I'm so tired of political correctness and "sexism" posts. At times half of this site seems to consist of posts made by people offended by something.
Time to fork the FSF
321–330 of 340 posts
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Try and explain how to boot a MacBookPro from USB stick to someone You hold down the Option key while booting. > Or explain how to dual boot a Mac with OSX and Linux Install rEFIt (comes in a nice, standard OS X installer package), use the nice GUI Bootcamp or Disk Utility apps to make a partition, insert the Linux CD, reboot while holding down C. If you're incapable of following these instructions, I seriously dou…
Holding down option while booting does not work for USB media on MacBook Pro. (But sure, this will work for optical media.) You've just managed to give the wrong information to someone, and call them stupid at the same time.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948
Where's the problem?
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed: >It doesn't take special talents to reproduce--even plants can do it. On the other hand, contributing to a program like Emacs takes real skill.
That wasn't the first time RMS had said something like that, but to say it to a fellow dev, when you're asking that person to fix someone else's bug, seems particularly unaware. For sure, Asperger's or Autism explains it, but doesn't make it much easier to deal with.
It's black humour.
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
The RMS posting is hardly "horrendously, gratuitously crass and offensive".
No, it is completely distasteful, and representative of actions that caused me to slowly change from being an FSF associate member to believing that FSF is a threat to free software rather than an asset. Of course, RMS is not speaking for the FSF here, but there in recent years there is a history of missteps (Emacs virgins) and childish campaigns (Windows 7 sinds, Bad Vista, etc.) associated with the FSF. It seems th…
Stallman is paying Jobs a massive compliment, unless I am reading a different comment from you.
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but the computers I have used, the smartphone I own, the tablet I will eventually get, the world I will live in 20 years from now, probably would not exist if it wasn't for Steve Jobs. This is such an overstatement. What makes you so sure that Jobs had a positive influence on the world? You can't tell if in his absence something better would evolve. Not all his ideas were originall nor all the inventions were his o…
I think it's pretty telling that tablet computers have existed for ... what, 15 years? And that tablet computing didn't take off with consumers until iPad. I think that's a fine example of how Steve influenced a change in the world. The Average Person has no concept of How Things Could Be Better. They just take what's available, get the job done, take their paycheck and live their lives. iPad seems to be the first ti…
> I think it's pretty telling that tablet computers have existed for ... what, 15 years? And that tablet computing didn't take off with consumers until iPad.
What is pretty telling is that although the first versions of apple's products are inferior in comparison with contemporary alternatives, and more expensive, people still rush to buy them because Jobs' face is in their advertisement. That was his charisma.
It's no secret that Jobs was a terrible boss, treating inhumanly his employees. He did exploit his friendships (duh). He used patents extremely to not let any room for other innovators of his time to have a chance on creating something better or more competitive. And he certainly knew that his products were made from children working all day in Chinese factories, but of-course that didn't matter much to him.
Vanity was clearly his drive. His goal was not to change the world or provide a better user experience, whatever happened there was just a side effect from his desire to be the "I win everything suckerz" guy.
And despite all this, you start a rant because Stallman expressed his opinion for Jobs sincerely and not in a politically correct way. Whatever criticism you have for FSF, it is a truly positive force on this planet. For what was the true influence of Jobs, that is very debatable.
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. I haven't had to troubleshoot a hardware problem in years, and I use Linux daily and install it quite often (I touch a lot of hardware). Don't subtly degrade something with FUD unless you speak from recent experience.
The open source world will also be better off when everyone stops using the word "FUD". It's a knee jerk term that allows the speaker to ignore criticism as lies. I am speaking from experience. The sound issue happened to me about two years ago. About six months ago I tried dual booting Linux on my MacBook and couldn't get it to shut down without hanging. You're making my point. I (someone who works in the software i…
i want to install adobe flash on a colleagues iphone, I cant
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I find more interesting: are you as good at hacking as rms? Or is being better at communication the only thing you can take pride in? I suspect that might be behind all the ranting.
I have nothing whatsoever on rms’ hacking.
Anyway, I regret getting involved in this thread. Sorry for my comment.
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That is the hole a "Steve Jobs of free software" could fill. How? By writing drivers for undocumented hardware? > it doesn't just need to be as easy to install and maintain as Windows Have you tried to install Windows recently? Fat-finger one prompt and you need to return it to the store to get it back. Make one little mistake in your backup and you need to buy install disks, etc. Don't buy anti-virus software and…
Other than making baseless accusations without a shred of evidence I don't see any point in your post. Windows 7 install (recently) from disk is dead simple, please give an example of something you could destroy through fat-fingering. Anti-virus is pointless for most users who don't pirate software and who use a modern browser (along with some common sense... Like say, not installing viruses). Kiss it all goodbye is…
> please give an example of something you could destroy through fat-fingering.
Destroy as in magic smoke? No. But have to take back to the store to have it reset. Yes.
This initial language prompt the computer booted to didn't have a back button once you'd chosen. If you get that wrong, good luck changing it if you're a casual user.
> Anti-virus is pointless for most users who don't pirate software and who use a modern browser (along with some common sense... Like say, not installing viruses).
That's fine for you and me. I've only ever found one virus despite scanning what I download.
But it was a malware posing as an archiving tool not warez, and malware is everywhere and does everything to look legit. Legitimate users get burned by this all the time.
As for a modern browser, sure - up to date IE is much better than before but Flash hardly is, so IE hardly is, so Windows hardly is... A single security layer simply isn't sufficient. A browser that's so plugin-happy needs to be better sandboxed.
Which is why for a computing environment where your browser is running as the primary user, you need a virus scanner.
> Most people pay your so-called tax because there is no viable alternative, these aren't the kind of people who will buy the parts and put it together themselves.
That's exactly what I mean. There's just enough hard about the install to make it not easy and thus it's hard by most people's reckoning.
Only the Mac is really good and that's because they supply the hardware so they know the drivers, the configuration, etc.
> Finally, I found ubuntu to be more difficult to install than windows. Think "proprietary" drivers...
"Here's a machine that won't run Ubuntu - see what a tough install Ubuntu is!"
Ouch.
> And there are a bunch of fat fingering opportunities in the ncurses version of the install.
Sure. But even still, less of a "there's no back button" kind of thing and more just complexity because of difficulty. Windows by default uses the entire drive, Ubuntu could but that'd make it harder in other ways. But judging it on that sort of thing misses their simplicity in areas that can be simple. As much as can work, just does. No EULAs, no trapdoor options, no hurried backups onto DVDs you forgot to buy and had to go back to get because it doesn't come with a $.30 install disk, etc...
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
Holding down option while booting does not work for USB media on MacBook Pro. (But sure, this will work for optical media.) You've just managed to give the wrong information to someone, and call them stupid at the same time.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1948 Where's the problem?
Did you read the page you posted?
The external USB device:-
>Contains an installation of Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later, or Mac OS X 10.5 or later, which is compatible with (or shipped with) the Mac that the USB device is connected to.
That's not Linux. Linux will not work with that method. Don't take my word for it; try it yourself, or ask Apple, or have a quick search of the "support" communities. See, for an example, this question on stack exchange: (http://superuser.com/q/27794/93703)
Here are some people having trouble, and not getting much help (but lousy "support" is common to many distributions) - (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1266303?start=0&tst...) (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2579995?start=0&tst...) (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1723157?start=0&tst...)
You've still failed to understand the problem, and to provide a working fix.
Re: Time to fork the FSF
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's ironic- it would seem to be RMS who is getting carried away. A great man has died, and all RMS can think about is what this means for the Free Software movement? To me, this discredits him more than anything I have ever heard him say. Software is not more important than life. Disclaimer: Actively avoids Apple products
> Software is not more important than life. // How about freedom? Is freedom from, for example, capitalist overlords more important than life? People give their lives for freedom all the time. > A great man has died, and all RMS can think about is what this means for the Free Software movement? // Meh. I don't see the problem with someone who didn't know Steve Jobs personally simply addressing how a change in leaders…
I don't see the problem with someone who didn't know Steve Jobs personally simply addressing how a change in leadership of Apple Computers affects him and his causes.
The change in leadership at Apple occurred in mid-August when Jobs officially stepped down. You could even argue it happened back in January when Jobs took his final medical leave and turned day-to-day operations over to Tim Cook.
Where was RMS's sigh of relief then, when Jobs effectively relinquished his role? No, he chose to post this right after Jobs died. I find his post tactless and highly offensive. I've never been a fan of RMS, but this takes the cake.