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Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

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Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#321

Post by layer8 »

loxdalen wrote: post #162
rakoo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FSF has created the AGPL 16 years ago ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_Lice... ), so it's not like they didn't see the turn that software was going into. But it was already a losing battle, because every developer wants to think they might become millionaire and won't use it. Whether the software runs on my computer or not, if I am the user, I must be in control. Whether the meal is prepa…

OT, but how are you in control if you buy food that you haven't produced yourself?

One difference with food is that you can switch your food supplier any time, it doesn't hold your data or account connections hostage.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#322

Post by PostOnce »

Stallman's character is one of the reasons I have repeatedly considered establishing some kind of "Church of Computing", i.e. an organized "religion" solely to secure religious protections and rights as they apply to the modern world.

For example, the right not to have to use some random company's app to interact with a government agency or a public school (and agree to said company's EULA, etc). It only takes a few dozen people to create a church with legal standing in many countries.

The FSF and the EFF are nice, but churches have additional legal protection for their adherents.

It does sort of vaguely border on religious zeal at this point. I've told companies they can either talk to me on Signal (or email), wait til I arrive on site, or find another contractor, but I will not use WhatsApp no matter how much they pay. This also applies to, for example, Microsoft/Google/Amazon products where learning their APIs and products mean my human capital, my skills, can be revoked by someone I never met, made valueless, my income made moot, in a sense.

Imagine having invested substantial time and effort into a proprietary ecosystem that was killed (by the company or its competition) and not being able to quickly leap into a competing esoteric, obtuse product.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#323

Post by oasisaimlessly »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #273
theodric wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Miami has a large community of people who risked their lives and abandoned everything to flee Cuba to go hang out with the capitalist pigdogs in the USA. Their hospitality toward communist revolutionaries would be somewhat chillier than what you'd receive on a northeastern college campus. It's unlikely this would extend to violence, but you might get some remarks.

I know you're being facetious, but it really didn't land well.

He's not being facetious.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#324

Post by bluescrn »

flanked-evergl wrote: post #125
minebreaker wrote: post #24

He is the one who we need now , in the era of saas/cloud run by big tech. So sad.

SaaS/cloud run by big tech is fundamentally the right approach.

It's the right approach to making money. For the big tech companies.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#325

Post by Shekelphile »

boffinAudio wrote: post #248
Biganon wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well first of all I was 15 or 16 at the time, so I guess I didn't give it as much though as you currently do, and besides, Che Guevara is (to me at least) not a symbol of communism first and foremost, but a symbol of a man fighting for his ideas (not saying that's my opinion of him especially nowadays, I'm talking about the symbolic power, especially of the famous photograph we all know). So... no. Besides, it was in…

Che Guevara was responsible for the murder of an awful lot of innocent human beings. That fact is lost on the edge lords who want to worship him as a saviour of mankind. He was far, far from that.

Gonna go out on a limb here and say that Che almost certainly did not kill anywhere near the same number of 'innocent people' as the overtly fascist south american heads of state from the 1950s-1990s did, namely Bautista, Barrientos, Pinochet, Videla, Stroessner.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#326

Post by hk__2 »

nesarkvechnep wrote: post #250
golemotron wrote: post #222

Crummy streaming. Why isn't this on YouTube?

Think about it once more.

> Think about it once more.

There’s nothing to think more; the FSF should use YouTube or similar services as mirrors so people can watch the videos even when their website is hammered down by the HN crowd. You can hardly argue that the current situation where nobody can watch the video is a good idea.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#327

Post by kome »

Richard Stallman changed the world, deeply. Everything we have around us is mostly because of him and his vision. FOSS keeps the world moving.

We need his vision to inspire us to keep inspiring. And to help us understand what is right and what is wrong.

I hope he will heal soon.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#328

Post by hutzlibu »

hkt wrote: post #304
hutzlibu wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Well, I am also good at making software, share the goal of a world where everyone fully controls their devices - yet I am appalled by many things around him.

Mostly the "superior" ethical stance. You do things this (my) way, then it is ethical and you love freedom or you are not ethical and don't want freedom.

Sorry, but I just have some different opinions about some things, but I rather feel not like working together with people who consider me lower. So the result is not cooperation but lot's of fragmentation in the free software/open source world. I do not think that helped the common cause. Otherwise we would not be where we are. Lots of open source and free software for tech people - everything closed down for ordinary people.

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#329

Post by Pannoniae »

lima wrote: post #290
tharakam wrote: post #235

̛If 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.

The Linux desktop is better than ever (in fact, I am switching to it the first time in a few days! I just need to setup some things first)

Sadly, the enshittification has also taken over parts of the Linux desktop as well though. For example, the mobile-first, flat-everything user-hostile design. (like gnome)

Dark themes were not common while skeuomorphism was mainstream, they are only in demand right now because viewing an extremely low-contrast white flat theme is an eyesore.

Luckily, KDE and the similar still exists and you can theme it:)

Re: Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video]

#330

Post by orwin »

bonoboTP wrote: post #292
Biganon wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well first of all I was 15 or 16 at the time, so I guess I didn't give it as much though as you currently do, and besides, Che Guevara is (to me at least) not a symbol of communism first and foremost, but a symbol of a man fighting for his ideas (not saying that's my opinion of him especially nowadays, I'm talking about the symbolic power, especially of the famous photograph we all know). So... no. Besides, it was in…

The parts of Europe that lived under communism (so from East Germany eastward) have a much more negative view of communism than Americans for whom it was a theoretical, faraway geopolitical issue, which they never experienced. Still, around 20 years ago when I was a teen, some edgy kids did wear Che and Marx t-shirts and it was considered cool in some circles. I'd say it is an imitation of the West. As paradoxical as…

I do not think it's true. It's wishful thinking at best, but sadly (or not, depending on your views), Eastern Europe is going through an identity crisis right now, and at least in Romania/Ukraine/Russia pré invasion (don't know about other countries), you could see a lot of misery and a lot of people yearning for the 'good old days', even people who weren't alive back then. I'd say it's half 50+, half young people, mostly poor people.
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