Richard Stallman reveals he has cancer in the GNU 40 Hacker Meeting talk [video] • Hacker News Board

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

#831

Post by robertlagrant » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

calderknight wrote: post #816

dudeinjapan wrote: post #812

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China only started to succeed once Deng Xiaoping abandoned Marxist/Maoist theories of planned economy and embraced globalism in the 80's. The Chinese discovered they could game the globalist "free market" with low cost of labor, a weak currency, state-directed manipulation (dumping, etc.), and widespread IP theft. China's success in recent decades proves nothing about the virtue of Communism; the success would have n…

Didn't they start to succeed immediately with Mao (mass education, elimination of war-lords, expelling of foreign powers, etc.), and aren't the further successes you mention only possible due to Mao's achievements?

> aren't the further successes you mention only possible due to Mao's achievements?

No - Mao isn't a prerequisite. A global system to latch on to is.

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

#832

Post by robertlagrant » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 4:09 PM UTC

calderknight wrote: post #800

robertlagrant wrote: post #781

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Under communism, China went from being "the sick man of Asia" to the most economically successful and politically powerful country in Asia, no? I don't believe that's true, no. China does have a lot of natural resources, and a large population, and also it's true that any very authoritarian regime, fascist Italy under Mussolini being another good example, can do things like create good infrastructure, because it ca…

OK, so, by Communist China you meant China after Mao took power but before capitalist economic systems developed. Everything that has happened in China is possible only because of the victories of communism. From a non-existent school system (Mao managed to attend school because his father was the wealthiest in his village, but the schooling was nothing but rote memorisation of poems) to a well-educated population. F…

> Fascism shares some of these qualities, but the fascists were expansionist, impatient, etc

Well; fascism (or Nazism, maybe?) was socialistic ideas but on national boundaries rather than class boundaries. Hitler (mostly) wanted to kill non-Germans. Communist uprisings tend to kill their own citizens, and nonsensical edicts from hyper-powerful beaurocrats tend to starve same.

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

#833

Post by robertlagrant » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 4:11 PM UTC

thiagoharry wrote: post #822

robertlagrant wrote: post #780

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're counting deaths by starvation under a communist regime as "death by communism", then you have to count deaths by starvation under capitalism as "death by capitalism". No you don't. It's not all starvation deaths. Mao deliberately - through the insane power Communism bestows on the state - told farmers what to farm and how to farm, and punshed harshly those who disobeyed. And because they obeyed, and only…

So you agree to put the bigger death toll of Chinese famine from 1850 to 1873 in "death by capitalism"? It was the capitalist powers that caused this destroying the country infrastructure after a war because such powers wanted to open markets in the country and were even sponsoring drug trafficking for this end.

> So you agree to put the bigger death toll of Chinese famine from 1850 to 1873 in "death by capitalism"?

This is a very strange comment. Where did I agree to that?

From 1850 to 1874 the Nian and Taiping rebellions caused 20-30 million deaths. Is this what you're referring to as capitalism?

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

#834

Post by thiagoharry » Wed, Oct 04, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

robertlagrant wrote: post #833

thiagoharry wrote: post #822

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you agree to put the bigger death toll of Chinese famine from 1850 to 1873 in "death by capitalism"? It was the capitalist powers that caused this destroying the country infrastructure after a war because such powers wanted to open markets in the country and were even sponsoring drug trafficking for this end.

> So you agree to put the bigger death toll of Chinese famine from 1850 to 1873 in "death by capitalism"? This is a very strange comment. Where did I agree to that? From 1850 to 1874 the Nian and Taiping rebellions caused 20-30 million deaths. Is this what you're referring to as capitalism?

Yes, they were byproducts of capitalism development: England wanted to expand markets and profits. China was a barrier. This caused a war and the devastation of that country. The rebellions were a byproduct.

To be fair, China always had great famines, at least twice each century. This changed only recently, which in fact is a good argument pro-revolution: after one last famine, it never happened again. The same cannot be said for other countries that were colonized or invaded by capitalist powers; and the famine and problems caused by them during XIX century in China were much worst than the famine after the revolution.

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

#835

Post by dudeinjapan » Thu, Oct 05, 2023, 12:54 PM UTC

calderknight wrote: post #816

dudeinjapan wrote: post #812

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China only started to succeed once Deng Xiaoping abandoned Marxist/Maoist theories of planned economy and embraced globalism in the 80's. The Chinese discovered they could game the globalist "free market" with low cost of labor, a weak currency, state-directed manipulation (dumping, etc.), and widespread IP theft. China's success in recent decades proves nothing about the virtue of Communism; the success would have n…

Didn't they start to succeed immediately with Mao (mass education, elimination of war-lords, expelling of foreign powers, etc.), and aren't the further successes you mention only possible due to Mao's achievements?

"Expelling of foreign powers" (i.e. Japan) happened due to WWII ending and China being allied with the winning side.

As for the others, these are modernization/consolidation of power which don't require Marxism to happen. Whether the KMT or someone else could have achieved these without a "Great Leap Forward" (30~45 million dead) is another question, but I think the answer is "probably".

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

#836

Post by dudeinjapan » Thu, Oct 05, 2023, 1:18 PM UTC

thiagoharry wrote: post #834

robertlagrant wrote: post #833

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So you agree to put the bigger death toll of Chinese famine from 1850 to 1873 in "death by capitalism"? This is a very strange comment. Where did I agree to that? From 1850 to 1874 the Nian and Taiping rebellions caused 20-30 million deaths. Is this what you're referring to as capitalism?

Yes, they were byproducts of capitalism development: England wanted to expand markets and profits. China was a barrier. This caused a war and the devastation of that country. The rebellions were a byproduct. To be fair, China always had great famines, at least twice each century. This changed only recently, which in fact is a good argument pro-revolution: after one last famine, it never happened again. The same canno…

You may be confusing the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864, 20-30M dead) with the Boxer Rebellion (1899, 100,000 dead)?

The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war between the Taiping (ethnic Hakka, Han subgroup) and Qing dynasty (ethnic Manchu). While yes British opium was a destabilizing factor, so was rampant Qing corruption, religious/ethnic zealotry, etc. China had constant wars for millennia, and this war coincided with the invention of modern guns and artillery while still using pre-modern tactics, which (like the American Civil War) made it especially deadly. Its disingenuous to pin an internal and ill-timed conflict on "capitalism".

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

#837

Post by omgmajk » Thu, Oct 05, 2023, 9:44 PM UTC

vladislavv wrote: post #824

omgmajk wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I are quite alike it seems, Linux always on some device, server, laptop since 1997 - Debian is home. I do tolerate Windows to some extent however, it doesn't bother me too much. But that might be the gaming nerd inside talking.

With steam and proton why bother?

Most of my games don't really work with Proton very well. Also nvidia gpu which is very weird to fix. On this particular computer I run windows with an MX VM where I do most of my work. On other computers I run Debian or MX.

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

#838

Post by omgmajk » Thu, Oct 05, 2023, 9:45 PM UTC

seabass-labrax wrote: post #754

NegativeK wrote: post #549

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow Debianer that visits Windows. It's fine when I'm derping around in Photoshop or something, but it's infuriating for actual work. Debian is home.

Are you aware of Photopea? It's FOSS and a very capable alternative to Photoshop. It evens runs smoothly on my old Android 5 tablet. https://www.photopea.com/

I am very averse to online only tools. I don't really like using them in the browser at all. I don't get this trend.

If I do graphics I mainly use Gimp or InkScape but I don't do any of that very often. Mostly I just code or game.

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

#839

Post by ladyanita22 » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 9:05 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #25

ladyanita22 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i'd bet many machines run on old Linux kernels with some shitty blobs and software on top.

Just installed a gas boiler that only has a 7 segment LCD to display the water temperature. Yet it runs Linux. And it takes 30 seconds to boot up.

WTF I can't believe they put linux in there. Must be much fancier than a MCU-driven display.

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

#840

Post by ladyanita22 » Fri, Oct 06, 2023, 9:06 AM UTC

skywal_l wrote: post #26

thallosaurus wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a slight feeling that most equipment runs on windows. Could also be wrong.

From what I know in the industry, Windows for the UI and some real time OS for control like VxWorks. But things are changing and linux is getting some traction. The healthcare industry is very slow moving (as it should be).

All this stuff is constantly moving, but I bet things in the future will be RT Linux plus some RTOS-drive microcontrollers for specific hardware and safety stuff. That's where everyone is heading to.