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Richard Stallman Explains [video]

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Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#31

Post by na85 »

mikegerwitz wrote: post #23
wmf wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stallman reminds me of a king who has everything done by servants and knows only what his courtiers tell him. Being free of menial tasks like installing software leaves him more time to tackle serious issues. But it also insulates him from the problems that real people face.

It's not really something you can observe well from the outside, but in working with Richard on many things, I was surprised early on how much respect he gives to those he trusts, and how appreciative he is of help. So "servants" is far from how he views volunteers. And after working closely with him for a few years within GNU, I don't feel at all like a servant---there is mutual respect, and we're not afraid to stat…

This seems incompatible with what I read recently in an emacs discussion on HN, wherein they were unable to merge a popular package into emacs without Stallman's rubber stamp despite him being essentially uninvolved since 2008.

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#33

Post by ezoe »

Boothroid wrote: post #2

I was amazed to see that Stallman doesn't install his OS himself - hasn't for years. He seemed diminished in my eyes after I learnt this.

Probably for the tough requirements for the free enough computer he can get today.

He is currently using Lenovo thinkpad X60, flashing free bios, then install Trisquel(Ubuntu minus non-free binary blobs).

Probably harder to install than most of us do(get non-free binary blob infected compute and install linux kernel with a lot of non-free binary blobs)

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#34

Post by boomboomsubban »

taneq wrote: post #20
drakenot wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umQL37AC_YM A video where he talks about never installing his own OS.

"A beginner shouldn't be installing operating systems"? If a moderately-intelligent, moderately-literate beginner can't install your operating system, then your operating system (or at least, its user interface) is crap. Edit: Just to be clear, I'm responding to the quote, not calling Linux crap. I run a combination of Linux and Windows machines and VMs and they're both very straightforward to install, a complete beg…

No one installs Windows, and frankly it isn't a ton easier than installing free operating systems. It's only easier because you rarely run into driver issues, the computer was probably built to run Windows, and you're rarely trying to install it as a second operating system.

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#35

Post by generic_user »

gonzo wrote: post #24
generic_user wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occasionally people in the FLOSS community have been known to crack jokes and 'have fun'. Even tho most of the jokes are not very funny and the fun that is had is rather autistic by most peoples standards I see no reason why we should stop. Many of us have been listening to Stallman for close to 20 years and have been part of free software movement for that long. Having a good chuckle at Comrade Stallman expense is r…

> Many of us have been listening to Stallman for close to 20 years Some of us for over 30. rms enjoys jokes.

Its a mystery to me how some people don't understand that when Richard S puts a 5 inch disk platter on his head and gives a St. IGNUcius Sermon he wants you to laugh along because it a Joke.

Hes smart enough and confident enough to make himself the butt of the joke so we can all laugh along and have good time. Good grief.

Its a bit off topic sure but down votes, really? I suppose that's why I left the soul crushing corporate cathedral hell for a life in the bazaar in the first place. Can't say I miss the culture one bit.

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#36

Post by peterwwillis »

trestletech wrote: post #32

I feel like we're not far off from a digital version of the Amish. "Technology was perfected by the FSF in 2003; everything developed since is evil."

Just operating systems, and it was 30 years earlier by AT&T. Our user interfaces have gotten progressively worse, though, along with almost all user apps.

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#37

Post by yellowapple »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #34
taneq wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A beginner shouldn't be installing operating systems"? If a moderately-intelligent, moderately-literate beginner can't install your operating system, then your operating system (or at least, its user interface) is crap. Edit: Just to be clear, I'm responding to the quote, not calling Linux crap. I run a combination of Linux and Windows machines and VMs and they're both very straightforward to install, a complete beg…

No one installs Windows, and frankly it isn't a ton easier than installing free operating systems. It's only easier because you rarely run into driver issues, the computer was probably built to run Windows, and you're rarely trying to install it as a second operating system.

"rarely run into driver issues"

My decade's worth of experiences having to transfer over wired (wired!) NIC drivers onto computers that are completely supported by the average Linux distro because Windows doesn't ship with them strongly suggests otherwise.

Windows has thankfully gotten better about this lately (e.g. in the Windows 10 era), but the continued lack of drivers in the default install is really annoying when said drivers are for devices that virtually every free operating system supports out of the box.

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#38

Post by wutwutwutwut »

setr wrote: post #22
ovao wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't it speak rather poorly for free software if installing it is a "massive PITA"?

ALL software does this. If it works, I might as well have let someone else do the waiting. If it doesn't, then It requires a few hours mindlessly running around until you find some stupid flag that was set. Which I might as well leave to somebody else to do. That this is the state of software is a pretty damn good thing, that most of it has become busywork. But its still busywork and I don't why I'd ever want to do i…

I wouldn't consider it busywork. You don't have to sit and wait for the progress bar to move. Start the installation and go for lunch.

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#39

Post by yellowapple »

Boothroid wrote: post #2

I was amazed to see that Stallman doesn't install his OS himself - hasn't for years. He seemed diminished in my eyes after I learnt this.

Makes sense to me. I'd assume that an org the size of the FSF would have pretty standard imaging procedures. If Stallman doesn't need or want to deviate from, say, the FSF-wide Trisquel image, then why should he?

Re: Richard Stallman Explains [video]

#40

Post by amelius »

trestletech wrote: post #32

I feel like we're not far off from a digital version of the Amish. "Technology was perfected by the FSF in 2003; everything developed since is evil."

Everything developed by big companies that deals with our data on their premises is evil.

We should simply not allow that, and let big companies just develop the hardware.

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