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Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

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Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#81

Post by rimantas »

HNatWORK wrote: post #70
Czarnian wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hand waiving, hand waiving. Last I heard oppressed were quite empovered by twitter, facebook and mobile phones—those parasitic and evil tools, according to rms. I am talking about Arab Spring. That's the best example that he is talking bullshit. I see no point of admiring man just be cause he is too stubborn not to ignore reality. Would I admire young earth creationist sticking to his believs despite all the science? No way. rms has zero understanding of all things social, about what makes "normal" people tick. His fantasies have little to do with the reality and the future. In the world where everyone is a programmer his vision might hold some water, but the days when all computer users were programmers and sysadmins are long gone and will never return.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#82

Post by pyre »

flomo wrote: post #55
ajross wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I count three of you now who cared enough to post here mocking him.

I'm not at all clear on how I mocked Stallman. But since you brought it up, the man has some very well documented personal eccentricities, beyond his choice in laptops. I'm sure anyone who would be interested in his email-reading procedures are equally interested in those other things too.

Down-voted. There's no need for comments like this:

  I'm sure anyone who would be interested in his
  email-reading procedures are equally interested
  in those other things too.
Your attempt to passive-aggressively insult people that like content that you obviously don't want to see on HN is not welcome here.

Many people enjoy reading about the computing experience of 'tech famous' people, or else this site wouldn't exist: http://usesthis.com/

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#83

Post by mahmud »

homosaur wrote: post #40
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…

Several Lisp dialects like Scheme and Clojure are still going strong. It's a very useful language to learn even in 2012.

specially in 2012.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#84

Post by jff »

officialchicken wrote: post #16
billpatrianakos wrote: post #10

Oh boy. RMS wrote yet another opinion that we just have to read. I'll be hated for this but I must state the obvious. This is a list of really boring opinions. Interesting for rms fanatics but many are barely explained and most aren't realistic to actually try out unless you want to be a software philosopher for a living. Did people just see Stallman in the title and up vote? Come on.

I was surprised to see that there were no rules whatsoever on the consumption/conservation of energy (nutritional or electrical) - such as avoidance of corn flakes encumbered by Montasano patents. i.e. "I only drink rain water and pure grain alcohol"

Commercial software licenses are trying to take our precious bodily fluids!

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#85

Post by jff »

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…

Get a laptop capable of running Coreboot. Then you can install Coreboot and Linux (I won't say GNU/Linux, sorry, the GNU tools are the worst part of Linux) and have free software all the way down.

The new Chromebooks from Google should be running Coreboot, Linux, and Chromium, all of which are free software. I guess that's also an option.

Edit: also, I think this netbook, coupled with Stallman's 40 years of EMACS use, is at least partially responsible for RMS's severe RSI :)

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#86

Post by drostie »

UK-AL wrote: post #48
benihana wrote: post #41

His tone is so arrogant and condescending. >I recommend all the ethical distros — namely, those that are 100% free software. i.e.: Any distro that uses anything that I don't like, namely 100% free software, is unethical. >If you don't know Lisp (or its variant, Scheme), you don't appreciate what a powerful language is. If some random person on hacker news came out and said this, we'd call them a buffoon and say they…

He has a point though, lisp is unique thus you need to try it to understand it.

True. Lisps are much like snowflakes. Their uniqueness and pervasive symmetry are so important that surely, you cannot Truly Appreciate the snow if you do not examine each flake as if under a microscope to directly apprehend its beautiful symmetry.

Skiers and snowboarders are largely a plague of unappreciative newbies who Don't Understand. They say that you can have "fun" in the snow without this higher-level appreciation. What children they must be.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#87

Post by drostie »

mahmud wrote: post #78

" I do not post on 4chan ." -- RMS

I only wish he had expanded on this with similar negative statements, like "I did not invent the trollface character." and "I do not like gore images." I think there are a lot of things which he does not do, and all of these might be interesting!

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#88

Post by jff »

leeoniya wrote: post #18

"...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." that's one tough pill to swallow, sir.

Well, as another poster pointed out, he also has a variety of web browsers installed that he uses when he really wants to.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#89

Post by jff »

rimantas wrote: post #75
jp_sc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't own a cell phone at all. "Stanlin's dream" he calls them. http://www.geekosystem.com/richard-stallman-cell-phones-stal...

He just borrows one when needed. How convenient.

Like my friend who lives in Europe--he comes to the US all the time but doesn't have a driver's license, so he just bums rides from all of us all the time and acts superior for doing so.

Re: Richard Stallman: How I do my Computing

#90

Post by IvoGeorgiev »

I cannot even believe that there are people who agree with this moron. First of all, he's chasing an ideal that's not even THAT valid: not all of the crappy-written software is knowledge, not all source code is worth reading. Plus, proprietary software improves industry. Industry feeds people.

Not to mention, in today's world, it is impossible to live without depending on corporations. The only way to live without someone knowing a lot about you is to live in a cave, miles away from civilization.

The way he is using computers: he is just putting restrictions on himself, thinking he actually removes them.

The only thing I agree with here is his opinion about Lisp.

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