Wish him well, i hope he recovers fully and soon.
So sad to hear this :(
Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
301–310 of 841 posts
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#302̛If you check the surroundings, you will see the mess we are in. Virtually (?) there are 0 options for a viable IoT platform, mobile/desktop OS that doesn't annoy us. It could be privacy, locking, you name it, ... Only recently, I happen to realise, we could have listened to this man little more. Too late then, we are sold already. Recover well Mr Stallman! I wish you the best!
Linux desktop is more viable than ever. Zigbee/Matter/... are widely adopted open standards without vendor lock in. Things like Home Assistant are getting serious attention and funding. Could be much worse.
I can confirm: I've been using Linux on the desktop since I was 15, nearly 20 years ago now. Be not afraid, fellow nerds!
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Besides, it was in Europe. Us Europeans do not have the same epidermic reaction to communism that Americans have. You're just making it worse and worse. I'm also European. I'm guessing you're Western European though? I'm also guessing your country wasn't under soviet occupation for 50 years? Eastern Europeans very much do have a bad allergic reaction to communism, just like Americans, and just like everyone else wh…
It's true that in Western Europe it's fine to show the communist symbols. To Westerner, they never saw communism in action, only propaganda. Which means that kids can proudly wear their capitalistic-made Che Guevara t-shirt at school. However, in Eastern Europe it's an absolute no, wearing such shirts is worse than the nazi symbols because it shows support to extreme atrocities in front of people who were victim of t…
> However, in Eastern Europe it's an absolute no, wearing such shirts is worse than the nazi symbols
As a Hungarian, this is just not true. The Western view of communism has been imported and the more time goes on, the more the younger generations base their views on what's cool in the West vs what their old and uncool grandparents blabber on about.
With the Internet and media and travel options and exchange semesters etc. the Western European attitude is diffusing into the east as well. It was already cool to wear Che t shirts 20 years ago in Budapest. Though of course Budapest has always been a West oriented cosmopolitan liberal city, so copying the west in this is not so surprising.
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#304I hope he’s able to manage it well (since the prognosis is good) and is around for a lot longer. We need absolutists like him who go to extremes and are known widely. For a few moments, leave aside his personality and what people have said about his behavior or hygiene. If he hadn’t been there, our world would’ve been a lot different and a lot poorer. A visionary is what he was and is. While the Free part of FOSS is…
"We need absolutists like him who go to extremes and are known widely." But what is he known for, outside tech circles, if he is known at all? When you want to deliver a message, it matters a lot, how you deliver it.
There are phases in which change happens: Stallman's preaching to people who can actually make free software (eg, people you might find on HN) has accomplished a huge amount of capacity building. He's tremendously good at encouraging it, and always has been. That provides the raw material for people who are perhaps a little more adoption focused (and apt) which is work that can't happen if there's no capacity.
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#305Here he is, 70, under chemo, giving a speech. He keeps being a force of nature. May he recover well, or at least have long enjoyable years ahead. He has/had arguable/unacceptable behavior, but I believe we strongly owe him. He has built incredible software, defined important stuff and kicked our asses in the right direction.
He's also been the victim of some pretty vile smear campaigns and is still going on. I know if I was the target of the crap he got, I wouldn't want to continue doing anything anymore.
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#306Earlier quoted context omitted.
> pretty much everybody did things that today would get you canceled Do you have some examples of someone being “cancelled” in this way?
Stallman himself
The guy who just gave a well attended speech to loud applause and is getting gushing well wishes in this very conversation? The guy who is back at the FSF? That guy?
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
I presume you're being ironic. One should listen to them. One should also be aware of the massive selection bias in views you're going to hear.
You’d say the opinions of people back home would presumably be different?
Yes, I would say so, on the average.
I think that people leaving a country are more likely to dislike that country than those staying.
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a strawman, because neither I nor RMS make arguments about the timing of payments in relation to work done. The restrictions on business models (imposed by software licenses as a tool) is necessary to preserve the Four Freedoms, which, at least in his view are required to use software ethically. RMS predicted, and accurately as we see, that forgoing these essential Freedoms will create a world where software i…
Fair enough but how are people compensated when you adhere to the ideology? You can’t advocate an ideology without a solution to the problems at hand. Someone needs to write that software, and that someone needs to be fed and sheltered. It’s also not shameful to want more than staying alive.
Sell support, and protection against liability.
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. People fleeing Communism are the last people you want to listen to regarding Communism. Dismiss them as rabid and move on.
I presume you're being ironic. One should listen to them. One should also be aware of the massive selection bias in views you're going to hear.
> One should also be aware of the massive selection bias in views you're going to hear.
Absolutely. The dead tell no tales.
Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]
#310I hope he’s able to manage it well (since the prognosis is good) and is around for a lot longer. We need absolutists like him who go to extremes and are known widely. For a few moments, leave aside his personality and what people have said about his behavior or hygiene. If he hadn’t been there, our world would’ve been a lot different and a lot poorer. A visionary is what he was and is. While the Free part of FOSS is…
Does he have a reputation for poor hygiene?
I think that might be referring to an incident where he picked at his foot then ate the pickings.