Richard Stallman's Computer Setup • Hacker News Board

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#11

Post by thurn » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

sek wrote: post #6

Well, not the best way to expand your horizon. When he would use things like the iPad from time to time, he would understand that convenience is the biggest threat to open source. Nobody cares how free Stallman's device really is. When he would speak for better open source devices, he would actually make progress. Right now is Shuttleworth advancing the free software movement to be accessible for everyone. Reminds me…

Google and Facebook would never exist the way they do today without the free software movement. Both of them rely on a huge stack of open-source technology. Stallman's ideas are what makes it possible for a college kid to run a web startup today essentially for free.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#12

Post by ordinary » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

why-el wrote: post #3

It's awesome how small this entry is compared to what other developers would describe as their setup.

On the other hand, "mail is what [he does] most of the time". I don't mean to belittle his achievements, I'm generally a fan of Stallman, but if that's really the case, then maybe we should call him a manager, rather than a developer.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#13

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

thurn wrote: post #11

sek wrote: post #6

Well, not the best way to expand your horizon. When he would use things like the iPad from time to time, he would understand that convenience is the biggest threat to open source. Nobody cares how free Stallman's device really is. When he would speak for better open source devices, he would actually make progress. Right now is Shuttleworth advancing the free software movement to be accessible for everyone. Reminds me…

Google and Facebook would never exist the way they do today without the free software movement. Both of them rely on a huge stack of open-source technology. Stallman's ideas are what makes it possible for a college kid to run a web startup today essentially for free.

[deleted]

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#14

Post by lysol » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

Argorak wrote: post #10

kprobst wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a very appealing setup, period.

Practically? No. From the ultra-geek perspective? Yes.

The real geeks I know what to get work done, not send email all day.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#15

Post by rudiger » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

You have to give the guy some credit; Stallman believes in the free software movement, fights for it, and refuses to compromise his rights or values.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#16

Post by maxer » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

kprobst wrote: post #7

mino wrote: post #5

Not a very appealing setup in 2012.

Not a very appealing setup, period.

derek sivers almost has a comparable setup on the software end

http://derek.sivers.usesthis.com/

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#17

Post by aquinn » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

mino wrote: post #5

Not a very appealing setup in 2012.

He runs a modern full featured gnu/linux distribution like a lot of people, just rarely boots into the desktop.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#18

Post by asto » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:47 PM UTC

Argorak wrote: post #10

kprobst wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a very appealing setup, period.

Practically? No. From the ultra-geek perspective? Yes.

What sort of ultra-geek uses that sort of setup? The current generation of that notebook has a processor that runs at less than 1GHz! The only reason he gets away with it is that he mostly does mail on emacs from console.

It's too minimalist for any present day software development work

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#19

Post by _delirium » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

sek wrote: post #6

Well, not the best way to expand your horizon. When he would use things like the iPad from time to time, he would understand that convenience is the biggest threat to open source. Nobody cares how free Stallman's device really is. When he would speak for better open source devices, he would actually make progress. Right now is Shuttleworth advancing the free software movement to be accessible for everyone. Reminds me…

I don't think there's anything new there conceptually; Stallman is quite aware that convenience is one way that proprietary software wins over users, because that was also true in the 1980s. What benefit would there be if RMS used an iPad? He's not a UI designer for any GNU software, so he doesn't really need to do it for field research. The main software he's involved with at all (mainly GNU Emacs these days, afaik) is not really targeted at the same demographic as the iPad anyway.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#20

Post by lunarscape » Sat, Feb 04, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

schraeds wrote: post #8

upthedale wrote: post #4

Richard Stallman's Computer Setup from 2 years ago

And I bet he is still waiting to find a laptop that his free and open to replace is yulong

He won't have to wait long. Yeeloong have a quad-core Loongson-3A 13.3" laptop on the way.