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FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

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Re: FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

#31

Post by bitdiddle »

pnathan wrote: post #27
mleonhard wrote: post #26

I think Richard Stallman would be more effective at getting his message across if his personal appearance was more in-line with the preferences of mainstream society.

Yeah, man looks at the outward. Unfortunately. I suspect that RMS's message would be rejected however he dressed: it is antithetical to many/most forms of business as we know it in the US. Actually, from what I've read of RMS, I'm not even sure how he envisions successful business to operate.

I'm not sure what you mean, are you saying one can't make money using GPL software? Are you saying programmers can't charge for their labor? What message are you referring to?

I see many successful businesses, for example IBM, making money hand over fist using Linux. Linux of course is "free software".

Re: FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

#32

Post by bitdiddle »

mleonhard wrote: post #26

I think Richard Stallman would be more effective at getting his message across if his personal appearance was more in-line with the preferences of mainstream society.

I would find this comment shocking and insulting if weren't trotted out so often.

One might argue with Stallman's ideas, but he walks the talk and he sticks to his guns.

Re: FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

#33

Post by bitdiddle »

StudyAnimal wrote: post #29

Two minor points. 1. The are not really new books. Both are new editions of older books. 2. One of the books is not by Richard Stallman, it is his biography written by someone else.

definitely, both worth reading also especially for the historical context. I found the whole section on the Symbolics machine quite interesting as I was working on one at the time and was completely unaware at what was happening at the Mit lab.

Re: FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

#34

Post by gwern »

nddrylliog wrote: post #22
gwern wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is maliciously intended and adds nothing to any conversation. Further, if you genuinely wondered as to whether he is a better prosodist than speaker, Stallman is a prolific author with many essays and articles available online which you could read & judge. (My own take, having read the originals of both books covered by the OP, is that Stallman is a perfectly readable writer. He will never win awards for…

ma·li·cious /məˈliSHəs/ Adjective: Characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm. I don't think my comment qualifies as malicious. It might be an uncomfortable truth, that he's really not that fit for public speech and that his time is better spent writing programs and literature. (Also, what does http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prosody has to do with writing free software ideology? Last time I che…

Your comment was not meant in a spirit of helpful critique, saying either that Stallman could work on his oratory or should optimize and spend his time writing more. I'll quote your original comment: "Let's hope he can write better than he speaks."

(As for 'prosody', yes, my bad. I was misled by 'poesy' and 'prose'.)

Re: FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

#35

Post by 100tonmantis »

msbarnett wrote: post #17
listic wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with PDF support on Kindle?

PDFs are just a terrible eBook format. They bake in a fixed page size, usually 8.5x11 inches. The Kindle's screen being physically smaller than that, your display options are limited to scaling an image of the 8.5x11 page down to fit into 4.8x3.6 screen, at which point fonts are generally too small to read, or attempting to reflow the PDF's contents on-the-fly, which is noticeably slow and typically only gives accept…

Kindle DX should display a 8.5x11 pdf correctly. I haven't used one personally though.

Re: FSF announces publication of two new books by Richard Stallman

#36

Post by nddrylliog »

gwern wrote: post #34
nddrylliog wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ma·li·cious /məˈliSHəs/ Adjective: Characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm. I don't think my comment qualifies as malicious. It might be an uncomfortable truth, that he's really not that fit for public speech and that his time is better spent writing programs and literature. (Also, what does http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prosody has to do with writing free software ideology? Last time I che…

Your comment was not meant in a spirit of helpful critique, saying either that Stallman could work on his oratory or should optimize and spend his time writing more. I'll quote your original comment: "Let's hope he can write better than he speaks." (As for 'prosody', yes, my bad. I was misled by 'poesy' and 'prose'.)

Well, you do make a point.

My original comment would've been funny to anyone having seen him give a speech in French. But it wasn't really helpful indeed. The open letter from Alexey, though was helpful http://alexeymk.com/dear-dr-stallman-the-aftermath - but it's not like Richie is going to listen anyway (his response was a pirouette, and not subtle at that: http://alexeymk.com/dear-dr-stallman-the-aftermath)

Oh, also, for people downvoting me purely because I'm touching their idol, fuck you. Fanaticism is harmful and I have no sympathy for it. Of all the people you could've chosen to adore, he's really not the best choice. Some of his ideas about freedom are interesting, indeed, but the man himself is the opposite of tolerance, doesn't listen to anyone, and is generally a wreck to manage (truth be told: when he comes to give conference, he has at least one person dedicated to "managing" him. I understand celebrities have that treatment but he's unnecessarily picky about things like temperature, air flow, etc., etc. You should really see his list of conditions..) When he came to Geneva in a panel of speakers he kept interrupting everyone, eating pretty much anything while he spoke and correcting people everytime they said "closed source" instead of "proprietary"... he's done a lot of good to the software community but maybe it's just time he retires?

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