of putting everything in "the cloud" years and years before everyone started putting their photos in the cloud, getting hacked, and celebrities' nude photos being leaked on the internet. If you think he's crazy about a topic just wait 5 years, you'll admit he's right.
We could make the same argument against cars and airplanes. Before those were invented exactly zero people died in auto or airplane accidents. The cloud as a concept isn't bad -- some implementations of it are.
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#53[deleted]
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#54Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
He serves an important purpose. He lays forth a philosophical framework for software freedom, and makes predictions that people don't take seriously and gives advice that nobody would ever practically follow. He also has this annoying habit of being right in the end. He represents an ideal we'll never reach, but we should always aim back toward.
> He also has this annoying habit of being right in the end I'm not familiar with his predictions, so can you give a few examples.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
This seemed like a far-fetched dystopia when I first read it. Now, Kindle et al. are not far away from this.
I also remember reading some piece from Stallman on software patents, from the eighties or early nineties. Well before software patent trolls, etc.
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
May explain why he didn't mention webrtc, unless he has some misgivings about it.
IIRC isn't he against most JavaScript due to the fact that you can't easily dynamically replace a JS module with another?
That, and most of it has no clear licensing. Thus i suspect he consider them potential judicial tar pits...
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#57I am not sure who this guy is, but he seems a little out of this world.
He's a software Luddite, he basically wants all computing to be like in the 70's, when he enjoyed hacking on ITS, and people would just share software freely. Everything beyond that is evil to him.
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#58How does he feel about landline phones? The entire thing is just as closed source as Skype and even more easily monitored.
And assuming he is okay with landline, would Stallman call a cellphone? What if it was a free software cellphone?
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#59It sucks - but as is always the case with free vs nonfree software - there are few alternatives. Among the few alternatives available are Google (hangouts) and Facebook. Stallman waves his hand and mentions Jitsi and Mumble which aren't comparable in features to Skype (Chat + Voice + video + desktop sharing on all platforms including mobile). Jitsi does look promising but not quite complete. A chat/voice app is like…
There's also bluejeans, though I have no idea what their security situation is.
Skype is a horror show, so really like you say anything is better. If video isn't required, Signal is probably the best bet. Would be great actually if Signal supported video as well...
Re: Reasons not to use Skype (2012)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> While his technical accomplishments are certainly commendable, he is a first rate asshole this must be why GNU/Linux is a perfect match. Have those guys actually met or do their egos not fit inside one room?
I wouldn't want to be the guy who arranges a Torvalds-Stallman meeting. These two are quite passionate and disagree about something that Stallman spent his life preaching. It wouldn't go well.
They've met in 1999!
Torvalds plays with his children while RMS is busy being RMS