Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing • Hacker News Board

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#41

Post by benihana » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:36 AM UTC

His tone is so arrogant and condescending.

>I recommend all the ethical distros — namely, those that are 100% free software.

i.e.: Any distro that uses anything that I don't like, namely 100% free software, is unethical.

>If you don't know Lisp (or its variant, Scheme), you don't appreciate what a powerful language is.

If some random person on hacker news came out and said this, we'd call them a buffoon and say they need to get out more. When Richard Stallman says it, we lap up his words and marvel at his terse wit.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#42

Post by homosaur » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:36 AM UTC

The one thing I get kind of annoyed with Stallman at is that he keeps mentioning this Leemote machine he has, which runs free software even in the BIOS. He might as well say that he runs Linux on a magical unicorn.

I have tried and never been able to get my hands on one of these things. I'd really like to see Stallman jump off his insistence on free for one second and maybe suggest something realistic for users who care about free software but aren't willing to work on an obscure, unavailable 7" netbook.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#43

Post by Czarnian » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:40 AM UTC

ajross wrote: post #38

billpatrianakos wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not mocking. Definitely being a little sarcastic. But why do we have to get into a holy war over Stallman. You know as well as I do that what I said is true but unfortunately Stallman's cult following absolutely must punish anyone who points out the obvious. So I said what I needed to. I was actually being sincere, not trying to outright mock him for the sake of mocking him.

Like most people, I find Stallman strange. His methods are quirky, and his language grating. He alienates his allies more often than his enemies. He picks fights at the wrong times. He stands behind principle in circumstances where it clearly hurts his cause. But... he's right. Almost always, he's right. He's made a 40 year career now of being right: often decades before the rest of us figure it out. That's enough fo…

Serious question. What exactly is he right about?

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#44

Post by oconnor0 » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:41 AM UTC

why-el wrote: post #37

ajross wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python's read doesn't return a s-expression, nor does its print take one; they just use strings. It's eval likewise takes a string. The part missing that lisp has is the inspectable data structure containing an arbitrary parse tree and function result.

I am curious, would Ruby be a good fit in this case? With its irb and all.

No, Ruby's implementation of it's interactive mode is similar to Python's - not via data structures, but via strings.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#45

Post by guelo » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:45 AM UTC

billpatrianakos wrote: post #10

Oh boy. RMS wrote yet another opinion that we just have to read. I'll be hated for this but I must state the obvious. This is a list of really boring opinions. Interesting for rms fanatics but many are barely explained and most aren't realistic to actually try out unless you want to be a software philosopher for a living. Did people just see Stallman in the title and up vote? Come on.

I get it, you don't like RMS, but just because it's on the front page doesn't mean you have to read this story. The way HN works is people vote up stories they find interesting. Since different people find different things interesting very often there will be stories on the front page that you don't find interesting. Every time that happens you shouldn't write a comment complaining that the story is boring and the people who voted for it are dumb. Instead you should just ignore it and move on.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#46

Post by stiff » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:46 AM UTC

billpatrianakos wrote: post #10

Oh boy. RMS wrote yet another opinion that we just have to read. I'll be hated for this but I must state the obvious. This is a list of really boring opinions. Interesting for rms fanatics but many are barely explained and most aren't realistic to actually try out unless you want to be a software philosopher for a living. Did people just see Stallman in the title and up vote? Come on.

If you do not find it interesting, do not up-vote it. I find your opinion really boring. Interesting maybe for Bill Patriankos fanatics, but barely explained. Did people just see Patriankos and up vote? Come on.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#47

Post by tprice7 » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:47 AM UTC

guelo wrote: post #45

billpatrianakos wrote: post #10

Oh boy. RMS wrote yet another opinion that we just have to read. I'll be hated for this but I must state the obvious. This is a list of really boring opinions. Interesting for rms fanatics but many are barely explained and most aren't realistic to actually try out unless you want to be a software philosopher for a living. Did people just see Stallman in the title and up vote? Come on.

I get it, you don't like RMS, but just because it's on the front page doesn't mean you have to read this story. The way HN works is people vote up stories they find interesting. Since different people find different things interesting very often there will be stories on the front page that you don't find interesting. Every time that happens you shouldn't write a comment complaining that the story is boring and the pe…

Or try this:

http://www.thoughtocean.com/what/dilution

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#48

Post by UK-AL » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:49 AM UTC

benihana wrote: post #41

His tone is so arrogant and condescending. >I recommend all the ethical distros — namely, those that are 100% free software. i.e.: Any distro that uses anything that I don't like, namely 100% free software, is unethical. >If you don't know Lisp (or its variant, Scheme), you don't appreciate what a powerful language is. If some random person on hacker news came out and said this, we'd call them a buffoon and say they…

He has a point though, lisp is unique thus you need to try it to understand it.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#49

Post by stiff » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:54 AM UTC

benihana wrote: post #41

His tone is so arrogant and condescending. >I recommend all the ethical distros — namely, those that are 100% free software. i.e.: Any distro that uses anything that I don't like, namely 100% free software, is unethical. >If you don't know Lisp (or its variant, Scheme), you don't appreciate what a powerful language is. If some random person on hacker news came out and said this, we'd call them a buffoon and say they…

Honestly, what the hell are you talking about? He spend his life explaining why non-free software is unethical and providing free software, what this has to do with liking or not liking and what is arrogant about that? There are objective criteria by which non-free software is unethical and he certainly has the right to state his opinions on this.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#50

Post by krollew » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:54 AM UTC

I don't understand his point. I'd be very sad if set myself so strict rules. Terminal is powerful, but this doesn't mean not to user X11. I like *nix and open source, but why souldn't I use Windows (which i find very nice system since Windows 7). He says Lisp is powerful, I agree. I prefer Scheme, but it's the same strengh. However it doesn't mean I use only C and scheme. I rather use a rule - match programming language to task you do. Somethimes it's C, sometimes scheme, sometimes perl, sometimes even C#. And so on...