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Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

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Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#141

Post by cybercrow »

treeface wrote: post #38
vog wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a happy fellow of the FSFE ( http://fsfe.org/ ), the European pendant to the FSF. Sometimes we also discuss FSF campaigns, and usually agree that those would almost certainly be counter-productive here in Europe, especially things like the "Windows 7 sins". However, we always thought: Well, the USA have a different culture, so maybe this kind of campaign is needed there, and probably our style of campaign would n…

Perhaps this a silly question, but why don't you guys expand your campaigns to the US? Why the geographic limitation?

As vog already explained, in many cases it is good to have people locally availabe. But FSFE does world wide campaigns too.

One example would be the Document Freedom Day: documentfreedom.org

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#142

Post by leftcoaster »

abrahamsen wrote: post #118
rosser wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many of the vegetarians I've known, that's a secondary argument, the primary being a healthier lifestyle.

The analogy works fine. We have the politically motivated FSF on the "meat is murder" side, and on the other hand the Open Source movements belief that open source is simply a more practical way to develop software on the "healthier lifestyle" side. I wouldn't expect PETA to stop with their off-putting campaigns ("Your Mommy Kill Animals"), it is what they genuinely believe, and for them keeping silent and advocating…

And let's not forget that RMS' views create the space that moderates inhabit. In other words, if there were no RMS, the moderates would be the extremists and we'd all be poorer for it.

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#143

Post by bostonpete »

kabdib wrote: post #91
bostonpete wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious -- what is considered a commercial Emacs clone?

There are a few commercial clones. I use Epsilon (by Lugaru Software) because I think it's faster and behaves more reasonably on Windows than Gnu Emacs, and I'm used to it. That said, I'm sure that Gnu Emacs is fine.

I was intrigued until I saw the $250 price tag. Yikes... http://www.lugaru.com/to-order.html

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#144

Post by Joeri »

singular wrote: post #46
patrickaljord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If he thinks u.s goverment is to blame for 9/11, no matter how saying it in a lecture seems childish, he will say it. By the way he doesn't believe that. Last time I read about his opinion on the subject he said that proofs were lacking on both sides (truther and non-truther) but that it was probably the work of religious fundamentalists (either christians or muslims).

To be honest, if he believes that 'proofs are lacking on both sides' then I've just lost quite a significant amount of respect for the man. If the 'truthers' are correct then many hundreds, if not thousands, of people decided to conspire to murder thousands of innocent civilians and, somehow, managed to prevent any leaking of this whatsoever. On this basis alone, the idea that 9/11 was a conspiracy is insane, before…

OK, hundreds would be impossible and silly, but why would it take hundreds? Suppose Cheney decided by himself to let the attacks happen, could he have, without anyone catching on? If not he alone, who else would be needed? No more than five surely.

Discounting a conspiracy as impossible is just as silly as arguing a conspiracy of hundreds. Improbable, yes, impossible, no.

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#145

Post by [deleted] »

kmfrk wrote: post #126
hvs wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exaggeration and negative campaigns can work in the U.S., but as soon as "hyperbole" starts sounding like "crazy conspiracy theory" Americans tend to shut down. For the majority of Americans (contrary to the loudest voices in the political sphere), being outside of the "mainstream" is the kiss of death. I say all of that as a libertarian member of the FSF who disagrees with the way that many of the FSF's campaigns ar…

That doesn't stop some big organizations from doing it, though. Just look at PETA.

[deleted]

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#146

Post by 5l »

schrototo wrote: post #117
doki_pen wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ridiculous to think that there is no possibility that there were people who could have prevented it, but choose not to.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Even better, when ignorant, don't attribute it to anything.

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#147

Post by Joeri »

rbanffy wrote: post #140
doki_pen wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ridiculous to think that there is no possibility that there were people who could have prevented it, but choose not to.

While I think the intelligence agencies were just incompetent to identify the proper threat, perhaps for lack of an adequately warped imagination (911 was a game changer in the rules of plane highjacking - nobody ever used a passenger plane as a missile before), I don't think anyone allowed it to happen on purpose. However, the president and his associates certainly saw the opportunity and ran with it. The damage don…

"911 was a game changer in the rules of plane highjacking - nobody ever used a passenger plane as a missile before"

True for civilian planes, but it stretches the imagination a little too far that the US military could discount planes as missiles, given the precedent of pearl harbor.

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#148

Post by StavrosK »

vog wrote: post #27
microtonal wrote: post #3

Years back, I used to be an FSF member. Not that I liked the GPL much (in fact, I mostly use the Apache License), but they raised important issues, and had a track record of investing into fine software (GNU) that I benefitted from a lot. However, their campaigns were getting so off-target, that much of my sympathy dwindled, and I ended my membership. Childish 'anti' advertising, such as 'BadVista' and DDoSing Apple'…

I'm a happy fellow of the FSFE ( http://fsfe.org/ ), the European pendant to the FSF. Sometimes we also discuss FSF campaigns, and usually agree that those would almost certainly be counter-productive here in Europe, especially things like the "Windows 7 sins". However, we always thought: Well, the USA have a different culture, so maybe this kind of campaign is needed there, and probably our style of campaign would n…

It's interesting how advertising cultures are different. In Greece, for example, it is unthinkable for an ad to acknowledge the competition, especially in a negative light.

It was a rather big shock for me when I saw a US ad for a Ford car (for example) saying "our fuel consumption is X lower than the Prius".

This would never happen in Greece. At most, they would say "our fuel consumption is X lower than the nearest competitor".

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#149

Post by danenania »

Ignoring the particulars of the issue, I think it's sad that non-mainstream views on 9/11 automatically makes someone a valid target for ad hominem attacks, even in educated and intellectual circles. This form of social exclusion is essentially nationalistic and a dangerous trend.

While conspiracy fetishism is unfortunate, it's good to have people questioning the official line, and it isn't as if all the facts around 9/11 are clear cut--yes, there is much unsupported speculation that can be thrown out immediately, but simply positing government involvement on some level is not a priori outlandish.

I don't think we should expect anything different from Stallman, or any radical thinker. Controversy is part of the job.

Re: Dear Dr. Stallman: An Open Letter

#150

Post by masmullin »

rosser wrote: post #50
rdouble wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if you are being facetious, but the main argument for vegetarianism is that "meat is murder."

For many of the vegetarians I've known, that's a secondary argument, the primary being a healthier lifestyle.

That's strange, all of the vegetarians I know are very clear that being vegetarian adds an extra difficulty in living a healthy lifestyle because getting enough protean is difficult. Vegetarianism, for them, is entirely a moral issue, and is in fact a detriment to a healthy lifestyle.
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