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Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

stallman.org

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Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#281

Post by astrodust »

pwang wrote: post #243
pessimizer wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because slaves would have magicked out of slavery due to the passage of time? I'm not sure why you would laugh in their face rather than suggest alternative scenarios where other processes might have eliminated slavery if Lincoln hadn't happened. I'm not smart enough to understand your comment. Are you saying that free software would have inevitably come to exist with or without Stallman? If you are, I'd say the burd…

Um, free software was the way of the world before Bill Gates popularized the selling of the stuff. Stallman rose to the occasion as the defender of the "old way". He did not "invent" free software, whatever that means. (He did invent the Copyleft license, but there are many other licenses of free software besides Copyleft.)

Free software in the domain of personal computers, which at the time were still hand assembled and didn't even have a functioning display, was the only way anyone knew how to do it until Bill Gates wanted money for BASIC.

IBM, of course, had been charging money for software for decades prior to that.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#282

Post by ard0r »

rimantas wrote: post #81
HNatWORK wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is right to fight for Free software because it empowers the weak, the poor, the oppressed, and also hobbyists, even though there is certainly non-Free software that does so as well (routers for example may carry speech freely but may not be Free themselves). He takes this philosophy to extremes to make his point.

Hand waiving, hand waiving. Last I heard oppressed were quite empovered by twitter, facebook and mobile phones—those parasitic and evil tools, according to rms. I am talking about Arab Spring. That's the best example that he is talking bullshit. I see no point of admiring man just be cause he is too stubborn not to ignore reality. Would I admire young earth creationist sticking to his believs despite all the science?…

Twitter and Facebook at least benefit from Free software, and people benefit vicariously. You don't have to be a programmer to benefit.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#283

Post by ricardobeat »

ktizo wrote: post #275
ricardobeat wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10kv is not something I'd consider safe in a household. That's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I don't think this attitude is healthy around here - I'm not a native english speaker, and I know shit about electronics - the argument was completely ignored while I was hung out to dry because of a bad analogy.

Do yourself a favour and learn about electronics then before starting to debate what is possible in electronics with people who design and build electronics. 'getting started in electronics' by forrest mims is not a bad starting point. 10kv can be perfectly safe and is in the same ballpark as the static charges you get from nylon sweaters. Also, funny you should mention nuclear reactors, there was a teenager on TED w…

Sorry, I didn't realize this thread was about electronics.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#284

Post by burgerbrain »

ricardobeat wrote: post #283
ktizo wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do yourself a favour and learn about electronics then before starting to debate what is possible in electronics with people who design and build electronics. 'getting started in electronics' by forrest mims is not a bad starting point. 10kv can be perfectly safe and is in the same ballpark as the static charges you get from nylon sweaters. Also, funny you should mention nuclear reactors, there was a teenager on TED w…

Sorry, I didn't realize this thread was about electronics.

I think this explains a lot really...

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#285

Post by mixmastamyk »

hackermom wrote: post #276
mixmastamyk wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was the page forced on you somehow? Do you have some specific criticism or even evidence of it being untrue? I can believe it has some basis in reality, there was an episode just last year where purchased orwell books were stolen off kindles.

Is Skype forced on me? Is Amazon forced on me? Is Facebook forced on me?

Sorry, I don't follow.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#286

Post by goggles99 »

rpicard wrote: post #252
goggles99 wrote: post #250

I was surprised to find such an article here. I thought that this site was all about promoting starups? If you think about it for a minute, Richard Stallman's point of view would eliminate most startups that ycombinator promotes (directly or indirectly). They would fail financially. He mentions using google and duckduckgo on friends computers. Do you think he would consider clicking on adverts free? I don't think so…

I think you might misunderstand what he means by "free". https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

No, not at all:

source: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html "...Roughly, the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software."

What would this do to most startups today?

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#287

Post by prodigal_erik »

corkill wrote: post #104
fleitz wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And exactly what does he pay bank fees for if not for the bank to setup ATMs and such to enable him access to his cash. He could keep his cash under his mattress, but chooses not to instead of just admitting cash under a mattress is too inconvenient and that he's rather pay his bank to setup ATMs with non-free software for his benefit. Skype is an exception but the PSTN is not? This is intellectual BS to the highest…

"supporting fascism." Yet every time my POS license restricted windows PC crashes I feel good. Because Bill Gates is giving billions to charity and working on wiping diseases off entire continents.

That money was extorted from our industry (in a process which also wasted years of progress in intellectual toolmaking). If he deserves your money more than you do, why haven't you given the rest of it to him?

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#290

Post by zach95 »

goggles99 wrote: post #286
rpicard wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might misunderstand what he means by "free". https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

No, not at all: source: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html "...Roughly, the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software." What would this do to most startups today?

Most startups...do you have any data on the business model of most startups?

Presumably, if a startup is working from GPLed software, it's business model would be to offer training, support, custom modification and preferential updates and features. Lots of big players like IBM, Oracle and RedHat are making billions from this approach. There's lots of untapped markets and plenty of room for entrepreneurs here too. I think that even Microsoft is getting in on this game.

If it's working from MIT/BSD-licensed software, then it can close that software off and put restrictions on what people who buy it can do with it. Apple is taking this route.

Startups are also free to develop their own closed source, freedom-restricted software. Of course, then they generally have to compete in quality with software which doesn't restrict user freedom. It's especially hard for startups to offer closed source freedom restricted software because customers expect startups to fail, and then they are stuck with a product that can't be maintained or updated.

Startups are also free not to distribute their software in which case even with software under freedom-preserving licenses they don't have to distribute the code. They could do this for example by offering web services that used this software.

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