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> and so many people fall for it like Apple cares about user privacy/freedom, etc. I don't care if you call it a "grandstand PR move". It detracts from what Ap

> and so many people fall for it like Apple cares about user privacy/freedom, etc. I don't care if you call it a "grandstand PR move". It detracts from what Apple has actually done. It was not a valueless statement of ideals. It's an actual piece of functionality that millions of people will have built into their smartphones. Stallman sits around hypothesising about vague 'open systems' that—when fleshed out—are completely impractical for the average user. This does very little. You can all sit around installing AOSP (or some other lesser-known open-source mobile operating system) and write your own ML-powered cookie bucketing engines and pretend that this is a viable alternative, and that Apple hasn't done something objectively pretty cool and great. Thee fact is, the Stallman philosophy is absolutely meaningless to the vast majority of end-users, and they are incapable of doing anything with it. What Apple has done is something that will help end users. It's a selling point, they might win some people over with it, boo hoo, there's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism. It still means a whole lot.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
Stallman simply values other things than most users, as you correct point out. You can view a castle as either a prison or a refuge, depending on your political inclinations. Apple has built a very robust castle -- whether that's a good or bad thing depends largely on your personal views. Stallman detests all castles; empirically, most people seem to find them comforting.
sipos 9y ago
I think your comment downplays the importance of Stallman's work. Just because the vast majority of people do not use what he advocates, it doesn't mean he isn't having a significant impact on what they do use, indirectly. I think this is one example of a change that will affect people that happened probably in part because of people valuing rights that Stallman champions. It may not be him that directly influenced Apple, but he is a big part of influencing the bulk of opinion that did, so he has indirectly. It is not a case of one or the other. It is like high art. Lots of people rarely look at modern art, but it doesn't mean it doesn't influence the design and pop-art they do see regularly, indirectly. You are wrong to present behaving like Stallman and what Apple is doing as things that are competing alternatives, with things being in one camp or the other. Stallman's work influences the mainstream, so mainstream, less extreme, changes and what he does are not unconnected.

SomeStupidPoint 9y ago

Stallman simply values other things than most users, as you correct point out. You can view a castle as either a prison or a refuge, depending on your political inclinations. Apple has built a very robust castle -- whether that's a good or bad thing depends largely on your personal views. Stallman detests all castles; empirically, most people seem to find them comforting.

sipos 9y ago

I think your comment downplays the importance of Stallman's work. Just because the vast majority of people do not use what he advocates, it doesn't mean he isn't having a significant impact on what they do use, indirectly. I think this is one example of a change that will affect people that happened probably in part because of people valuing rights that Stallman champions. It may not be him that directly influenced Apple, but he is a big part of influencing the bulk of opinion that did, so he has indirectly. It is not a case of one or the other. It is like high art. Lots of people rarely look at modern art, but it doesn't mean it doesn't influence the design and pop-art they do see regularly, indirectly. You are wrong to present behaving like Stallman and what Apple is doing as things that are competing alternatives, with things being in one camp or the other. Stallman's work influences the mainstream, so mainstream, less extreme, changes and what he does are not unconnected.