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RMS lifestyle

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Re: RMS lifestyle

#101

Post by yason »

simonsarris wrote: post #13

It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS Opinions" I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people. For instance: > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he co…

I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people.

But that's part of what makes his lifestyle his. I don't think you can have a lifestyle, much less live a life, without considering what you think about other people yourself. It's quite important, actually, because what you see in other people is a reflection of yourself. So, in effect, it tells us more about Stallman himself and Stallman's lifestyle than if he had just iterated some of his aesthetic preferences.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#102

Post by belorn »

ternaryoperator wrote: post #52
logjam wrote: post #38

Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs): 1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology Computer Society 1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant") 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray…

Dare I point out that his personal preferences in ties are the topic RMS spends the most amount of text on?

That is a statistical lie.

His music preferences are described with 2076 characters, while ties uses 1838.

You could state that ties is the singular item under a bullet point list with most text. However then we are either saying that music isn't "a singular item", or that in a compositional sense, RMS hasn't spaced the tie text with bullet points where for music he do.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#103

Post by skore »

mwfunk wrote: post #68

I see a lot of shock at the negative comments about RMS here. Those who are appalled at the lack of respect here need to understand that there are a lot of people within the tech world that have developed very complicated feelings about RMS over the course of the past 20-30 years. I mean, sure, a lot of people who don't know a whole lot about him or haven't had to deal with him over the course of decades might have s…

> they hate him, they love him, or they barely know who he is

I would suspect that for the majority of people, both the ones who hate and the ones who love him, barely know who he is.

I don't know him at all, but I would guess that if I did get to know him, I would find that he's just another human being - and being a human is often hard and weird, so we all cope differently.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#104

Post by klrr »

It's sad how people here nit-pick on this. He have done so damn much, and still you guys critize some silly behavior of his. I think it's mostly beacuase the frequent readers, contributors and commenters here on HN are software developers, business people and designers, not hackers...

Re: RMS lifestyle

#105

Post by waterlesscloud »

glurgh wrote: post #98
logjam wrote: post #38

Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs): 1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology Computer Society 1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant") 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray…

Surely several of these are possible, by any individual, at once. You can admire and benefit from Stallman's work and achievements, without necessarily agreeing with all of his positions. And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return.

"And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return."

No. It's really not.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#106

Post by skore »

dos1 wrote: post #7
dos1 wrote: post #4

Dude is so strange. I mean seriously, who knows that much about that many kinds of esoteric music? It's like he wants to be contrary to the rest of the population on purpose.

Edit: Fuck you HN. RMS is an extremist. I should hope that most of you have the critical thinking skills to realize that his extremism is just as dangerous as Timothy McVeigh's. Edit 2: Honest question, how can I delete my account on HN? I've come to realize (sadly) how many hours I've wasted on this bullshit. PG, please ban this account.

Yes, down with those extremist puppy cuddlers. Them, Al Qaeda: all the same.

Seeing you dying to leave HN proves to me in a very pleasing way that HN often just plain works.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#107

Post by belorn »

IvyMike wrote: post #2

It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car but sure as hell will mooch a ride. This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was ma…

I know many people who do not own a car. Somehow, the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? forever doomed to walk and always only walk? Given the city where I live, only about 10-20% of people I know has a car. That would make it kind of depressing if we dictated their lives in the way described.

Thats just don't make any sense. The fridge thing do, but after the first sentence in your comment I have a small distrust regarding if you are giving the whole context here. Maybe the fridge is used for shared purchases of drinks/food/snacks that everyone could take when needed. How did other people use the fridge, and what was the initial purpose when the fridge was bought?

Re: RMS lifestyle

#108

Post by glurgh »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #105
glurgh wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely several of these are possible, by any individual, at once. You can admire and benefit from Stallman's work and achievements, without necessarily agreeing with all of his positions. And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return.

"And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return." No. It's really not.

I think it is. If you make such a tremendous claim (and it is one), you're likely to hear some counterclaims. Even if they are 'your singing totally sucks'

http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-impossi...

Re: RMS lifestyle

#109

Post by pjscott »

foobarbazqux wrote: post #96
logjam wrote: post #38

Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs): 1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology Computer Society 1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant") 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray…

Copy pasta much? > But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties. So someone writes about their personal life, and then people discuss it. What the heck does a whole bunch of honorary doctorates from Latin America have to do with this? Obviously the people in Latin America like him. As far as I'm concerned, a single actual doctorate is worth more than all of…

Do you honestly think that he would face such intense criticism if he were just some guy on the internet? You seem to be defending a double standard by arguing that there shouldn't be a double standard.

Re: RMS lifestyle

#110

Post by valleyer »

gohrt wrote: post #55
simonsarris wrote: post #13

It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS Opinions" I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people. For instance: > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he co…

"I refuse to own a tie" is a fact, not an opinion. Much of the following discussion is an opinion. He's not a "minimalist", he is a freedom activist. He believes ties impinge on freedom. The passenger does not run the train software. The train owner can choose what kind of software they want to use. RMS's trains (of which he has none) do not run non-free software. RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decad…

> RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decades, you aren't going to discredit him with 5 minutes of snark.

OTOH, religion has been pondered well longer than RMS has been alive. RMS is not going to discredit the Church with 20 years of heresy.

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