RMS on SCO, Distributions, DRM

Letter writes "Open for Business has an interview with GNU founder and free software zealot Richard M. Stallman (RMS) discussing the SCO situation, the single RMS-approved free Linux distribution and DRM in the Linux kernel. RMS also describes non-free software as a 'predatory social system that keeps people in a state of domination and division.'"

Comments

Re:RMS Interview on Slashdot?

[evil_one666]

RMS is my god

All hail the fat bearded one
All hail the fat bearded one

That is all.

B.S.closed source is closer to a Stalinist system!

[ratfynk]

Somehow what you have confused is free as in freedom and free beer, as usual. If you write something to operate with a physical device, in this case a computer, and then confound the purchasers ability to modify this interface to their need. Are you applying a restriction of use that has sensible terms of sale? For example then I must pay a greater level of money to fix the software product to my needs. This is regularly done.If your needs are different than what the interface dictates then you are not free to use the product which you purchased to your requirements without paying through the nose. This is and will be the greatest cost of proprietary ware. It will also really handcuffing learning, tech advancements and has led to the Microshaft monopoly.

Survival not of the best but survival of the one who holds the source. This way Microsoft has successfully bullied hardware manufactures into submition. When the alternative is a hostile Microsoft manufacturers just bow down. That is the doing and competitive advantage of closed source ware. MS wanted to dominate business word processing so they just made it imposible for other office suites to compete, plain and simple, they did this because of closed source. If you have an innovation interface that MS really wants to encorporate in their portfolio you are first given a chance to build up demand then you will be cloned and dollars to dognuts your file format will be read by the MS clone but the proprietary MS competing format will be so tricked out that you have not got a prayer. That is the reality of what has been alowed to happen with closed source. It has become like giving someone a perpetual exclusive on all digital communication. You can bet MS lobby dollars will only go to keep the status quo Pax Microsoftis going, through bought out congressmen like Sen Fritz. So keep your Mirmidon thoughts about software needing to be closed source to make money. Just bow to Redmond and be a good bread and circuses ignorant software consumer.

Re:"Zealot"

[Overly Critical Guy]

If you're the only person seeing walls, is that why people call you crazy?

Re:"Freedom" and "freedom"

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

Question: Does GNU/Linex stop you from installing non-free sotware? No, it just doesn't provide options by default. There are no restrictions here. However, having software that isn't free, may mean having restrictions.

Hell, I'm far from an free software zealot, but I still think your point is just silly and missleading.

Re:"Zealot"

[dipipanone]

If you're the only person seeing walls, is that why people call you crazy?

Perhaps when you've made as big a contribution to the world as Stallman, and you've got something as interesting to say as he has, global media will be seeking your views out too.

Until then, you'll always have Slashdot...

Re:At least RMS is consistent

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Hey, the villans and heroes are determined by the folks who wrote history. Look at Moses and his exploits. You've got a murderer and Egyptian collaborator who leads a people on a journey that ends in genocide on a mass scale. His troops rolled over Caanan, slaughtering everything that moved. Yet he is all sorts of "Holy".

Re:Non-free?

[EvilTwinSkippy]

I've never thought life was a closed loop. And for the record I do realize that Thermo is a "bit more then plugging numbers from tables into formulas." Given that I don't use it on a day to day basis, I cut it down to the essential bits that DO help me on a day to day basis:

• Energy can change state, but it is never created or destroyed
• You lose energy in every conversion through entropy.
• The entropy of a pure crystal at absolute zero is zero.

Now everything beyond those 3 principles is application. The statistical method of solving thermo problems is application. The differentail equations are application. The tables and units are application.

Whatever else you are eluding to is either jargon, beyond the scope of the layman (like me), or bullshit.