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Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

richard.stallman.usesthis.com

21–30 of 262 posts

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#21
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…

What of BSD? The stack /can/ be the same even.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#22
post #18
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I know a reasonable number of present-day developers who use a setup not much more complex than that: emacs or vim in a console. Not very practical for webdev, but you can do scientific-computing or embedded dev that way. For scientific computing you'd probably want a beefier CPU to run tests, but those are often run remotely on a computing cluster anyway.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#23
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…

So what, he can use whatever He wants.

What's wrong with doing things "just to to feel better"? Or is it only OK when you consume more to feel better, not consume less to feel better?

(not to even start with "what did he achieve ..in 20 y")

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#24
post #11
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.

I think sek's post was more along the lines of "but what has he done for me lately?"

Right now, for every piece of open software that has enabled all kinds of world-changing good things, there's a dozen situations where open software is not a viable solution when compared to the closed alternatives for a wide variety of reasons, unless you're explicitly choosing to use only open software as a show of support for an ideological cause. What frustrates me about Stallman is that he spends his time lecturing people about why they're bad people for not using open software, instead of actively working to make open software a more appealing solution more of the time.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#25
post #14
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

The real geeks I know would at least dream of building a computer of which they control all pieces of software. Maybe for the achievement only, but they at least dream of it.

I am pretty sure that RMS gets his work done as well, whatever that work is. I wouldn't suspect him to be _lazy_.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#26
The saddest part of all this is that kids will read it and think "this is what 'sticking to my principles' is going to get me, so fuck it."

RMS used up his "I was there when" cred a long time ago. He's now the demented grandparent no one has the heart to tell to STFU when he yells at the TV. And yet simultaneously, one of the greats.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#27
post #15

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.

Richard Stallman is to software what Jean-Paul Sartres was to philosophy during his time and still now. JPS like RMS was living through his convictions and ideas to the point of refusing the Nobel prize because it would have tinted his motivations. RMS would do the same without any questions. Don't get them wrong: these people are not fanatic, they are just living and breathing a cause they started for a good reason. It takes courage not to give up to consumerism from corporates who try to milk everyone for the goal of making money and definitely not for bringing better living to our lives. Apple, Google, Facebook, they have a simple goal: $$$. When I see a guy talented and proficient like RMS defending his cause on a 9" OLPC, that takes guts.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#28
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…

"Stallman was responsible for contributing many necessary tools, including a text editor (Emacs), compiler (GCC), debugger (gdb), and a build automator (gmake)." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

Ignorance is incredible sometimes. We own both, Stallman and Torvalds a lot. I'm pretty sure Torvalds would tell you that he wouldn't make Linux without Stallman's work, in fact that's why Linux is GPL.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#29
post #15

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.

Which by and large hurts his position if that is to be held up as what it takes to follow the free software movement.

Re: Richard Stallman's Computer Setup

#30
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…

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