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He also refuses to have a cell phone because "they are tracking and surveillance devices" and "most of them are computers with nonfree software installed". Except if he needs to make a call, he has no problem borrowing someone else's.

Richard Stallman quoting Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. It's not that long ago...

He specifically states he was not happy to see Jobs die.

I see you trollin'.

The one trolling was Stallman. He was, , ""I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone."

So, a massive cerebral hemorrhage, a bullet to the head that left him a vegetable, a mental degenerate disease, or even something that just left him physically too debilitated to continue to do his, job, would have been fine with Stallman. Read the entirety of what he wrote, and you'll see that there's no other interpretation.

06 October 2011 (Steve Jobs)

Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died.

As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, "I'm not glad he's dead, but I'm glad he's gone." Nobody deserves to have to die - not Jobs, not Mr. Bill, not even people guilty of bigger evils than theirs. But we all deserve the end of Jobs' malign influence on people's computing.

Unfortunately, that influence continues despite his absence. We can only hope his successors, as they attempt to carry on his legacy, will be less effective.

Stallman is no longer relevant, and his latest whining just underlines that.

The link given on /. and latimes leads to a bullet point list of posts. The anchor jumps you to Stallman's Oct 6 bullet point, but I can't find the a link to the full article?!

http://stallman.org/archives/2011-jul-oct.html#06_October_2011_(Steve_Jobs)

What did I miss?

... do I have to hear Stallman Was Right before I should just a tattoo on my forehead?

If he was lucky enough to make it big in free software like Stallman, I doubt he'd be living under a bridge, or plugging the 'Food movement'. But does Stallman even program nowadays - I thought all he does was head the FSF, which doesn't do any development, just advocacy, which is something anybody can do. So yeah, the OP might want to pursue that line of work, feed his family while not writing even a line of code, which ain't going to do squat for his income anyway!

For all the privacy they've squashed and all the censorship they've jack booted.

Some of the issues are collected here http://stallman.org/facebook.html

... and RMS has sided with grease

http://stallman.org/facebook.html

so that failbook doesn't see my information? You realize that is the problem, not johnny and Jimmy? Don't go anywhere near failbook.

http://stallman.org/

The slashdot summary contains a total non sequitur: His suggested remedy? Distributing tax funds to authors based on their popularity, or "designing players so users can send authors anonymous voluntary payments". The part about "His suggested remedy?" implies, incorrectly, that Stallman is suggesting the tax idea as a solution to the DRM problem. Actually there is no logical connection between them, and Stallman hasn't suggested there is. If you want to see what Stallman actually said, here is his analysis of the DRM issue, and here is his proposal about taxes.

I hadn't realized until today that Stallman was politically so far to the left. I assume that I didn't know that for so long because he has tried to keep his left-wing orientation about government and capitalism separate from his libertarian approach to civil liberties and freedom of speech. There are a lot of people in the computer/internet world who are vaguely libertarian, and there's no point in alienating them gratuitously when they actually have common ground. It does, however, seem to me like there's somewhat of a philosophical contradiction between the voluntaristic approach he usually pushes (don't buy products that aren't free-as-in-speech, etc.) and the idea of compelling individuals to pay taxes in order to support ideas that they don't agree with.

The slashdot summary contains a total non sequitur: His suggested remedy? Distributing tax funds to authors based on their popularity, or "designing players so users can send authors anonymous voluntary payments". The part about "His suggested remedy?" implies, incorrectly, that Stallman is suggesting the tax idea as a solution to the DRM problem. Actually there is no logical connection between them, and Stallman hasn't suggested there is. If you want to see what Stallman actually said, here is his analysis of the DRM issue, and here is his proposal about taxes.

I hadn't realized until today that Stallman was politically so far to the left. I assume that I didn't know that for so long because he has tried to keep his left-wing orientation about government and capitalism separate from his libertarian approach to civil liberties and freedom of speech. There are a lot of people in the computer/internet world who are vaguely libertarian, and there's no point in alienating them gratuitously when they actually have common ground. It does, however, seem to me like there's somewhat of a philosophical contradiction between the voluntaristic approach he usually pushes (don't buy products that aren't free-as-in-speech, etc.) and the idea of compelling individuals to pay taxes in order to support ideas that they don't agree with.

> that RMS went and booked the other speaking engagements shows that he truly has no political sensitivities

By booking engagements in Israel, he showed that he looks past sectarian boundaries and sees people, each of which deserves freedom in their use of computers.

RMS writes extensively about politics:

http://stallman.org/archives/polnotes.html

Israel and Palestine are one of the most recurring topics.

I bet you also view websites by sending mail to a program that fetches them much like wget and then mails them back to you.

(Reference)

http://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20(Dutch%20paedophiles%20form%20political%20party) "I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing." As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia (or paedophilia) is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents (persons age 16 or older) typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children

Even if RMS has a Slashdot account, I doubt he'd find any fault with this story, which correctly describes the role both Linux and GNU have played.

Sometimes it's hard to make a distinction.

I'm always looking for ways to be supportive of FSF's stances, but they are a puritan organization. As such, they present views that they know won't gain mainstream acceptance but that's ok, since something more reasonable will gain it. And that's where I stand: I don't consider words of FSF to be holy, but I will support a more "secular" view.

Same here. It's unreasonable to consider an offering "libre" to be truly possible without being fully "unpaid". Not because they are linguistically indistinct concepts, but because they are not to be expected. Licensing schemes, as they exist today for end users, typically allow software that costs thousands to develop (if not monetary, then in food) to be available for lower prices. "Splitting the cost."

Software needs funding before it exists. It's unreasonable to offer people a "donation jar" to fund software that doesn't exist yet and is unproven. Rare examples of success are not always truly success. Most software is funded a-priori in good faith that somehow one can pay it back. How? By selling a-posteriori. Selling software that must be freely copyable by the recipient is possible, and explicitly supported by FSF, this is rarely feasible nowadays if developing software is your primary work in life. This is because you will rarely have the success of Blender in order to sell other merchandise. A lot of work done under free software platforms is done by volunteers, but a lot of highest quality work is done by companies that have other means of earning money. It's really hard to get quality software written fast when it's not your primary thing in life and with free software, it's hard to make it a primary thing. And if you can't think of writing free software as of a profession because you don't have the financial backing to write free software, FSF bluntly says you shouldn't think of it as your profession. I can't dig it out right now, but it's either somewhere on FSF's site, on GNU site, or on Stallman.org.

It's easy to pretend "libre" isn't followed by "unpaid". It's also easy to see that it's just a pretense. Let's hope that FSF's list of high priority projects does prove me wrong, that you indeed can stick out a donation jar and expect the money to flow a-priori. Because then I will indeed dedicate myself to working on tons of free software projects that I've either started already, or just wanted to work on. I want to work on a good blogging tool for GNU/Linux and Mac. Can I get a-priori funding for that? Or is it easier to dismiss pride and ideals and just sell on the Mac App Store, not opening the source since something like this might happen?

He is just afraid Richard Hanson will ask him to have a seat. Pedophile means before puberty. http://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20(Dutch%20paedophiles%20form%20political%20party) Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization. I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.

except I'd be using vi instead of emacs.

Heresy! Repent your wicked ways, O vile blasphemer, lest you suffer the eternal wrath of Saint IGNUcius! And furthermore...

Ah, I can't do it anymore. Not only am I too young to have been involved in the Great Editor Wars, I'm just happy to see anyone using a text editor these days. Let us set aside our grievances, for both sides have lost many good men (and women) to the Great Editor Wars, and band together against the new threat: the demon known as the Integrated Devil Eternity (IDE)!

Richard Stallman disagrees.

Your characterization fails to convey that you understand why he says what he does. Freedom, for its own sake, is worth pursuing. He doesn't make his claims exaggerating and mischaracterizing like you do ("the universe will explode"). He gives frank and factual examinations of reality showing where a loss of freedom leads to people losing their rights. You picked a particularly poor time to make your half-hearted critique as right now Amazon has again been caught removing e-books from customer's "Kindle" devices, including Amazon workers chastising those seeking a refund for the e-books that have been taken from them without their consent. It's not hard to see how paying for an e-book you don't get to keep and having someone else choose what you're allowed to read on your device is bad for people. Things like this help us understand why Stallman refers to the Amazon Kindle as the Amazon Swindle. He saw stuff like this happening many years ago and wrote his dystopic short story about the practical consequences of non-freedom. Check out his reaction to a 2005 incident when a Harry Potter book was sold before its intended for-sale date; I haven't read anyone else give a cogent thoughtful analysis like he did.

You said "Like most other expressions of concern that come from brother Stallman" and then cited none. Your followup cites nothing. Saying "not that his concerns are never valid" is meaningless because nobody is wrong all the time; you're saying that as a shield so you can come back later and claim that your objections only contain mild inaccuracies when your theme is profoundly wrong and undefended. You seem to want to criticize Stallman for being unpopular (with an audience that should know better than to accept claims like yours without specific evidence, quite frankly) yet you ignore the examples he points to and what's going on around you.

I guess you're probably joking but just in case...
RMS

I see the comments filling up with RMS is irrelevant, chicken little!, etc.. If you really don't know who he is give the site a read; I learned a lot about the software industry reading articles by Richard. Give this a try as well. Better yet, buy a copy!

Ah, yes. Jesus was known for talking about his nasal sex with plants.

Good question. Here is the answer. People in any sort of hacking culture (hardware in this case) do things like this for fun. It's a completely ludicrous idea to take 30 USB ports and try to cook dinner with it -- but it would be amusing to do, and he might learn something in the process. It may not have practical value for other people -- that isn't the point.

Refer to Stallman's article on hacking:

"I went to lunch with some GNU fans, and was sitting down to eat some tteokpaekki (*), when a waitress set down six chopsticks right in front of me. It occurred to me that perhaps these were meant for three people, but it was more amusing to imagine that I was supposed to use all six. I did not know any way to do that, so I realized that if I could come up with a way, it would be a hack. I started thinking. After a few seconds I had an idea..."

You get some idea of the thought process behind this. Although the subject of these two hacks are very different, I'm sure something similar was going through the mind of the USB cook.

"...It is hard to write a simple definition of something as varied as hacking, but I think what these activities have in common is playfulness, cleverness, and exploration. Thus, hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness. Activities that display playful cleverness have "hack value"."

http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html

HTH

when jesus overturned the money-changer's tables. Jesus? is that you?

As far as I know, the primary reason why rms doesn't have a cell phone is because he doesn't want to be tracked , and not because it contains non-free software (though that may be an additional reason...):

Police in the US use cell phones to track people's movements, real time. They can collect records of your past movements without meeting even the usual standard for a search warrant. Now courts are considering whether they must meet that standard for real-time tracking.

This is why I do not have a cell phone: I don't want to give the police a record of everywhere I go. It's not that I have something specific to hide; rather, it's my duty as a citizen to resist the total surveillance state.

many slashdotters, who are typically Libertarian-leaning

You must be kidding.

Just look at this guy

It's a c/p of something Stallman said a few years ago.

http://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20(Dutch%20paedophiles%20form%20political%20party)

It is a complete netbook, with a HD/SSD and a DDR2 SODIMM, so it's not really comparable if you want a smaller handheld. But at least it is Free as in GNU/RMS.

(I have no affiliation with this company, but it seems to be the only professional-looking vendor I have found so far.)

e.g. a 20MB MFM became a 30MB RLL?

If so, RLLs would be out, because the compression system would get in the way of direct bit placement on the platter.

Yes, and yes.

An old MFM or ESDI drive should do the job nicely. You should be able to shove the drive and controller into a 386 or 486 system, which should be able to load and run a linux system up to around the early 2.x kernels.

Who particularly cares about running X on it - you might as well just build the box headless and telnet into it.

Or, if the original questioner wants to get really close to the metal, dig out a PDP-11 or an early VAX from the local nerd-museum and learn how to drive the 14" platters of the dismountable hard drives. What were they RL-02s and/ or RL-05s ?

Been to a Stallman lecture? He uses one of the platters for his "St Ignutius" halo.
One of these : http://stallman.org/photos/st-ignucius/vatican/mid/mid_img_7594.jpg
not one of these : http://stallman.org/RMS_13_bendicindo.jpg

e.g. a 20MB MFM became a 30MB RLL?

If so, RLLs would be out, because the compression system would get in the way of direct bit placement on the platter.

Yes, and yes.

An old MFM or ESDI drive should do the job nicely. You should be able to shove the drive and controller into a 386 or 486 system, which should be able to load and run a linux system up to around the early 2.x kernels.

Who particularly cares about running X on it - you might as well just build the box headless and telnet into it.

Or, if the original questioner wants to get really close to the metal, dig out a PDP-11 or an early VAX from the local nerd-museum and learn how to drive the 14" platters of the dismountable hard drives. What were they RL-02s and/ or RL-05s ?

Been to a Stallman lecture? He uses one of the platters for his "St Ignutius" halo.
One of these : http://stallman.org/photos/st-ignucius/vatican/mid/mid_img_7594.jpg
not one of these : http://stallman.org/RMS_13_bendicindo.jpg

Mint is based on the Ubuntus, so it has access to the same software repositories.

The installer is pretty much the same as Ubuntu's, which means it's easy.

The one thing that Mint has over regular Ubuntus is that the Mint builders have included all the non-free, somewhat-proprietary stuff about which most FOSS purists get their panties in a twist. Having been a Linux user since the beginning, I agree with and fully support the idea of FOSS, GPLs and the like. In theory, it's wonderful, and it's brought a great set of computing tools to the world. But the Richard Stallman-influenced world of "only fully free is acceptable" makes no sense in the real world (well, maybe in Stallman's world), especially among the people the poster is attempting to assist.

Most Windows users/converts want stuff to just work. Leaving out multimedia codecs because someone has a copyright on it or because you're offended by the license restrictions doesn't help the user who doesn't understand those lofty concepts. Yes, people can learn about and and decide for themselves, and yes, hopefully, someone will come along and develop fully-free, GPL'ed versions of all the offending tools. But, in the meantime, people want their shit to work.

Mint comes as close to this environment as you're going to get. You do a basic install, and everything works out of the box, including just about any multimedia content you can throw at it. And the standard install has all the things you need: a messenger tool, Thnderbird for mail, multiple browsers (including Firefox), and office suites for all the Powerpoint stuff (OpenOffice is there by default).

I can recommend the KDE Community Edition for a number of reasons, the most important of which is that the KDE 4.3 setup in Mint 8 will provide a very comfortable interface for someone transitioning from Windows. Yes, people will have to learn a few things, like which app does which thing, but even the menu design will make that simple. The familiar toolbar is there, pretty much the way you described it, and adding desktop and toolbar widgets is a snap. This is a feature that will be a kick to a lot of new users.

There's no question that you might run into some issues with really exotic hardware, but those instances are becoming rarer by the day. As for customization, well, there's a lot built in for changing the look-and-feel around, and there's a lot of skins and themes available with a simple download.

With a very active on-line community, there are few issues that can't be solved.

Have a look at the LiveCD and see if you agree. I believe most of these users will be very pleased.

http://www.linuxmint.com/download_ce.php

One alternative for a 64-bit system with low power consumption is MIPS. For example the Lemote netbook that RMS uses has an 800 MHz MIPS64 called Loongson that consumes just a couple of watts maximum. I don't know much details, but apparently the CPU has proper floating point performance, unlike most ARM processors. While ARM systems do come with DSPs for media processing, MIPS could be more interesting for general computing.

... which caused me to develop RMS

Gee, I am very sorry about your affliction.

I happen to have a copy of PC Magazine from 1991 right behind me.... hmm...

30" display... hmm.... don't see one.

19" Sony costs $2499. A cheap 19" Panasonic can be bought for $1329. Looks like they'll do 1280x1024. Most budget 14" monitors are around $300 and top out at 640x480.

That was 19 years ago. Linus was just pecking away at his new 386, annoyed at the lack of software, a young Richard Stallman was posessed by the spirit of St IGNUscius, brandishing his 8" floppy before young virgins... all male no doubt.

I keep the PC Mag to remember the bad old days. I guess the only upside is that the kernel could be understood.

Second, figure out the peak speed, minimum speed, average speed (Both mean and RMS)...

I always thought RMS and mean were synonymous.

This guy already came up with a "unique copyright" some time ago...

Did anyone else find it funny that they call it Microsoft RMS (rights management system)?

I've seen worse. How about...
RMS = Richard Stallman - Mister Free Software himself
RMS = Windows Rights Management Services - Microsoft's proprietary system for restricting access to documents

How in the fuck is this flamebait? Show me a SINGLE instance where you can just walk into a Walmart and buy a device for Linux and have 100% assurance that it will work. With Windows you can look at the label, same with OSX, with Linux you are royally fucked without doing research. Hell read Ubuntu helpsites and see how fricking quick the word research pops into the conversation.

So if you want to get pissy Linux guys, don't blame me, blame your precious RMS and his "Source Code or Nothing!(SCoN!)" brigade who make damned sure you will NEVER have a stable ABI and therefor will never get to have the drivers on the fricking CD like any normal OS. Having to have the drivers maintained by the kernel devs is about the most fucked up back assed way you could possibly go, but because of the SCoN! you are trapped in the fucked up way of doing things, all because you listen to RMS who is about the WORST spokesman you could possibly have.

Having to research your ass off before making a purchase was fine and dandy ohh...about 25 fucking years ago, now the ONLY OS that has to do that is YOURS. Not OSX, not Windows, which BTW Win7 devices are already all over Best Buy and Walmart with helpful stickers that let you know it "just works". Where is the helpful Penguin stickers? Oh right, there isn't any, because you can't even put a single fricking driver on a CD and have it work 6 months later! Boy, gotta love that freedom!

So in conclusion, look at this post and the previous one oh clueless Linux zealots to see the difference between flamebait and answering a question, of course I have so much karma your wasting your time either way, but i do prefer to educate where I can. Oh, and notice that NOT A SINGLE FUCKING THING I said is in any way, shape, or form false. Now don't blame me if the truth hurts or you can't face reality. After all your OS is "free as in freedom" isn't it? So if reality sucks you can get together with your fellow basement dwellers and change it! But if you try? You'll find out that RMS and the SCoD! brigade will make sure that you are in fact NOT free, only their definition of free is allowed. That is why even Linus won't put the kernel under GPL V3, because even he knows that RMS is batshit. But hold onto those dreams of the masses studying their ass off just to buy a simple device at the Wallyworld, I'm sure your "year of the Linux desktop!" will be coming....ohh in about 40 years or so...BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Oh look, I made a funny!

Wake up!

http://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20(Dutch%20paedophiles%20form%20political%20party)

Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization.

I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.

Well for me RMS went into the "too fucking creepy" zone with this particular gem. For those who don't want to RTFL, I will quote RMS "I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. "

Ooooooookay. Having RMS as the spokesman for GPL is getting to be like finding the guy in the wife beater shirt to put on the 11 o' clock news when a tornado rips through a town. I mean after the whole "anti-TiVo" GPL V3 is it any wonder that companies don't want to use GPL? And if you want to see some more of his 'far out wacky hi jinks" just read them yourself.

Of course I'll probably be modded to hell for daring to point out Saint RMS is a seriously weird and creepy guy, but let's be honest here. Image matters. In this day and age image matters a LOT. And while the things he did in the 1980s were great and all, maybe it is time to pick a better spokesman than seriously creepy RMS.

> The spirit of the GPL does not matter. All that matters is the reality of the license.

Yes, but to take such a literal view ignores the fact that the GPL was written for a reason - and that reason is that proprietary vendors were restricting certain freedoms that the FSF believes belong to everybody.

The GPL was written to preserve those freedoms for anyone using and distributing software under it. If a vendor finds a loophole that again restricts those freedoms, they are clearly not interested in promoting the freedoms the GPL was intended to preserve, and thus the GPL is broken.

Wow, that's not true at all. The GPL is a license that has requirements. If the requirements are met the GPL is not broken. The GPLv2 and GPLv3 have different requirements and the GPLv4 when it comes out will have other requirements.

If you think that the application store violates the spirit of the GPL, then surely you must think that the requirement of 95% of all Intel motherboards to contain a closed source BIOS in order to boot a violation as well.

If there is a spirit of the GPL it is clearly the spirit of the great RMS.

Tell me, what does He think about this topic? I'm not interested in an A.C.'s interpretation of what the GPL's spirit might be.

--jeffk++

I contracted this disease in 1992, when I was working on some server equipment that had critical up time issues.

I must tell you all, it is a fairly debilitating disease.

My symptoms included blown budgets, server up times measured in weeks instead of years and a pager that would go off at 2AM to wake me up to take my medication.

I had to literally take a meal of different medications "Reboot" pills where the worst.

I tried everything. Finally a treatment was found by a guy named Richard M Stallman.

Well, ever since I tried the GNU Treatment program I have made a full recovery!

I thought I would tell everyone and you can get more information here:

http://stallman.org/

-Hack

Thanks it has been awhile since I actually had to look up an argument. Notice how quick the RMS zealots downmodded me, that is funny as shit. I've got karma all day baby!

Lets be honest here folks, image matters! Does anybody actually believe that Steve Jobs is sitting there in some workshop cooking up the next iGadget? NO! But the man has presence and style, and he brings a level of cool to the company. Same as Bill had that "evil supernerd" thing going on. So who do we see all over the place representing Linux? RMS. linus has always been more low key and probably doesn't get 1/5th the press of RMS. So yeah, the fact that he thinks eating toe junk on fricking stage is cool matters. The fact that he won't give interviews unless you speak "RMS language" matters. Hell the guy even calls himself a squatter on the MIT campus. And finally you want relevant? How about this: Linux, whose big selling point is how well it works with the web, is taking pointers from a guy who doesn't actually browse the web.

Look, just because a guy once upon a time did something great does not make him a savior or expert now. Hell even Linus won't put the kernel under GPL V3 because he believes that RMS has pushed it too far. Bill and Steve couldn't ask for a better spokesman for Linux if they tried. The man just gets farther and farther from mainstream every single damned day. So the Linux guys need to ask themselves a question: Do you want a shot at the title? or do you wanna stay a niche? Because RMS is a guy that wouldn't even allow the wireless on his OLPC because it didn't have a driver that matched his "four freedoms".

And finally any guy who would allow himself to be quoted saying this does NOT need to be looked upon as a major spokesman for Linux "I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children.". Ooooookay. Seriously, how much fucking creepier does the man have to get before the community stops listening to this dude? Notice I don't hide behind Anon coward. I don't because I think Linus is a MUCH better spokesman and once everyone stops treating RMS as all that and a bag of chips the better. RMS does nothing now but hurt the cause, especially with crap pouring out of his mouth like the above.

but you actually want me to take advice on technology from this fossil?

its hard to be an authority on a subject matter you do not fully and freely partake of, don't you think?

http://www.stallman.org/

What's your point again?

The obvious solution is Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.

Seriously, this is a great project. Surely the appropriate solution is a version of either GNU/Linux, such as SELinux, or OpenBSD. No system is entirely secure, but the idea that MS Windows could be as secure as GNU/Linux or BSD is wild.