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> I never believed that Microsoft was the great Satan. I suspect that the great Satan for RMS was mostly Apple. I don’t think he and his organizations have eve

> I never believed that Microsoft was the great Satan. I suspect that the great Satan for RMS was mostly Apple. I don’t think he and his organizations have ever advocated a boycott of Microsoft, while they have called for boycotts of both macOS and iOS at times — and notably at a time when MS owned something like 90% of the OS market, they advocated for a boycott of more or less their last PC OS competitor. I never quite understood that focus. Maybe it was because Stallman thought that Apple, with its hippie roots, was the bigger disappointment for not aligning themselves with his values.

izacus 7y ago
Or maybe it's because Apples values are significantly more hostile to FSF than Microsofts? Apples flagship devices are completely forbidden from running anything not approved by the corporation and their AppStore is completely incompatible with GPL software. It fundamentally goes against everything FSF stands for: being able to run any kind of software and modify it on your own machine. In a world of Apple, FSF is forbidden from existing by policy and hardware lockouts. Microsoft never came close to this kind of lockdown. And Apple was always like that - even for Apple Lisa they developed a scheme where a floppy would be permanently bound to a single machine on first use practically forbidding resale. There are really not many large software companies that would be more hostile to FSF core values than Apple.
- microtherion 7y ago
  iOS development is not really compatible with the GPL; both the FSF and Apple agree on that. But there was nothing in macOS that was incompatible with the GPL, and yet the FSF for a decade prohibited its maintainers from accepting macOS specific patches (So much for “freedom”). To Stallman, Apple’s “Look & Feel” lawsuit was an unforgivable transgression, but Microsoft’s various tactics to muscle out competitors were never a cause for concern.
segfaultbuserr 7y ago
> Maybe it was because Stallman thought that Apple, with its hippie roots, was the bigger disappointment for not aligning themselves with his values. I also believe this is the reason. Recall RMS's commentary when Steve Jobs passed away, he basically said: nobody should die, but I'm glad to see him leaving Apple, as he has built a cool prison of Apple in his life. It even triggered some strong actions within the community, "it's time to fork the FSF", from members who see and respect Steve Jobs as an important hacker in computer history. But to RMS, he has been excommunicated from the hacker community for what he has done, regardless of his early life.

izacus 7y ago

Or maybe it's because Apples values are significantly more hostile to FSF than Microsofts? Apples flagship devices are completely forbidden from running anything not approved by the corporation and their AppStore is completely incompatible with GPL software. It fundamentally goes against everything FSF stands for: being able to run any kind of software and modify it on your own machine. In a world of Apple, FSF is forbidden from existing by policy and hardware lockouts. Microsoft never came close to this kind of lockdown. And Apple was always like that - even for Apple Lisa they developed a scheme where a floppy would be permanently bound to a single machine on first use practically forbidding resale. There are really not many large software companies that would be more hostile to FSF core values than Apple.

microtherion 7y ago
iOS development is not really compatible with the GPL; both the FSF and Apple agree on that. But there was nothing in macOS that was incompatible with the GPL, and yet the FSF for a decade prohibited its maintainers from accepting macOS specific patches (So much for “freedom”). To Stallman, Apple’s “Look & Feel” lawsuit was an unforgivable transgression, but Microsoft’s various tactics to muscle out competitors were never a cause for concern.

segfaultbuserr 7y ago

> Maybe it was because Stallman thought that Apple, with its hippie roots, was the bigger disappointment for not aligning themselves with his values. I also believe this is the reason. Recall RMS's commentary when Steve Jobs passed away, he basically said: nobody should die, but I'm glad to see him leaving Apple, as he has built a cool prison of Apple in his life. It even triggered some strong actions within the community, "it's time to fork the FSF", from members who see and respect Steve Jobs as an important hacker in computer history. But to RMS, he has been excommunicated from the hacker community for what he has done, regardless of his early life.