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Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

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Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#71

Post by msg »

Stallman's critique of software, hardware, and services as tools of social control has only become more relevant over the years. Can you imagine his search records being rifled through by a government investigator? Or his Facebook profile being examined by an employer? No, because they don't exist. Nor can you imagine his computer being locked by a bootloader that only allows "Genuine Windows".

He's not concerned about looking weird. For certain audiences this is a disadvantage. But he is concerned about tying his computing down to his core philosophy. He did it so well that you can almost hear him when he's not in the room. We should all be such effective weirdos.

At some level we have to trust a substrate of computing to get anything done. Stallman's work to make that substrate as trustworthy as possible was very farsighted.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#72

Post by wtn »

justauser wrote: post #12
fleitz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I checked iOS (the router OS) is not free, he probably does violate his own principles connecting to the Internet. Rms is like a vegan always preaching some moral high ground and always violating it whenever it becomes inconvenient.

If you're referring to Cisco, it's IOS. You're right though that the odds of him not touching something like IOS or JUNOS or IronWare border on close to impossible.

He meant to say "IOS", it's just that iOS autocorrects those characters.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#73

Post by jp_sc »

unabridged wrote: post #60

He seemed to cover everything but what phone he uses. Is the closed hardware of android acceptable? Or does he just stick with nonsmart phones?

He doesn't own a cell phone at all. "Stanlin's dream" he calls them. http://www.geekosystem.com/richard-stallman-cell-phones-stal...

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#74

Post by rimantas »

stiff wrote: post #49
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.

  > There are objective criteria by which non-free software
  > is unethical
I guess you have an pretty interesting interpretation what "objective" is.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#75

Post by rimantas »

jp_sc wrote: post #73
unabridged wrote: post #60

He seemed to cover everything but what phone he uses. Is the closed hardware of android acceptable? Or does he just stick with nonsmart phones?

He doesn't own a cell phone at all. "Stanlin's dream" he calls them. http://www.geekosystem.com/richard-stallman-cell-phones-stal...

He just borrows one when needed. How convenient.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#76

Post by gbog »

mrtron wrote: post #21

I think it is really tough for younger people to realize that technology can be seen as a highly dangerous in different forms. Instead of trashing his principles, perhaps try to see the motivation behind them. I respect anyone who establishes their own code and adheres firmly to it. RMS meets this criteria. He is also very open and honest about his views which I find refreshing. I also think that this type of boycott…

> I respect anyone who establishes their own code and adheres firmly to it.

You shouldn't. I'm sure there are many despicable people who did so on the wrong principles. You need to add that those principles are compatible with yours.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#77

Post by rimantas »

aurelianito wrote: post #53
Czarnian wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question. What exactly is he right about?

I don't know what the grand-parent was talking about, but if you want to read something that he foresaw before everybody (AFAIK) check the Right to Read essay ( http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html )

So, what is he right about?

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#79

Post by praptak »

turkeysandwich wrote: post #68
praptak wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python has a good REPL and it even has 'eval' and 'print', so RMS is wrong stating that all of them are missing in Python. But in principle he is right - Python does not have separate 'read' and 'eval' which is a manifestation of deeper differences.

The type of REPL he's referring to has very specific features. Read returns a parsed structure, eval evaluates a parsed structure and print writes a parsed structure. Python's REPL just deals with strings, I believe.

Yes, this is the case - Python's REPL (and eval) deals with strings and does not go through an explicit representation of the parsed code, mainly because there is no such representation in Python. There is an ast module that parses Python code but it is an add-on, not at the core of the implementation. That is what I meant by manifestation of deeper differences between Python and Lisp.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#80

Post by incosta »

rimantas wrote: post #75
jp_sc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't own a cell phone at all. "Stanlin's dream" he calls them. http://www.geekosystem.com/richard-stallman-cell-phones-stal...

He just borrows one when needed. How convenient.

Does he use his own toilet paper, or also borrows one for the occasion?
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