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Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

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Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#41

Post by timonovici »

tbrownaw wrote: post #24
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason he doesn't browse the web is that non free software javascript would somehow hurt him. Not using social media is considered a badge of honor by many. Not using the web (although that's not entirely true in RMS' case, he just heavily limits it [1]) should be considered a commendable feat, too. Since it's RMS, though, it's just another opportunity to disparage him. He thinks that non-copyleft licensed projec…

Not using social media is considered a badge of honor by many. Sure, but why ? Because it's difficult? Because it's useless newfangled morally-corrupting stuff? Not using the web ... should be considered a commendable feat, too. Again, why ? The web is useful . Is it also commendable to cook all your own food from scratch, do all your laundry by hand, avoid use of electricity, etc?

Mostly because you descend into a circle of procrastination and self-hate. And the funny thing is, they are engineered that way: facebook doesn't want you to keep the connections with your dear ones, all they want is to keep you more and more on their website, scrolling mindlessly. That why I blocked the site in /etc/hosts, and only use messenger.com and pidgin with the new facebook plugin.

Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#43

Post by CaptSpify »

joesmo wrote: post #4

Trust is indeed a huge issue that seems to be misunderstood and misapplied in the software community. Stallman's views on trust may seem radical, but he's pretty much right. Over and over I see the things he warns about come true and I trust companies and other entities less and less. It's kind of disheartening to see the huge potential of cloud infrastructure, amongst other technologies, going to waste.

I used to roll my eyes at him. I thought he was just a nut. Turns out, he was right, and I was wrong. I hate the fact that he's right, because the warnings he made seemed so obviously stupid to implement.

Yet here we are. I now respect him immensely

Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#44

Post by serf »

tbrownaw wrote: post #24
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason he doesn't browse the web is that non free software javascript would somehow hurt him. Not using social media is considered a badge of honor by many. Not using the web (although that's not entirely true in RMS' case, he just heavily limits it [1]) should be considered a commendable feat, too. Since it's RMS, though, it's just another opportunity to disparage him. He thinks that non-copyleft licensed projec…

Not using social media is considered a badge of honor by many. Sure, but why ? Because it's difficult? Because it's useless newfangled morally-corrupting stuff? Not using the web ... should be considered a commendable feat, too. Again, why ? The web is useful . Is it also commendable to cook all your own food from scratch, do all your laundry by hand, avoid use of electricity, etc?

Sure, but why? Because it's difficult? Because it's useless newfangled morally-corrupting stuff?

Because it's a socially dividing privacy issue to want to involve yourself with social media; even if you choose to use it passively.

Is it also commendable to cook all your own food from scratch, do all your laundry by hand, avoid use of electricity, etc?

Yes, it is, but i'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to discover as to why such things may be commendable.

Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#46

Post by andygmb »

In the video stallman states that nonfree software is in the control of the developer who owns it, which is true, but isnt a developer of free software equally in control of their software? I dont look into the source of every program on my OS, even though if i was to use 100% free software, I could. This means I am equally depending on the developer of the free software not to be malicious as I am the nonfree software.

Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#48

Post by zanny »

nextos wrote: post #26
dajbelshaw wrote: post #13

It was my first time meeting Stallman at the Indie Tech Summit (where I also met the CloudFleet guys). He's a little eccentric, but he's one of the reasons I'm now on a Linux machine instead of a Mac!

I hope Stallman focusses on mobile now. Desktop, laptop & server are pretty satisfying free software platforms. But mobile is incredibly dissatisfying, and it's quickly getting a decent share of users. Incidentally, FSF is running a vision survey to establish strategic goals: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=403&reset=1

The battle for desktops and laptops is still not even close to won. Proprietary microcode in everything is on the rise, motherboard firmware is less open every generation of x86 hardware, and now we are seeing SSD microcontrollers be exploited and be otherwise untrustable.

Gains have been made, in that GPUs are much more open now than they were 10 years ago from AMD and Intel, and AMD has done a good job supporting their chipsets in coreboot for the last several generations of hardware, but it is still practically impossible to buy off the shelf parts and build a computer you actually control unless you accept AMD's microcode blobs for GPUs. And its not something to ham fist and say "don't worry about it" because there have been multiple instances of bugs in the microcode the GPU boots with having bugs in it that break the graphics stack on Linux. Freedom is valuable everywhere even if you don't practically see yourself taking advantage of it.

Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#49

Post by DonHopkins »

pmoriarty wrote: post #28
nextos wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope Stallman focusses on mobile now. Desktop, laptop & server are pretty satisfying free software platforms. But mobile is incredibly dissatisfying, and it's quickly getting a decent share of users. Incidentally, FSF is running a vision survey to establish strategic goals: https://my.fsf.org/civicrm/profile/create?gid=403&reset=1

Another frontier that the Free Software community should set their sights on is virtual reality. The potential impact of VR is enormous, and one of the leading VR development and content creation tools (Unreal Engine) recently open-sourced thier product (though I'm not sure if it was done with an FSF compatible license). Unity, the real giant in the VR arena, and Oculus' own code are closed, if I'm not mistaken. I'm…

High Fidelity [1] [2] [3] is an interesting open source [4] VR platform, developed by Second Life pioneer Philip Rosedale [5].

[1] https://www.highfidelity.io/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Fidelity_Inc

[3] http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/28/virtual-world-pioneer-phil...

[4] https://github.com/highfidelity

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Rosedale

Re: Richard Stallman on Data Autonomy [video]

#50

Post by dopu »

andygmb wrote: post #46

In the video stallman states that nonfree software is in the control of the developer who owns it, which is true, but isnt a developer of free software equally in control of their software? I dont look into the source of every program on my OS, even though if i was to use 100% free software, I could. This means I am equally depending on the developer of the free software not to be malicious as I am the nonfree softwa…

The point is that even if you personally didn't look over the source code, you'd be able to if you'd like to, and it's likely that people other than you have already looked at it.

This greatly reduces the opportunity for a developer or some other entity to introduce malicious code -- and even if that occurs, you reserve the right to remove it yourself and modify the programs you use as you see fit.

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