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Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

blogs.computerworld.com

11–20 of 67 posts

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#11
post #4
post #3

From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can." Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment…

He certainly is serious. But as long as his ridiculous totalitarian/communist ideas only apply to software, he's mostly harmless.

HN, wtf. Stallman is many things but would never, ever be "totalitarian/communist." Who is voting this troll up? Come on, this is supposed to be a hacker site.

He even talks about regime change in Cuba to open up.

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#12
post #2

Good article. RMS has an honest take on Cuba. Open source can lead to other freedoms - some good discussion of software freedom. "DT: I've editorialized that U.S. companies should be allowed to compete in Cuba. What's your position on that? RMS: I really don't care. From my point of view, business issues are minor in comparison with issues of human rights and general well-being. "

Depends on what he means by business issues . A very good argument can be easily made that a fiat currency is a necessary but not sufficient element in modern well-being. Prior to fiat currencies there was a fixed amount of gold, and every coin in your pocket was a coin out of someone else's pocket. Imagine a fixed number of software copies, a gold based currency is a lot like DRM for money. Further more you can easi…

Good point - business issues and quality of life are not mutually exclusive.

But for me, I interpreted the statement as "When business issues and quality of life issues are in conflict and you have to choose one over the other, I choose quality of life issues". Maybe I misread.

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#13
post #7

"One of the things we see when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs, and we see this in the U.S. all the time. The U.S. government has ceased to effectively monitor the market to make sure it works well. Instead, it is a tool in the hands of big business." I think Stallman's views tend towards the extreme but I have to agree with this one.

> when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs It's called Regulatory Capture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture It happens all the time. The vast majority of regulation ends up doing nothing more than giving the existing large competitors in a space a tool to keep out new entrants and smaller, scrappier competitors. One of the reasons that the software industry is do dynamic…

An illustration of this point is that in the UK the regulations for electricians, and building contractors in general, actually promotes small companies. They're usually either a two-man team or a father-son op. In fact the largest I ever saw was a three man team, which was a two-man team with one of their sons.

The point is, is that the regulations actually keep the income evenly disbursed. Essentially everyone is earning between £60,000 and £100,000 a year depending on what you do and how well you do it. However, when you work for a company (companies seem to exclusively do large businesses like factories and the few that don't have very bad reps) you earn much less, some get paid between £40,000 and £60,000. You, of course, get you tools paid for but they're a one time purchase, I mean our most expensive piece of equipment was a £1,000 tester and it has a 10 year warranty on it, so there is literally no incentive to go with one of those companies.

The companies actually run a scam, they hire people who aren't certified electricians, which is perfectly acceptable and legal. However they'll never train them to be certified, they just use already-certified electricians to certify everyone's work is done correctly. Again this is unfair on the certified electricians because if anyone screws up and he doesn't catch it, he's liable and that can include a prison sentence if someone dies from shoddy work.

My point is that regulation can be used in many ways. Big business takes over the regulators, but when used effectively a regulator can actually promote smaller business and stop economic pyramid schemes forming (AKA big business, people work for minimum wage so that the people at the top can earn over a million a year).

The fact that software isn't regulated is a good thing right now. There's lots of competition and there's self-regulation going on. There's lots of virus' out there, but if you stick to the sites certified by Microsoft and don't go on any sites that google suggests may be harmful to your computer, then you're largely to be fine. However, if companies like Google and Microsoft weren't providing some form of assistance to users, then I believe the software industry would need regulation, which would probably kill millions of blogs and social websites.

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#14
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He certainly is serious. But as long as his ridiculous totalitarian/communist ideas only apply to software, he's mostly harmless.

HN, wtf. Stallman is many things but would never, ever be "totalitarian/communist." Who is voting this troll up? Come on, this is supposed to be a hacker site. He even talks about regime change in Cuba to open up.

I think he just forgot "unamerican"

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when businesses have too much power is that they corrupt those watchdogs It's called Regulatory Capture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture It happens all the time. The vast majority of regulation ends up doing nothing more than giving the existing large competitors in a space a tool to keep out new entrants and smaller, scrappier competitors. One of the reasons that the software industry is do dynamic…

An illustration of this point is that in the UK the regulations for electricians, and building contractors in general, actually promotes small companies. They're usually either a two-man team or a father-son op. In fact the largest I ever saw was a three man team, which was a two-man team with one of their sons. The point is, is that the regulations actually keep the income evenly disbursed. Essentially everyone is e…

> The companies actually run a scam, they hire people who aren't certified electricians, which is perfectly acceptable and legal. However they'll never train them to be certified, they just use already-certified electricians to certify everyone's work is done correctly. Again this is unfair on the certified electricians because if anyone screws up and he doesn't catch it, he's liable and that can include a prison sentence if someone dies from shoddy work.

You may not like the choice that those certified electricians are making, but they clearly prefer it to their alternatives (such as running a two person shop).

Me - I see a significant cost savings. I don't care about certificates. I care about output and cost.

Note that regulatory capture actually isn't specific to big biz. It's often implemented by mobs of small biz trying to reduce competition. In the US you can see this in hair cutting and interior design. It sounds like electricians have done the same in the UK.

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#16
"Well, they were probably a bit surprised, because they never thought about these things in these terms. But now I'm in touch with somebody who has converted one youth club to use free software, and he's now talking with the people who run the other youth clubs in his region, trying to convert them. So something's finally getting done."

Notice the religious terminology. The Church of Emacs, eh.

edit: Is it possible to use bold here?

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#17
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An illustration of this point is that in the UK the regulations for electricians, and building contractors in general, actually promotes small companies. They're usually either a two-man team or a father-son op. In fact the largest I ever saw was a three man team, which was a two-man team with one of their sons. The point is, is that the regulations actually keep the income evenly disbursed. Essentially everyone is e…

> The companies actually run a scam, they hire people who aren't certified electricians, which is perfectly acceptable and legal. However they'll never train them to be certified, they just use already-certified electricians to certify everyone's work is done correctly. Again this is unfair on the certified electricians because if anyone screws up and he doesn't catch it, he's liable and that can include a prison sen…

> In the US you can see this in hair cutting and interior design.

On a tangent, the story behind SuperCuts is quite fascinating. A 6'8" former truck driver who had a mid-life crisis and enrolled in beautician school. Page 182/250

http://www.scribd.com/doc/4870487/Conversations-withMilliona...

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Supercuts-I...

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#19
post #2

Good article. RMS has an honest take on Cuba. Open source can lead to other freedoms - some good discussion of software freedom. "DT: I've editorialized that U.S. companies should be allowed to compete in Cuba. What's your position on that? RMS: I really don't care. From my point of view, business issues are minor in comparison with issues of human rights and general well-being. "

Business freedoms lead to human rights and general well-being. Having a thriving private economy gives people choice over their profession. Increased wealth means people have more choice over their lives. Cuba legalized the private purchase of cell phones and computers in 2008, but most people are far too poor to buy one. If that were to change, it would be a clear improvement in Cubans' lives.

Let us not forget the legions of Cubans who have risked their lives on makeshift rafts to find a better life in the United States.

Re: Richard Stallman on his experience in Cuba

#20
post #3

From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can." Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment…

If the cost of using Linux is less than the cost of using Windows, but the cost of ripping out existing Windows and re-training users is large enough to overwhelm the gain, then a population that uses neither but could learn Linux is at an advantage.

You're assuming that learning a PC operating system is an end in and of itself. It isn't. People in the real world use computers to get stuff done. For a Linux-using population to have an "advantage" you first need to know what they want to accomplish, then you need show how it can be done more quickly and easily on Linux, which is where the Linux house of cards comes tumbling down. This is not "year zero" of the Linux desktop.
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