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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]

#441

Post by pelagicAustral »

jraph wrote: post #415
oblio wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I think there are two different things: - the MIT mailing list discussion of a few years ago where he got a lot of flakes for what I indeed believe was a lot of misunderstanding. He seemed reasonable to me, but you really need subtle and careful reading to notice this. It was easy to misread and understand the contrary of was he thinks. I think he should have refrained from participating in this discussion though. Wh…

> He is very clever, I can't imagine he would be unable to learn what patterns to avoid

I've worked with some very clever people in the past, and many of them are indeed no longer around (in the industry) because of their flabbergasting capacity to not pick up on 'patterns' that would save them from social assassination.

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

#442

Post by bawolff »

Pannoniae wrote: post #329
lima wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vie…

I don't get why people complain about gnome so much. I don't like it either - so i don't use it. There are like a billion options for linux desktop.

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

#443

Post by sokoloff »

op00to wrote: post #338
bitmadness wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does he have a reputation for poor hygiene?

Years and years ago he talked at my university lug. I picked him up in my car from the train. The BO smell remained in my car for WEEKS. Dude had a serious aroma.

On the other side, back in college to earn extra money, I was his typist for around 10 hours (3 or so hours at a stint), meaning he sat diagonally behind me, reading the screen I was typing on. The only thing I noticed was his hair was a little wild.

That was a few decades ago, so perhaps things have changed, but he was well within normal odor back in the early 90s.

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

#444

Post by bobsmooth »

luma wrote: post #357
PostOnce wrote: post #322

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…

You refuse to learn something because you are afraid that that thing might change and require you to learn new things? Maybe this isn’t the best industry for you.

WhatsApp isn't something you have to learn.

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

#445

Post by borbulon »

tyingq wrote: post #380
borbulon wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having cancer myself, I can tell you that there are a lot of misconceptions about what life “under chemo” is like. I’m in a clinical trial for pills now, but when I was doing infusions, the worst of them had me out of commission for about 4 days - chemo day (which was about schedule, not side effects), then days 4, 5, and sometimes 6 after chemo day. The rest were completely manageable, in fact I looked forward to wo…

"under chemo" though, isn't some single shared experience. Everyone in that infusion room with you is getting some different sort of poison cocktail in a different strength. And most of the drugs are, quite literally, poison. There's at least 7 broad, very different types of chemo drugs, and subcategories under that. Also, very different total duration and frequencies of infusion. And they all may have other things g…

No, you're right, but the fact that Stallman is 70, and "under chemo," and still giving talks would suggest that whatever chemo he's under is relatively easy on his body.

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

#446

Post by reidrac »

palata wrote: post #431
reidrac wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. I guess one difference would be the part where the free software tell us "why". But in practical terms, it is too complicated (ethics!), so all is down to copyleft or not, which I believe is what the parent comment was referring to. Perhaps that's what we should be using: copyleft vs open source, instead of free software vs open source.

> Perhaps that's what we should be using: copyleft vs open source, instead of free software vs open source. Unless I misunderstand them, what about using the actual definitions? - Proprietary software can be closed-source or source-available - Open-source software can be under a permissive or copyleft license - Free software is a philosophy around open-source software, but in practice FOSS and OSS are mostly the same…

These are good definitions but the original post wasn't referring to people not taking into account the philosophical part of free software, unless it really meant "copyleft".

A permissive licence doesn't really transmit the intent of the author, philosophy or not (it doesn't really matter, the licence is the same).

A copyleft licence, on the other hand, backs the philosophy behind free software via the actual licence.

But you are right, it should be "copyleft vs permissive open source".

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

#448

Post by nottorp »

jraph wrote: post #181

Here 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.

Hmm I'm curious. He's been basically running non profits all his life. In the US. How can he afford the treatment? Is the FSF big enough to be able to get medical insurance for their employees?

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

#449

Post by palata »

Pannoniae wrote: post #329
lima wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vie…

One big advantage of Linux is that if you don't like gnome, you can use (and contribute to) something else.

And the great thing about e.g. a window manager is that there is no lock-in effect. I must use GitHub because everyone is using GitHub (even thought I like the git e-mail workflow better), I must use WhatsApp because everyone is using WhatsApp, and I must use the Slack and their damn Electron app because my company chose Slack and I don't have a choice.

Gnome does nothing like that: I don't use it, and I don't even know how many people use it. I don't see why there would be a reason to complain about it; if you don't like it, don't use it.

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

#450

Post by bawolff »

astrod wrote: post #439
bawolff wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter? His message isn't for non-programmers. What is plato known for among people who don't give a shit about philosophy?

Maybe not the best example there, known or not - Plato's influence on us today is pretty heavy. There are even strong theories connecting early Christianity directly to Plato.

Sure, and arguably RMS has had a pretty significant indirect impact on the lives of people who don't care about technology but still use free software in their day to day lives (it is everywhere). But those people don't really think about his message anymore than the average person contemplates the impact of neoplatonists on their present cultural context.

[Before anyone gets offended, this is just a metaphor. Obviously plato had a much more significant impact on the world than RMS did]

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