11 ms·
Richard Stallman on The Setup
- romland 17y agoaccidentally touching the mouse-pad and moving the pointer, which would be a nuisance Sheesh. One would hope he has better reasons than that for using console. It's not that hard to configure X to not switch window on mouse-over. No offense RMS. :) I didn't know about the yeeloong, though. Interesting device.
- rbanffy 17y ago> I didn't know about the yeeloong, though. Interesting device. It seems to be very slow, has a small RAM and just a couple gigabytes of storage. I would love the idea of a Windows-proof computer I could use, but this is still not it. The larger one looks promising.
- papaf 17y agoI also use emacs -nw on my netbook. Its faster than the graphical emacs and, if you turn off the menus, its a quiet minimalist experience.
- gnurant 17y agoIt's probably for speed and battery life. Whatever works for you.
- gnosis 17y ago"accidentally touching the mouse-pad and moving the pointer, which would be a nuisance" He should just use a trackball.
- strait 17y agoRMS is my favorite computing austerity artist. The RMS Waltz: That's one, two, three internet connections. Now here's one Emacs (Gnus is not responding), two Emacs (dired and the tramp), three Emacs (at this time, Count von Count can be heard laughing in the background).
- motters 17y agoIt sounds as if he operates in batch mode with regard to communication.
- asb 17y agoIn 2007 at least, he opted to use a demon to email him pages rather than browse the web: For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer. (I also have not net connection much of the time.) To look at page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me. It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time. http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/ http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/
- elblanco 17y agoHe really is >this< close to being certifiable.
- radu_floricica 17y agoI hope it's a joke. I actually did this some 12 years ago. We only had email access at my high school, and I used to browse ftp sites by email. With emails being sent only twice a day. I leaned pretty quickly that all the good stuff is in /pub... saved me a full day of browsing.
- gaius 17y ago"I also have not net connection much of the time" Even that's quirky, when you can hardly buy a phone without Internet capability these days. You have to be deliberately avoiding a connection.
- henrikschroder 17y agoThose phones you speak of, do they run 100% Free Software? If not, rms isn't interested.
- wildjim 17y agoIs it really? Don't you get sick of being "always on" sometimes? Perhaps the averse reactions here have something to do with too many of us living in densely populated/over-populated or even over-stimulated environments; the short-attention-span generation?
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- andrewljohnson 17y agoTypical Stallman... taking everything to the extreme and suffering the consequences. It's the burden of the idealist.
- mtoledo 17y agoI admire his willingness to stand to what he believes. Also, extremisms aside, he's contributed a lot to the community.
- andrewljohnson 17y agoBeliefs are the bastion of the uninformed, and those so set in their ways they can't take a moment to think things through.
- rbanffy 17y agoWhat you call beliefs, I call principles. It's nice to know he doesn't compromise them.
- cschwarm 17y agoAnd what you call principles, I call dogmata.
- rbanffy 17y agoWhy?
- cschwarm 17y agoBecause that's what they are. From Wikipedia: "Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted or diverged from." Some examples: * 4 rights constitute Free Software, not 3 or 2 or 1 but 4. * Free Software is equivalent to Civil Freedom and Human Rights. * Distributing software without any of these 4 rights makes the act unethical, immoral and evil. * All software should be Free Software. Doubt any of these and you are no true believer of the Free Software Movement.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- admp 17y ago"This interview is available under the Attribution No Derivatives license." Am I the only one who finds that ironic?
- almost 17y agoNot especially, Stalman campaigns for free software and he has reasons why he thinks it's a very good idea. Those reasons don't really extend to interviews as far as I can see.
- dchest 17y agoThe reason for "No Derivatives" is that RMS doesn't want his words to be changed. Some text files inside Emacs are (c) RMS, but with a permission to copy and distribute the entire article verbatim.
- elblanco 17y agoThat's because despite his dogged persistence on the FSF GNU bit, he really doesn't care about Freedom.
- prodigal_erik 17y agoYou think what he has quite literally dedicated his life to doesn't count simply because he didn't grant you permission to put words in his mouth?
- elblanco 17y agoI think RMS is restricting my freedom to put words in his mouth.
- leelin 17y agoThis reminded me of the Don Dodge GOOG/MSFT transition post. Maybe it was the displays of platform loyalties, or their perceived backwardness of the technology habits? http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2009/11/thanks-microsoft-hello-google.html http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2009/11/thank...
- bugs 17y agoStallman is pretty steady and unchanging in his habits towards software and internet access.
- kqr2 17y agoRMS had actually switched to an OLPC XO laptop but then dropped it: http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php Does anyone know of a US distributor for the Yeeloong netbook?
- Luyt 17y ago+1, that is an interesting article. I read he dropped the OLPC because it allowed running Windows on it. He expects the OLPC to turn millions of children into Windows users, and compares Windows to an addictive drug, and Microsoft to a drugs dealer supplying kids with a cheap first 'fix'. Also, Windows will not run on his Lemote laptop.
- elblanco 17y agoI will personally buy a Yeelong netbook and install Windows on it just so RMS has no computer to use at all if that's how he swings.
- axod 17y agoI don't understand the god like status given to this guy. He's clearly crazy and from a whole other world than the one real people live in. Who really cares if their BIOS is open source or not? Why does it matter? Are the designs used to make his laptop case open source as well? I doubt it.
- ghshephard 17y agohttp://www.virtualteacher.com.au/crazyone.html http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/crazyone.html Seriously though, rms, is one of the principal founders of the free software philosophy, and creator of the GPL, upon which some significant software has been licensed. He's consistent in his vision, which is freedom, and can reliably be looked to for guidance on topics regarding those freedoms. Can you identify even three people who have had as significant impact on free (as in speech) software? [edit - I don't mean people like linus, who create great software, but people who develop/evangelize free software philosophies - Theo De Raadt comes to mind - there aren't too many others that I can think of right away]
- axod 17y agoFree software existed before the GPL. Pretty sure linux would still have happened without it. People are moving to a web based architecture all the time. The amount of software people actually download and install is reducing, so to some extent the whole idea of OSS for most people (I believe) is becoming less important. Meanwhile Richard Stallman doesn't even use the web. I just don't see it as that relevant anymore.
- Jach 17y agoI have a feeling it's only going to get more relevant, because now the software is moving toward the web, it is insanely convenient and easy to lock-in users and restrict freedoms. There are of course a freaking huge number of problems with the idea of open-sourcing the entirety of many website backends. I think there can be great discussion though on various models. GitHub offering web hosting instead of just repo hosting seems like a possibility.
- sailormoon 17y agoIronic that the only laptop running free software from top to bottom is made in China. Pretty cool little computers they make too. Check out this: http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=134&id=675 http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=134&id=675 RMB¥1699, that's about AUD$295 or USD $265. Or if you prefer the iMac form factor: http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=136&id=849 http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=136&id=849 WTF is with the name of that PHP script though.
- elblanco 17y agoRight, apparently free software is more important than actual freedom in Stallman's mind.
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoWhere was your computer built?
- elblanco 17y agoNever said I was a Freedom (as in "Freedom") activist like RMS.
- djm 17y agoFirst time I've come across the setup. Here are some interviews with a few other HN regulars: http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/ http://aaron.swartz.usesthis.com/ http://aaron.swartz.usesthis.com/ _why is listed on their mainpage too but his interview seems to have been removed
- telemachos 17y ago_why's link works fine: http://_why.usesthis.com/ http://_why.usesthis.com/ Drawn and quirky (or precious, depending on your taste or mood) as normal for _why.
- nzmsv 17y agoHmmm. I think this depends on your DNS provider. This link is broken for me: I think my ISP does not like hostnames starting with underscores.
- telemachos 17y agoInteresting. If it helps or anyone else is curious, I'm using OpenDNS.
- nzmsv 17y agoThis is really strange. None of the browsers on my machine can access this URL. But dig _why.usesthis.com returns the correct info. According to Wikipedia, the use of underscores in hostnames is illegal, but many implementations ignore this. Anyway, the interview is mirrored here: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7 http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7
- vsync 17y agohttp://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5 http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5 Looks like underscores are valid in /domain names/ but not in /host names/. You'll see underscores used many times for SPF records and in Microsoft's Active Directory. Also, when you use dig I'm pretty sure it manually recurses the name server hierarchy while an application will just connect to your local name server which might have its own policies.
- mitko 17y agoI don't believe he uses only his netbook. I think he also uses the public CSAIL computers at Stata Center in MIT. They have a KDE Linux on them. I have used them from time to time, and as before logging in, at the username prompt usually you can see the last user that was on the computer. Many times it was "rms".
- access_denied 17y agoFull screen Emacs on a laptop? I wouldn't want a bigger screen than 13' with that setup.
- Mz 17y agoI really am not familiar with this man, but comments about his unwillingness to compromise and questioning his sanity make me think of this quote: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
- herval 17y agoPretty true indeed - as long as the mad man DOES something. As far as Stallman goes, he coded emacs (along with other people, afaik), gave a name to a movement - and lived ever after on complaining, criticizing other people and complaining some more. If we'd depend on this crazy dude for progress, we'd all be using "fully open-source" inferior hardware produced by kids in China. Oh, and most of us would be jobless too, since NO ONE PAYS A DIME FOR FREE SOFTWARE! Talk about progress...