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My Talk at Microsoft

stallman.org

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Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#31

Post by dhd415 »

Zhyl wrote: post #5

>Publicly take back Microsoft's attacks on copyleft made in the 2000s. Ballmer called the GPL a "cancer". Allchin called it "un-American". (from the "Suggestions I gave to Microsoft" section) This is something I agree with. I don't think that Microsoft are likely to apologise for EEE [1] as that is likely just considered 'business' and part of the zeitgeist; neither do I think that Microsoft necessarily needs to endo…

Frankly, I think that is a situation where Microsoft just voiced what was common practice in many places in the industry. I've worked on a variety of both commercial and widely-used open source software projects and in all cases, GPL-licensed code was forbidden after consultation with counsel because of the limitations it would have imposed either on the company itself or on the users of our software.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#32

Post by simion314 »

xiaodai wrote: post #25

Free software is difficult. I have a family and young kids to feed. I can't work for FREE. I have open-source packages that are "free", but that's my hobby or a living. If you get a professorship at a university then you can flog free software, but it doesn't work for the other 99.99999% of the population. Sigh. I wish open-soure software is funded like universities. European Union funds some software, but more shoul…

> 99.999%

the numbers are not that bad, consider someone asks me to write them a tool for them to manage their electronic store inventory, tasks etc. I am the developer the shop is the client, I get paid and they get the programs and the source code. This is what it should be and not land int he situation where you get a change later and you don't have the source code.

Or someone hires me to write a program to apply a filter for an image, this program will run on my client server , because it runs on a server only my client will have the source and because the users won't run it on the browsers I do not need to send them a copy of the source.

Anyway there are more jobs where you are paid to write software and the client also gets the source and does whatever he wants with the code, as long as all users that run the program can get a copy of the source then it is free software. you don't have to make the code public on Github

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#33

Post by GoofballJones »

5trokerac3 wrote: post #16

> I resisted Steve Jobs's snow job in 1989 or 1990; I am no easy mark for those who want me to change my views. Why do people still prop this insufferable person up? Interacting with everyone like an angsty teen is no way for anyone who considers themself a professional to publicly talk. IMO FOSS is where it is today more despite Stallman than because of him. Being an asshole isn't necessarily a sign of being a savan…

He IS an insufferable prick. He's a loon. He's always been a loon and said loony things. Yes, many many many years ago he contributed a lot of things that are important to the Free Software movement, but just because he did that doesn't mean he's immune from being criticized for being a shitty person.

People can still admire what he did back in the day, but you don't have to defend his views or his bullshit. Like Bobby Fischer, you can absolutely admire and study his past chess games, but he was a reprehensible human being.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#34

Post by bubblethink »

meddlepal wrote: post #10
Crinus wrote: post #2

> And one other suggestion, which I made to a vice president but perhaps not in my talk. > > Release the source code of Windows under the GNU GPL. > > I know that is a stretch, but from what I heard there. it isn't totally impossible. I do not remember who or where exactly it was, but i remember someone influential from Microsoft that was asked about open sourcing Windows (not necessarily under GPL) and they also sai…

I don't know why anyone would think it is impossible, but it would take significant money and time to do it and it is unclear what benefit there would be except some small good will gained from developers that care about the FSF mission.

>it is unclear what benefit there would be

You can run windows software elsewhere. What more do you need ?

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#35

Post by dwighttk »

Zhyl wrote: post #5

>Publicly take back Microsoft's attacks on copyleft made in the 2000s. Ballmer called the GPL a "cancer". Allchin called it "un-American". (from the "Suggestions I gave to Microsoft" section) This is something I agree with. I don't think that Microsoft are likely to apologise for EEE [1] as that is likely just considered 'business' and part of the zeitgeist; neither do I think that Microsoft necessarily needs to endo…

Making money rather than crucifying a savior?

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#36

Post by decoyworker »

I'm usually the first to shit on Stallman but I really liked his suggestions here.

But hypothetically if Microsoft fully implements all of what RMS suggested would Windows be listed as an approved distro on gnu.org?

https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-non-gnu-distros.html

https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guideli...

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#37

Post by bbanyc »

He's a rape apologist and a serial sexual harasser. That matters more than anything else he's done in the past (and I'm an Emacs user). He should not be invited to speak anywhere, and discussion of anything he says or does should acknowledge his indisputable misogyny.

[Side note: it feels very weird for me to be this kind of inflexible, insufferable moralist... almost Stallman-esque. I'm completely sincere about this, I just never thought I could be.]

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#38

Post by ubermonkey »

5trokerac3 wrote: post #16

> I resisted Steve Jobs's snow job in 1989 or 1990; I am no easy mark for those who want me to change my views. Why do people still prop this insufferable person up? Interacting with everyone like an angsty teen is no way for anyone who considers themself a professional to publicly talk. IMO FOSS is where it is today more despite Stallman than because of him. Being an asshole isn't necessarily a sign of being a savan…

SO MUCH THIS.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#39

Post by simion314 »

close04 wrote: post #14
duckerude wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of non-free software is written in Javascript and runs on webpages. If you want to avoid using non-free software you have to disable Javascript on many websites. Ideally the Javascript would be freed, but making it optional might be a more feasible goal.

> A lot of non-free software is written in Javascript Dropping JS will just lead to a lot of non-free software written in [something else]. It's not like non-free software will suddenly stop existing. You're not banning English because of the content that might use it. There must be a better approach to this than "I'm not running any code because some of it may be non-free".

It is server site rendering, use whatever you want to generate an html file and send it to the browser, most websites can do this (blogs,news, forums) then the small interactive interactions you can make them in JS using GPL/BSD whatever.

Re: My Talk at Microsoft

#40

Post by syshum »

xiaodai wrote: post #25

Free software is difficult. I have a family and young kids to feed. I can't work for FREE. I have open-source packages that are "free", but that's my hobby or a living. If you get a professorship at a university then you can flog free software, but it doesn't work for the other 99.99999% of the population. Sigh. I wish open-soure software is funded like universities. European Union funds some software, but more shoul…

There are plenty of people that work on OpenSource at corporations.

Linux Kernel is a widely known example, but not the only one.

Further, there are funding models that do not require "donations" to fund libre software, "Free" does not mean free in cost, it means freedom.

Some options include

1. Paid Binary Dististrbution

2. Support Agreements

3. Priority Features

4. Customization

5. Hosting / SaaS

6. Paid documentation access

7. Donations / Tips

8. Normal Invoicing (most people forget You can invoice a company for GPL software, nothing prevents it. This is often good for Bean Counters)

There are others as well

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