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Richard Stallman on OLPC
memshankar writes "In an interview while he was in Hyderabad, India RMS praises for the One Laptop Per Child Project. He is even contemplating making a switch to XO, the flagship machine of the project, from his "old thinkpad". Stallman went on to say that the OLPC laptop has given people a way to use the free BIOS.
He is, however dissatisfied with the wireless networking system used in the XO."
If you write an important compiler, and you say something provocative, it's news. If you don't, it's flamebait!
Clearly, I can't troll without writing a compiler.
Sigh...
Must get to work!
This is my sig.
Amazing, if this Stallman person is thinking of getting one then maybe I should too. I wonder what brand of washing powder he uses because I'm not totally satisfied with the softness ( or lack of ) I get with the persil tablets I am currently using.
He is, however dissatisfied with the wireless networking system used in the XO. Since it uses a proprietary technology,| he plans to remove it and use a separate device when he needs to make wireless communication with others.
You imagine the mumbling and grumbling grumbling coming from RMS as he wields his soldering iron over a naked XO.
liqbase
Ok, the actual TFA is maybe 3 times longer that the summary. Man, how does this stuff get past the editors...
Complexity is a measure of our ignorance...
Is RMS ever happy? I am going to start a project "One Puppy per child" and the first one goes to Stallman.
is closed source, he isn't complaining about the technology... Good bad I'm not sure but maybe he could make a greater stance against how that is handled by Intel and all the other WLAN card designers.
He didn't call it GNU/OLPC?
You sure they actually interviewed RMS?
Do we really care? It's not really that surprising. A cheap laptop using free software for the masses. Isn't this like a dream come true for the man?
I always thought that the XO made sense for RMS. Find another machine that is open source from the hardware to the bios to the OS to the applications. The XO is the only true FOSS device that I know about.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
The SONY dogbot isn't open sourced, but there is a german one you can use.
I demand to get my free laptop now. What are the age requirements?
I've always wondered about articles like this one.
Linus says something about an area he knows nothing about.
Stallman says something a particular product.
dont get me wrong, they are both interesting people, I have some Stallman lectures sitting on my hard drive, and I've actually watched them several times.
When these guys are talking about a topic where they are an authority on the matter, I find their comments to be '+5 insightful', but stuff like this is '+2 interesting' at best.
-I only code in BASIC.-
Although some people can't see beyond the ends of their politically correct noses in the west and so talk down RMS for his shaggy look, that's not an issue in the guru culture of India. In fact, the picture of RMS in TFA fits in perfectly. You wouldn't trust a "wise old man" dressed in a slimy western business suit and tie.
Kudos to RMS for all his work over the years, and putting up with small-minded criticism.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Next thing you know he'll start using a web browser to view websites. :O
RMS, who has had crippling repetitive stress injuries in the past, should know better than to make a statement like this, let alone even use the XO for anything but experimentation.
and who forgot to take the white pill this morning?
o/~ Join us now and share the software
He won't even put down the laptop he owns now, even for a second. Not even when he is dancing. :)
Richard Stallman on OLPC
I knew it! I knew that guy had to be on something! But, I thought it would be PCP.
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
The XO's networking capabilities is fantastic. It gets far better range (thanks to its dual rabbit ears), has ultra low power mesh networking, and a bunch of other capabilities.
But because it uses binary blobs for the driver and firmware, RMS fees it is hopelessly compromised?!
Does RMS not drive a car built in the past 20 years because you aren't supposed to change the computer running the engine? What about fly in a commercial airliner?
Also, the XO can never use GPLv3 code. For the US market, they will give the unlock key, but for the third world, this key is the responsibility of the educational ministry, which often needs to keep the software base consistent (among other things, this helps manage theft).
Test your net with Netalyzr
... about an obscure restaurant in Western Mass.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I didn't RTFA, but is he really thinking of switching to one full-time? I think it's a great device, but I can't imagine typing on one for any amount of time. And I'm sure he types a lot. I hear he kinda likes Emacs.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
o/~ Join us now and share the software
I admire RMS' unmoving stance on Free. Will I emulate it? Certainly not. I believe RMS places himself, consciously or not, as a role model. He sits at an extreme of the Free/Proprietary spectrum, and will continuously push and pull in that direction.
For the rest of us who live in the real world and accept compromises to make our lives more comfortable, he's ridiculous. But that's not the point. The point is that he aims for an ideal that won't be attained by everyone, but that can be strived to.
So the fact that his complaints about the non-free wireless is ridiculous to the rest of us, but it does motivate some to provide a free alternative, and that is his objective.
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
You sound like a bunch of Scientologists. Just say "Stallman".
The keyboard alone is unusable for touch-typists. Although I haven't tried, I presume a USB keyboard would work. But who wants to carry that around. I've been tinkering with an XO for a few weeks now, and the membrane, too-small keyboard is the killer.
-Mike
Your monitor is staring at you.
Actually, I think he is making these remarks in his capacity as the author of and important license, in which case it is quite newsworthy. Or it may be in his capacity as the originator of the "free software" concept, I'm not sure.
Compiler writer, inventor of free software concept, really, not a bad resume at all. But that's the thing about RMS that makes me respect the socialist. The classic Republican retort, that I've used myself, to liberals that want the government to save the world, is, "if its so important to you, then why not do it yourself". And RMS DID just that. He didn't write a petition web site, he wasn't lobbying congress. He said that there ought to be bunch of free tools and he made it happen. He wrote the original gnu compiler, put a lot into emacs, put together the GNU project and the GPL and a whole bunch of things. He's done more for his cause by himself than 99% of most people do for theirs.
I may not agree with his politics, but I deeply respect the man, and yeah, I do donate to the GNU when I can, because, sometimes its better to support people that are just willing to work to make the world better in some way, regardless if it jives with your own half baked sensibilities. The work matters more than the politics, I say.
This is my sig.
I've sent emails to RMS at GNU in the past and he actually will reply.
He can be dogmatic about his views, but he won't flame you for having
a different opinion. He WILL give you a good argument why HE is right
and YOU are wrong, but in a VERY polite way. (He's like a true politician,
he can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to
the trip!).
That is without question the best video I have ever seen posted on /. Good find.
[FUCK BETA]
The spelling erors and general incoherance were a nice touch .. ;)
davecb5620@gmail.com
Thankyou for that image. Now I need some of this, for my brain.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Let's compare two imaginary network interface cards:
The Foo networking card uses a binary blob, for which no source is currently available. If you can get a new blob you can change what it does.
The Bar networking card has no firmware at all; it has hard-coded logic, unchangeable because it is implemented in hardware. It does what it does, forever.
If I understand RMS's position correctly, the Bar card is perfectly acceptable and laudable; the Foo card is evil and proprietary and should be avoided.
In other words, it is far, far better to have an inflexible device, than a flexible device that contains a binary blob. It is wrong to not have the source for software, but it is okay to have functions fixed forever by particular hardware.
Corollary: a digital watch is evil, a mechanical watch is just fine.
Corollary: I'll bet RMS has a toaster oven but no microwave oven.
Corollary: If RMS got an OLPC XO laptop, he'd probably try to delete all driver software for the Marvell networking chips, and use some sort of external WiFi device. Oh wait, he actually said that one!
I'm not trying to troll here; I'm pointing out what seems to me like a silly extreme position. You can take any good idea to extremes and end up in a silly position.
P.S. Now imagine that some of the logic in the Bar card was done in an FPLA. You can say that an FPLA has "source code" of a sort, even though it's hardware... Is that enough to make the Bar card proprietary and evil now?
P.P.S. Now imagine we burn the binary blob into a ROM, forever unchangeable. Is that enough to make the Foo card good? (I really want to know that one. I don't think you can get a network card in the real world that doesn't have SOME kind of firmware. Does it really make that big a difference whether the firmware is in ROM or downloaded as part of the software driver stack?)
RMS uses a Thinkpad? That's not free, is it?
Shouldn't the XO be free to everyone? I mean, if it has free software, the hardware ought to be free as well.
I am going to go start the Free Hardware Foundation and agitate for free hardware.
FIC produces a phone that qualifies. The firmware for the GSM is closed, but I believe that's a legal requirement in most areas.
The Neo 1973 & Neo FreeRunner are linux ARM computers with full GPS, bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, USB (client & unpowered host) and 480 x 640 touchscreens. The FreeRunner also has two accelerometers and wi-fi. You can buy the Neo 1973 now, and the FreeRunner is expected in March or April.
You can (of course) play video, music, and run PDA apps on the devices. You can also view PDFs and the web, use bluetooth keyboards (or bluetooth anything else, for that matter), or do anything that you or someone else cares to port from the desktop, assuming the hardware resources are sufficient.
I've been playing with my Neo 1973 (currently recommended only for people willing to debug, and tolerate alpha level software) for a few weeks, and I'm having a great time with it.
Not only the software is open - you can get CAD files for the case, and schematics as well. There are also i2c, etc. bus standards used so adding new hardware is easy as well, if you're so inclined. Obviously the real market there is for a cottage industry distributing neos with extra hardware built-in, but the hobbyist can experiment at home, too.
Sure there are good things, bad things and the ugly about the OLPC XO but I don't know a single effort that has brought more competition and choices to the market than this project. The intention is a good one, and it has decent hardware/software and OS for kids. I on the other hand would pull my hair out just waiting for the system to boot. It seems to take forever.
Here is the XO next to a Dell D620 for comparison sake. I took this at LinuxWorld 2007:
http://flickr.com/photos/barl0w/1101266148/
> He is smart enough to know which is more important, and assumes you are too.
:-)
So he's not smart enough to know that they're not that smart?
Smart people make reasonable allowances for judgments about appearance. We aren't talking about the colour of his skin or a birthmark, we're talking about decisions he's made about how he presents himself. If he isn't capable of basic hygiene, why should we assume he's capable of other common sense things?
He's right about some things, and I'll judge those things on their own merit and not on the person presenting them, but on the whole he's a nutter. I don't want to be associated with Pan worshiping or nasal sex because I work with Linux or other open technologies. *I* can look past those things, but part of professionalism is recognizing that there are a lot of stupid people in influential positions who can't or won't.
I seem to be out $400. OLPC sounds great, but the only hard evidence I have to work with is that it's an incompetent company selling vaporware.
And it handled the weight? My congratulations to the design team. Have they considered going for the Space Elevator next?
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
Professionalism can essentially be boiled down to the art of dealing with stupid people. Stallman simply refuses to do so, and so it's quite fair to label him as unprofessional.
Here in the real world, what stupid people say is far from meaningless. It has real and direct effect on what happens. Would you really argue that George Bush's opinions over the last 8 years have had no effect? When you join us in the grown up world, you'll have to deal with people like that, and have their decision impact you.
OK, I'll bite. What corruption has the OLPC project committed? I suspect you are referring to the corruption in Nigeria, which was committed by Microsoft in order to destroy OLPC. Was that what you meant? If not, please clarify, and do so with specificity, or retract your smear.
I suspect what you really object to is that RMS is winning: the future belongs to freedom of software. He is whomping all the smartly-dressed gangsters who enjoy restricting the freedom of other people -- such as yourself. History will remember RMS and his GPL, not Bill Gates or you.
Actually, I doubt he will need to unsolder the chip from the board. The proprietary component which I imagine Stallman is referring to is the firmware (which is a binary blob), located in /lib/firmwire on the XO's operating system. rm'ing this firmware will have the same effect as disabling the wireless.
But other people do, and they'll judge me by association. I don't appreciate that.
I can't change the perceptions of every moron in the world, but Stallman could grow the fuck up and act like a reasonable spokesperson, or step aside for someone who would.
In other words, RMS has a consistent view of software freedom: as long as its your computer, you deserve to control it. It matters not which processor is running a program. Immutable code in ROMs is different precisely because that's not software. That could just as easily be a different kind of hardware doing the same job. But here the wireless hardware is programmable, the firmware sent to it is software. And all the logic of software freedom applies.
I know of no wireless hardware he thinks is "AOK" which uses proprietary firmware. I own an ASUS wireless device that has no firmware on a gNewSense GNU/Linux machine, so I dodge the issue entirely. The device may be buggy but one will have to work around those bugs in a driver or live with them. RMS will use proprietary firmware devices when there's no alternative (see his IBM Thinkpad) but he'll use it to pursue freedom switching to free hardware when he can (changing to the XO), just as he initially developed GNU software on proprietary OSes and switched to a completely free software OS when he could. This is reasonable, the goal is to achieve and defend software freedom. To demand using a free software OS back in 1984 would have meant never getting started at all.
Finally, he wouldn't refer to proprietary software as "closed". The term "closed" denotes a reference to the open source movement of which RMS is not a member (an older essay on the same topic is also available). The open source movement reaches radically different conclusions about proprietary software than the free software movement. It seems fair and reasonable to me that if you're going to talk about his perspective on these issues you should at least say why you're not framing the issue in the way that makes his perspective understandable.
Digital Citizen
Most people will come across something about nasal sex, or see a picture of him, and then ignore anything he has to say. It's unfortunate, it's not fair, but that's the way the world works. Part of being a grown up is accepting that.
How is Stallman going to type on an XO with his big bear claw man-hands? I have these freakishly slender, "dainty" fingers, and my XO is downright torturous to type on. I can't imagine someone with normal grown-up hands typing on it. A big guy like Richard? It'd be like smacking a regular keyboard with 10 potatoes on sticks, trying to work it in your CLI.
I'm pretty much a linux noob, but I managed to install an Ubuntu/Xfce image onto my XO's SD card, and apt-get OpenOffice and Opera. I had to muck some Open firmware files to properly specify boot location stuff, which was nearly impossible because of the typing.
This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
Would someone be so kind as to set up a mirror for those of us in China? Blogspot is blocked by the Great Firewall.
Thanks in advance.
-- My choice of computing platform is a symbol of my individuality and belief in personal freedom.
But i thot that this StallMan guy is afraid and literally hates the letter 'O' .. mayb he was meaning 'F'LPC ?
Richard, you are wrong. You said very clearly in your interview that the OLPC contains non-free software. It does not. It is just a scaffold of Makefiles containing URLs, and an occasional patch here or there. You are just plain wrong. And you are not enough of a man to admit that you are wrong. I may be unfriendly at times, but you are a power-misusing hypocritical liar who attacks projects that try harder than any others to only make free software available. Shame on you, bearded communist hippie. -Theo
I have absolutely no problem with jokes about nasal sex or people acting like dirty hippies. I wish everyone agreed with me on that, but they don't.
If Stallman wants to push society towards being more accepting, that's awesome. I applaud him. He can't do that *and* be a spokesperson for free software without tying the two in the minds of intolerant people. The simple fact of the matter is that we need to win over some of those small minded people to have a successful free software movement. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is.
I wish he'd step away from the FSF, advocate his ideals separately, and let respectable (to the small minded) people like Eben Moglen represent the movement.