6 ms·

How about just ask the guy directly? What are his current views?

by infinityplus1 6y ago

sdevonoes 6y ago
Wondering why this got downvoted. It makes sense.
sgt 6y ago
I don't think contacting rms is as straight forward as you would think.
- EdwardDiego 6y ago
  I usually do it by chanting "XEmacs" three times while looking into a mirror.
- Y_Y 6y ago
  It couldn't be easier. His email is rms@gnu.org and afaik he is very good for replying.
  - tomcooks 6y ago
    Can confirm. He even replied to me when, as a noob kid, asked him whether I should choose vi or emacs as my editor.
    - bombcar 6y ago
      Which did he say?
      - tomcooks 6y ago
        Trying to remember (a very long time passed), he was very kind and patiently told me that it's important to use the tool that works best for you. He added that for obvious reasons he uses emacs. A proper saint.
- caslon 6y ago
  He has never not responded to anything I've sent him, anecdotally.
__s 6y ago
I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Part of the issue here is that rms has published his current views to great length. The issue at hand is over interpretation, which rms has the consistency to not bother rewording things for your benefit if asked to clarify
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  >rms has the consistency to not bother rewording things for your benefit This is a weirdly hostile way to phrase it.
  - shadowgovt 6y ago
    Indeed. The point of communication is, well, to communicate. If someone has communicated ambiguously and one asks for clarification, that's just regular communication protocol. If what is meant is that they communicated unambiguously and they shouldn't need to repeat themselves, then, well, the receiver's interpretation of what was said stands as what was intended to be said.
- prepend 6y ago
  It’s not RMS’ duty to educate you, me and others or to reword things for our benefit. I think it would be worse if he submitted to some struggle session and changed his posts to whatever language is approved for discussing Epstein/Minsky.
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    > It’s not RMS’ duty to educate you, me and others or to reword things for our benefit. Sorry, but it is. He's the front figure of the FSF. He appears in conferences and speaks about and for the Free Software Foundation and the more broad FLOSS community. Making things clear is pretty much his only job.
    - prepend 6y ago
      I disagree. He does what he wants, we listen or don’t. I think he’s trying to increase use of FLOSS and nothing else. We can have preferences for what he should do, but he’s unlikely to do them. And I don’t get upset because he’s not doing what I want him to do. Many technical thought leaders are “bad speakers” but that’s ok with me because tech concepts are hard and I’d rather have a bad speaker with a good idea than a good speaker with a bad idea. I can always view source to figure it out. I think it’s a false dichotomy that people must be perfect in every way to do something as simple as talk about how he wrote emacs at a conference. We take what we can get and the author of emacs is not very charismatic. That’s ok, I want to learn about emacs.
throwaways885 6y ago
Because the church of woke doesn't care what you actually believe, as long as they get their pound of flesh. I know that is quite an extreme statement, but the pattern has been repeating itself across all our institutions for many years now. We all know where this is leading to.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Y_Y 6y ago
On pronouns? https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html On society in general? https://stallman.org/articles/necessary-changes.html https://stallman.org/articles/necessary-changes.html For anything else, there's a good chance he's written about it on his website.
- mustafa_pasi 6y ago
  I have not opened those links so I don't know what RMS is going to say, but what does any of that have to do with free software?
  - Y_Y 6y ago
    It has everything to do with free software in the sense that it's just application of the principles of the free software movement. rms wants information to be free because of his moral principles, and these same principles also apply to the world outside software. It's a whole thing.
koonsolo 6y ago
How about people look at his original statement, and show how what he said is false.

How about just ask the guy directly? What are his current views?

sdevonoes 6y ago

Wondering why this got downvoted. It makes sense.

sgt 6y ago

I don't think contacting rms is as straight forward as you would think.

EdwardDiego 6y ago
I usually do it by chanting "XEmacs" three times while looking into a mirror.
Y_Y 6y ago
It couldn't be easier. His email is rms@gnu.org and afaik he is very good for replying.
- tomcooks 6y ago
  Can confirm. He even replied to me when, as a noob kid, asked him whether I should choose vi or emacs as my editor.
  - bombcar 6y ago
    Which did he say?
    - tomcooks 6y ago
      Trying to remember (a very long time passed), he was very kind and patiently told me that it's important to use the tool that works best for you. He added that for obvious reasons he uses emacs. A proper saint.
caslon 6y ago
He has never not responded to anything I've sent him, anecdotally.

__s 6y ago

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Part of the issue here is that rms has published his current views to great length. The issue at hand is over interpretation, which rms has the consistency to not bother rewording things for your benefit if asked to clarify

happytoexplain 6y ago
>rms has the consistency to not bother rewording things for your benefit This is a weirdly hostile way to phrase it.
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  Indeed. The point of communication is, well, to communicate. If someone has communicated ambiguously and one asks for clarification, that's just regular communication protocol. If what is meant is that they communicated unambiguously and they shouldn't need to repeat themselves, then, well, the receiver's interpretation of what was said stands as what was intended to be said.
prepend 6y ago
It’s not RMS’ duty to educate you, me and others or to reword things for our benefit. I think it would be worse if he submitted to some struggle session and changed his posts to whatever language is approved for discussing Epstein/Minsky.
- rbanffy 6y ago
  > It’s not RMS’ duty to educate you, me and others or to reword things for our benefit. Sorry, but it is. He's the front figure of the FSF. He appears in conferences and speaks about and for the Free Software Foundation and the more broad FLOSS community. Making things clear is pretty much his only job.
  - prepend 6y ago
    I disagree. He does what he wants, we listen or don’t. I think he’s trying to increase use of FLOSS and nothing else. We can have preferences for what he should do, but he’s unlikely to do them. And I don’t get upset because he’s not doing what I want him to do. Many technical thought leaders are “bad speakers” but that’s ok with me because tech concepts are hard and I’d rather have a bad speaker with a good idea than a good speaker with a bad idea. I can always view source to figure it out. I think it’s a false dichotomy that people must be perfect in every way to do something as simple as talk about how he wrote emacs at a conference. We take what we can get and the author of emacs is not very charismatic. That’s ok, I want to learn about emacs.

throwaways885 6y ago

Because the church of woke doesn't care what you actually believe, as long as they get their pound of flesh. I know that is quite an extreme statement, but the pattern has been repeating itself across all our institutions for many years now. We all know where this is leading to.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Y_Y 6y ago

On pronouns? https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html https://stallman.org/articles/genderless-pronouns.html On society in general? https://stallman.org/articles/necessary-changes.html https://stallman.org/articles/necessary-changes.html For anything else, there's a good chance he's written about it on his website.

mustafa_pasi 6y ago
I have not opened those links so I don't know what RMS is going to say, but what does any of that have to do with free software?
- Y_Y 6y ago
  It has everything to do with free software in the sense that it's just application of the principles of the free software movement. rms wants information to be free because of his moral principles, and these same principles also apply to the world outside software. It's a whole thing.

koonsolo 6y ago

How about people look at his original statement, and show how what he said is false.