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Richard Stallman’s rider

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Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#151

Post by muyuu »

mef wrote: post #31

"I do NOT use browsers, I use the SSH protocol. If the network requires a proxy for SSH, I probably can't use it at all." I wondered if this applied to all net usage or just email, turns out he never uses a web browser, ever. If he needs the contents of a web page, he emails a daemon which wgets the page and emails it back to him: http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/

This takes me back. In the early/mid 90s, particularly in Universities, internet was slow as molasses and many of us used these mail interfaces, for web and also for FTP (FTPmail). In many places email was given most of the bandwidth and it was a lot faster like that. Big files would come Uuencoded in several parts. In Uni, usually pics of Cindy Crawford and Erika Eleniak among others.

Now it seems incredibly geeky but back then it wasn't anything remarkable at all.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#152

Post by shinratdr »

gonzo wrote: post #112

Whatever you do, do NOT let him stay in the home of someone you respect or like. I've done it twice, and both parties ended up literally burning the sheets, and wouldn't discuss further what had happened.

You absolutely must elaborate, please.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#153

Post by pnathan »

Udo wrote: post #136
dhechols wrote: post #44

Mr. Stallman is neither nice in manner or smell. His ideas, while visionary at times, are not pragmatic. He is his own worst enemy. Perhaps, however, it takes an unfriendly, smelly man to trumpet the ideas of freedom in the digital age. I'm ok with that.

I thought about voting that down or not. Instead I'm just going to comment. This smell thing is really uncalled for, isn't it. I must admit that I always admired what he does, but - maybe like you - I have come to the conclusion that this guy is probably not a nice person. Probably. Also, he kind of comes across as a one-trick pony. He literally can only think about one single issue. I believe when he thinks about th…

Last time I rummaged around his personal site, he had social and political commentary not focused on libre software issues.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#154

Post by mechnik »

stickfigure wrote: post #83
tibbon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Precisely. Nothing is left to ambiguity, and then hopefully the fewest possible things will go wrong. About the only thing that I laughed at (in joy) was the thing about parrots...

Nothing is left to ambiguity? A supply of tea with milk and sugar would be nice. If it is tea I really like, I like it without milk and sugar. With milk and sugar, any kind of tea is fine. I always bring tea bags with me, so if we use my tea bags, I will certainly like that tea without milk or sugar. Really, I think he's just screwing with us. Douglas Adams would be proud.

sounds like a Mother Goose tongue twister: she sells seashells by the seashore, the shells she sells are seashells I am sure, so if she sells seashells by the seashore, I am sure the shells are seashore seashells.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#155

Post by angus77 »

boyter wrote: post #128
metabrew wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I have more KDE code on my computer than GNU code. Both are undeniably useful, but no one is insisting on calling it KDE/Linux.

You do http://pedrocr.net/text/how-much-gnu-in-gnu-linux However since GNU software is the foundation on which most of the system is built you can argue that it has a much greater importance. "Measuring software productivity by lines of code is like measuring progress on an airplane by how much it weighs"

But that's taken from all the software available in the repos, not the software that's actually installed on people's systems. For instance, the pie chart shows slices for both Gnome and KDE. How many people have both installed on their systems? Or neither?

Now compare that to how many people have none of the GNU software on their systems.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#157

Post by boyter »

angus77 wrote: post #155
boyter wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do http://pedrocr.net/text/how-much-gnu-in-gnu-linux However since GNU software is the foundation on which most of the system is built you can argue that it has a much greater importance. "Measuring software productivity by lines of code is like measuring progress on an airplane by how much it weighs"

But that's taken from all the software available in the repos, not the software that's actually installed on people's systems. For instance, the pie chart shows slices for both Gnome and KDE. How many people have both installed on their systems? Or neither? Now compare that to how many people have none of the GNU software on their systems.

I would imagine (purely anecdotal) if you take just installed software then the GNU percentage increases as its generally installed on most systems. I would also imagine in the Linux/BSD world the number of people running without GNU software is in the very low single digits.

It's really difficult to determine the relative importance of one software project at this level over another they reliant on each other. The Linux kernel needs GNU as much as GNU needs the kernel (at the moment anyway). You can run the OS without KDE (hence not calling it KDE/Linux).

I can see Stallman's point as he set out to create an operating system called GNU, created almost all of the parts required which were then used by someone else to create a Kernel which was then packaged up with a different name.

Personally I think you can call GNU/Linux whatever you want as the licence its released under has nothing in there saying you need to give mention to GNU in the name. If you package it up you can call it Fred for all I care and I will refer to it as Fred.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#158

Post by Semiapies »

eliasmacpherson wrote: post #55

Thanks for this, but I can't help feeling like something of a voyeur for reading. It really is a burden to be in a position where your communications are divulged publicly, to be dissected. He's hardly Van Halen.

This is a document designed to be given to complete strangers while making arrangements for his speaking engagements. It's not that personal, really.

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#159

Post by jtheory »

maximusprime wrote: post #140
deadcyclo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't blame that on Stallman. He has always been completely clear and up front about what he will and will not speak about. And he always agrees on the topic ahead of time with who ever is arranging the event. In other words. Who ever arranged this graduation obviously did a horrible job, and is the person you should blame.

I think it's fair to assume most people have basic "people" skills, humility, manners etc. Unfortunately that isn't the case with Stallman. He's an obsessive fundamentalist only concerned with one topic.

He does, however, provide a rider before to anyone considering inviting him to speak that makes his personal obsession and his inflexibility around that obsession abundantly and explicitly clear.

I have a suspicion that whoever booked him simply didn't read it, or didn't understand it.

I mean, come on now -- other people make lots of noise about his eccentricities, and he himself basically wears a signboard explaining them, and then people are still surprised?

Re: Richard Stallman’s rider

#160

Post by sanderjd »

BrandonM wrote: post #116
FireBeyond wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, his "words to avoid" talks specifically about "GNU is not a tool set", either...

Are you going to argue that it is? Is GRUB merely a "tool" for booting your computer? Is libc a "tool" for exposing OS-provided functionality to software? Is GNOME a GUI "tool"?

Ok clearly you think the rest of your argument is obvious, but I'm going to be dense and say "yes", those are tools. Just as the Linux kernel is a tool for managing the various resources of the system. Maybe it's the word "merely" that's tripping things up, but I don't see how any of these things fail to fit the word "tool".
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