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Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

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Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#61

Post by X-Istence »

sgt wrote: post #15

I did however find this comment quite interesting. He recommends Lisp to beginner programmers. Honestly this makes me want to play with Lisp (I do just about every other popular language but I've never done Lisp): "The most powerful programming language is Lisp. If you don't know Lisp (or its variant, Scheme), you don't appreciate what a powerful language is. Once you learn Lisp you will see what is missing in most o…

I've learned Scheme, I've used Scheme for projects, but I don't think I would praise it like it is the one single language like he is doing.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#63

Post by m0nastic »

homosaur wrote: post #42

The one thing I get kind of annoyed with Stallman at is that he keeps mentioning this Leemote machine he has, which runs free software even in the BIOS. He might as well say that he runs Linux on a magical unicorn. I have tried and never been able to get my hands on one of these things. I'd really like to see Stallman jump off his insistence on free for one second and maybe suggest something realistic for users who c…

Freedom Included is a company that got set up in Cambridge specifically to sell the Lemote. They ship internationally apparently through a partner (can't vouch for it). The folks who run the site seemed like decent enough people, so I think it's on the up-and-up. (I haven't bought one though)

If you actually want one of these things, it looks like about $450:

http://freedomincluded.com/

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#64

Post by bfrs »

ramses wrote: post #30
bfrs wrote: post #29

Can someone help me understand what the purpose of this is: I have several free web browsers on my laptop, but I generally do not look at web sites from my own machine, aside from a few sites operated for or by the GNU Project, FSF or me. I fetch web pages from other sites by sending mail to a program that fetches them, much like wget, and then mails them back to me.

He does not want to be tracked.

A more convenient approach might be to remote desktop at random to a pool of machines that aren't his and that other people also use, the way he uses Google search.

By the way, isn't this what TOR is for?

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#65

Post by billpatrianakos »

mrtron wrote: post #36
billpatrianakos wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the thing. You said it. Not many will see his motivations unless he spells it out and the man is an awful communicator in that he can't go two words without putting someone off. Unfortunately he's a bit of an extremist. At least that's how he presents himself. So I doubt younger folks will get where he's coming from. I'm 25 and I've read about Stallmam for only the past five years and I can tell you that what…

He is an extremist and puts many people off with what he says. That is the point. He doesn't need to change his approach or principles. His actions are still in line with what he says.

Well you're kind of making my argument. There's a misunderstanding. I'm talking about young people. Stallman doesn't need to change his approach or principles but what I'm saying is that I have a feeling that one day all the people like you who "get" it will die and very few if any of today's young people will be on board with his views. They'll probably think Stallman was the father of Open Source and not be able to tell the difference between Free Software and Open Source software. If only there was a more moderate, more palatable version of Stallman then maybe the message would reach more people.

And I'm not saying Stallman's views are right or wrong. They just are.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#66

Post by bfrs »

tedunangst wrote: post #58
bfrs wrote: post #34

I skimmed documentation of Python after people told me it was fundametally similar to Lisp. My conclusion is that that is not so. When you start Lisp, it does `read', `eval', and `print', all of which are missing in Python. Lisp experts, what does this mean? As far as I can tell, Python has pretty good REPL facilities.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3810009

I guess understanding the full implications of this is what Lisp Enlightenment is. http://xkcd.com/224/

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#67

Post by X-Istence »

homosaur wrote: post #42

The one thing I get kind of annoyed with Stallman at is that he keeps mentioning this Leemote machine he has, which runs free software even in the BIOS. He might as well say that he runs Linux on a magical unicorn. I have tried and never been able to get my hands on one of these things. I'd really like to see Stallman jump off his insistence on free for one second and maybe suggest something realistic for users who c…

I've wanted to purchase a Leemote laptop/computer for a while now, and each time I go searching for them I come back empty handed.

That being said, a quick Google search did return valid results this time around, particularly that it is for sale on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Screen-Lemote-Yeeloong-8101_B-Netbook/...

It is a $499 dollar 10.1" netbook that runs at 1 Ghz with 1 GB of ram and a 160 GB hard disk. With a display at 1024 x 600, which is slightly smaller than an iPad 1/2 screen.

If you are into freedom it might be worth it, but i'd have a hard time getting development work done on a screen that small, let alone on something running at 1 Ghz with a single core.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#68

Post by turkeysandwich »

praptak wrote: post #59
bfrs wrote: post #34

I skimmed documentation of Python after people told me it was fundametally similar to Lisp. My conclusion is that that is not so. When you start Lisp, it does `read', `eval', and `print', all of which are missing in Python. Lisp experts, what does this mean? As far as I can tell, Python has pretty good REPL facilities.

Python has a good REPL and it even has 'eval' and 'print', so RMS is wrong stating that all of them are missing in Python. But in principle he is right - Python does not have separate 'read' and 'eval' which is a manifestation of deeper differences.

The type of REPL he's referring to has very specific features. Read returns a parsed structure, eval evaluates a parsed structure and print writes a parsed structure. Python's REPL just deals with strings, I believe.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#69

Post by bfrs »

kamaal wrote: post #31
bfrs wrote: post #29

Can someone help me understand what the purpose of this is: I have several free web browsers on my laptop, but I generally do not look at web sites from my own machine, aside from a few sites operated for or by the GNU Project, FSF or me. I fetch web pages from other sites by sending mail to a program that fetches them, much like wget, and then mails them back to me.

I think its because he always has higher priorities than browsing the net. Or may be he needs some information to take a decision or for something he needs to do later. So he just puts it on a email queue. Later he can access that information from his mail box and take a look at that information. Most important people, have better things to do than browsing site all day. Infact some people even ask me to mail them so…

I guess it has more to it than time management. For time management, I think its way easier to use emacs org-mode to make a queue of websites to browse and get to them later.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#70

Post by HNatWORK »

Czarnian wrote: post #43
ajross wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like most people, I find Stallman strange. His methods are quirky, and his language grating. He alienates his allies more often than his enemies. He picks fights at the wrong times. He stands behind principle in circumstances where it clearly hurts his cause. But... he's right. Almost always, he's right. He's made a 40 year career now of being right: often decades before the rest of us figure it out. That's enough fo…

Serious question. What exactly is he right about?

He is right to fight for Free software because it empowers the weak, the poor, the oppressed, and also hobbyists, even though there is certainly non-Free software that does so as well (routers for example may carry speech freely but may not be Free themselves). He takes this philosophy to extremes to make his point.
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