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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]

#471

Post by hutzlibu »

geenat wrote: post #466
hutzlibu wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 togethe…

The ego of anons who are "also good at making software", try to minimize Stallman, then step back into anonymity is hilarious. You're comparing yourselves to a guy who has changed the face of software and privacy, probably forever- his license is quoted to be one of the most important decisions in Linux by Torvalds himself. > Lots of open source and free software for tech people - everything closed down for ordinary…

Maybe just look at some data, how often the GPL is used in new projects and how often MIT or alike.

And how often projects gets reimplemented because people and organisations don't want to have to deal with copyleft.

That was my point, not comparing my hacker skills with RMS which I do not recall having done with any word. I just said, I won't work together with people of your attitude. And I know I am not the only one, see above.

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

#472

Post by cauch »

bsdnoob wrote: post #289
Ensorceled wrote: post #232

Earlier 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

Was he canceled?

From what I understand, Stallman had several role at FSF. One of them was spokesperson, which is basically Public Relationship. Then, he made several actions showing that he does not understand the basis or does not have the skills to work in PR. So, we was asked to step down from this position.

If you hire a front-end developer and later discover that they are not able to do the basis of programming, are you "canceling" the developer if you decide to not continue to work with them because they are not what you need for the job?

(As for MIT, apparently, it's based on a series of incidents. Again, his work requirement included skills that would imply he would not have done those mistakes. Positions a universities obviously includes as requirement basic skills in knowledge communication and ability to work with pairs, that's what universities are supposed to do.)

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

#473

Post by tmccrary55 »

vasco wrote: post #319
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.

I'd bet there will be a blockbuster movie about this guy within 10 years of him dying and it'll be in the pop culture, and maybe even stoke a temporary privacy / freedom focus for a while in common consciousness. Unfortunately the world doesn't know how to really appreciate people as much when they're alive for some personality types.

Nick Offerman as Richard Stallman.

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

#474

Post by jraph »

leidenfrost wrote: post #465
jraph wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe its maintainers truly believe they are taking the right decisions that are good for the project. They limit the feature set so they can stabilize on a smaller basis. They take UI/UX decisions they think are right. That's what I think. I also think they managed to build a beautiful UI that works quite well and that pleases many people. I also think they removed useful features, lagged on important features (…

> I also think they believe they know better than their users on what they need when they really don't This. They have this kind of Apple syndrome of belittling use feedback, minus the part of being a billion dollar megacorporation Also, things would have gone differently if they forked gnome 2 into a new project and left the original sources intact, instead of dragging all the userbase and distros with them. To me,…

I can't blame them taking their own project to the direction they want. I would certainly do this with my own projects if most maintainers wanted it.

Distros were also free to follow, or to migrate users to MATE.

(of course, I would strongly care about not breaking users habits if I can help it, but that's the direction I would take)

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

#475

Post by Gigachad »

leidenfrost wrote: post #390
dEnigma wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel similarly. While I absolutely can't and won't operate under the severe restrictions that an ideologically pure stance on software freedom ala Stallman would impose, I'm glad that there are some people, like Stallman himself, who take it to those extremes, tirelessly advocate for improvement and thus move the needle towards a better middle ground for everyone.

It's a lot more understandable if you consider the state of computing he experienced while growing up: Programs were way simpler, and shipping the source code in paper was the de facto way of distribution. It's not like he was a wacko around his peers. He just created what seemed a logical step from that. I'm just sad that there's no young people to pass the torch for when the time comes and the founding fathers are…

It’s commonly said that his inspiration was from wanting to improve a printer driver but couldn’t because it was proprietary.

I feel like back in the day there would have been so many easy wins for modifications. Like how people used to root Android to add screenshot capability.

These days modern software is so extremely sophisticated and refined that I can’t think of anything I could improve for say iOS.

Still love foss, but the idea of “it’s open source, you can improve it yourself any time” has worn off for me.

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

#476

Post by ryder9 »

bitmadness wrote: post #297
newscracker wrote: post #270

I 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?

[dead]

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

#477

Post by kombai »

The largest discussion in this thread is about politics;

The biggest tension at the GNU 40 years event was when an old Mr. was speaking about social economics and his attempts to make a local money in Basel (ch). Two american protagonists interrupted the speach telling it is too political. Later i talked to the one of them, a Chinese girl studiying in Harvard USA, she started telling me things about her big rich buisiness family and personal crypto projects she had in liberal finance field in Switzerland, she proposed me a job as a Solidity develloper. And I UNDERSTOOD why the previous speech was "TOO POLITICAL" for her.

For me, FSF and GNU are not enought political; I was always disappointed of the FSF and GNU political positioning, while their fight is about freeing the world of proprietary licences (property right) they don't consider to support anticapitalists movements who are fighting for that to. Stallman was the only to publicly support the French left social-reformist party "La France Insoumise" with the candidat Jean Luc Mélenchon, and for me it means a lot.

Now, let's say it; OF course I understand why this is strategic for them, but i don't stand for it because it is irresponsible and dangerous.

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

#478

Post by tegmark »

i hope he navigates this well and i hope he doesnt experience any pain but if people here are allowed to talk about his contribution then i should be able to do the same. i cant think of anyone who did more damage to software than him. his political zealotry, which didnt belong in a technical field, was very destructive.

because of the poisonous vitriol that responses will undoubtedly have, i wont be reading responses. dont even bother.

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

#479

Post by cauch »

kypro wrote: post #420
Ensorceled wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Norman Finkelstein (blacklisted from Academia for his work relating to the Israel/Palestine conflict) He wasn't "cancelled" for being "woke", that's straight up political fallout for going up against Israeli interests. > Richard Stallman (made to resign from his positions at MIT and FSF due to comments relating to Marvin Minsky and Jeffrey Epstein) He's back at FSF. Clearly not "cancelled" as evidenced by this enti…

Cancelled is probably the wrong word. I think what the other commenter meant was that the moral reputation of individuals tends to decline with time since what is considered moral is relative to a given society and a given period of time. It's very hard to name a historical figure who lived prior to the 1900s who didn't express something racist, sexist or homophobic for example. Similarly, even people who were in the…

Maybe it is happening in America, which is very puritanical, but my feeling is that when people highlight elements that would not be accepted today in historical people, the goal is not to paint them as the devil, but to understand that nothing is all white and all black, and help learning to have a smarter approach to history than those lazy "heroes vs bad guys" depiction.

> But his reputation has been harmed like almost anyone who's been in the public spotlight for long enough.

These kinds of affirmation are really easily the result of the bias. You see a lot of public figure in the spotlight having their reputation harmed, but you don't notice the ton of people who are just "normal" or "not unlucky" that are not and will never be harmed.

For example, it is true that when Trudeau dressed in black-face, it was not such a big deal. But then, the probability of dressing in black-face was still very small. How many innocent people just dressed in black-face just for an innocent joke at the time? So, people who are "unlucky" are statistically a minority.

As another example, behavior like Stallman or Roiland are not "normal". "normal" people are just not that abusive or inconsiderate. So, people who are "not normal" are also a minority and to some extend even deserve it a little bit (they should have known better than being jerks, having their reputation harmed for being a jerk is not a bad thing, it is a normal consequence).

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