14 ms·

RMS has been saying this stuff for decades, but people ignore him.

thesuperbigfrog 5y ago
Quite literally: https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57 https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57
silicon2401 5y ago
Agreed and a great example of why his message on free software is so important. I would never have been as cognizant of the topic if not for his laser-focused and committed work.
mdoms 5y ago
Maybe he'd get more traction if he'd stop publicly eating the gunk on the bottom of his foot.
- iso1210 5y ago
  He probably would. He's his own worst enemy. Doesn't make him wrong.
jaredklewis 5y ago
This sentiment gets repeated all the time and it drives me crazy. I've read a lot of stuff by RMS and am certainly aware of his concerns. I have an iPhone and Mac so I guess you would consider that I "ignored" him. This is a ridiculous conclusion. I considered the risks and trade-offs of non-FOSS software, and regrettably accepted them, because the FOSS alternatives had trade-offs that cumulatively (for me) were much worse. Unlike RMS, I am not a one-dimensional person that only evaluates tech on the single dimension of freedom. Tech is not a religion for me; it's just a tool. RMS pontificating about FOSS does not magically bring iPhone comparable FOSS software and hardware into existence. If the FOSS community wants consumer adoption, ratio of pontificating about to building consumer products needs to be much lower.
- ASalazarMX 5y ago
  TL;DR: You understood the trade-off, and chose to become a product for the convenience. The majority of us here have done the same, because becoming a product is part of the modern life. Nowadays choosing digital purity is like becoming a digital Amish.
  - lupire 5y ago
    No one takes you seriously when you describe an interdependent mutually beneficial bur imperfect relationship as "become a product"
    - ASalazarMX 5y ago
      I think people don't like to think themselves as a product, but that's what we are. We're a potential source of income, and companies will want to know how's your health, where do you go, what do you buy, how you use your time, etc., in order to realize as much of that income as possible. It's a mutually-beneficial trade-off, it's just that one party gains individually, and the other gains by quantity. Advertisers wouldn't care a lot what restaurants you like, but they care a lot about what restaurants people in your city like.
  - jaredklewis 5y ago
    Bingo. RMS is not being ignored. People are just making informed decisions that FOSS purists don't like.
    - JAlexoid 5y ago
      Informed decision is a high bar. I'm pretty sure that most go with habit and convenience. I mean.... Apple could lock MacOSX down tomorrow and charge you $100 for terminal access and "informed decision" people would still argue how good MacBooks are (they aren't that good)
      - judge2020 5y ago
danudey 5y ago
RMS is a hypocrite though, in a lot of ways, which kind of undermines his message, and in a lot of other ways he's just wildly out of touch with the realities of the internet and technology in general. That's why people ignore him. He's so wildly out there so often, and so... problematic (defending/implicitly supporting pedophilia, eating gunk off his feet, refusing to bathe, etc) that it's difficult to take him seriously when he is actually saying something relevant about something important.
- mehrdada 5y ago
  "Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform." RMS is as close to the opposite of hypocrite as it gets. He definitely practices what he preaches to the degree that he used a slow Loongson when he couldn't get an Intel machine with free BIOS, for example. He might not act diplomatic, be way outside social norms, or not people-please, but that does not make him a hypocrite.
  - jtbayly 5y ago
    He borrows people’s mobile phones and uses them. Like the Amish. Both condemn certain tech, but then use it. Both are not being honest, but hypocrites.
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      I really don't see Amish as hypocritical when they hire a car or take the train. They are using the absolute minimum of tech that lets them get on with their life, I suppose Stallman is doing the same when he borrows a phone, otherwise avoiding them to the best of his ability.
    - mehrdada 5y ago
      To portray RMS as "against tech" is a very misleading characterization of him (he is an OS developer after all). To judge someone as a hypocrite, you have to first understand (1) what they say, (2) how they act, and then (3) compare the two. I don't think he ever said "don't use tech". You are vastly mischaracterizing what his position is.
pgt 5y ago
Every year RMS sounds less crazy.
usaman 5y ago
who is RMS?
- lightsighter 5y ago
  Richard M Stallman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
SilverRed 5y ago
They don't ignore him, they just don't have the same priorities. Having privacy with a phone means giving up a lot of other things which people value.
- shapefrog 5y ago
  >Having privacy with a phone means giving up ... Well it would mean giving up the phone entirely.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
https://xkcd.com/743/ https://xkcd.com/743/

Quite literally: https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57 https://youtu.be/Ag1AKIl_2GM?t=57

Agreed and a great example of why his message on free software is so important. I would never have been as cognizant of the topic if not for his laser-focused and committed work.

mdoms 5y ago

Maybe he'd get more traction if he'd stop publicly eating the gunk on the bottom of his foot.

iso1210 5y ago
He probably would. He's his own worst enemy. Doesn't make him wrong.

jaredklewis 5y ago

This sentiment gets repeated all the time and it drives me crazy. I've read a lot of stuff by RMS and am certainly aware of his concerns. I have an iPhone and Mac so I guess you would consider that I "ignored" him. This is a ridiculous conclusion. I considered the risks and trade-offs of non-FOSS software, and regrettably accepted them, because the FOSS alternatives had trade-offs that cumulatively (for me) were much worse. Unlike RMS, I am not a one-dimensional person that only evaluates tech on the single dimension of freedom. Tech is not a religion for me; it's just a tool. RMS pontificating about FOSS does not magically bring iPhone comparable FOSS software and hardware into existence. If the FOSS community wants consumer adoption, ratio of pontificating about to building consumer products needs to be much lower.

ASalazarMX 5y ago
TL;DR: You understood the trade-off, and chose to become a product for the convenience. The majority of us here have done the same, because becoming a product is part of the modern life. Nowadays choosing digital purity is like becoming a digital Amish.
- lupire 5y ago
  No one takes you seriously when you describe an interdependent mutually beneficial bur imperfect relationship as "become a product"
  - ASalazarMX 5y ago
    I think people don't like to think themselves as a product, but that's what we are. We're a potential source of income, and companies will want to know how's your health, where do you go, what do you buy, how you use your time, etc., in order to realize as much of that income as possible. It's a mutually-beneficial trade-off, it's just that one party gains individually, and the other gains by quantity. Advertisers wouldn't care a lot what restaurants you like, but they care a lot about what restaurants people in your city like.
- jaredklewis 5y ago
  Bingo. RMS is not being ignored. People are just making informed decisions that FOSS purists don't like.
  - JAlexoid 5y ago
    Informed decision is a high bar. I'm pretty sure that most go with habit and convenience. I mean.... Apple could lock MacOSX down tomorrow and charge you $100 for terminal access and "informed decision" people would still argue how good MacBooks are (they aren't that good)
    - judge2020 5y ago

danudey 5y ago

RMS is a hypocrite though, in a lot of ways, which kind of undermines his message, and in a lot of other ways he's just wildly out of touch with the realities of the internet and technology in general. That's why people ignore him. He's so wildly out there so often, and so... problematic (defending/implicitly supporting pedophilia, eating gunk off his feet, refusing to bathe, etc) that it's difficult to take him seriously when he is actually saying something relevant about something important.

mehrdada 5y ago
"Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform." RMS is as close to the opposite of hypocrite as it gets. He definitely practices what he preaches to the degree that he used a slow Loongson when he couldn't get an Intel machine with free BIOS, for example. He might not act diplomatic, be way outside social norms, or not people-please, but that does not make him a hypocrite.
- jtbayly 5y ago
  He borrows people’s mobile phones and uses them. Like the Amish. Both condemn certain tech, but then use it. Both are not being honest, but hypocrites.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    I really don't see Amish as hypocritical when they hire a car or take the train. They are using the absolute minimum of tech that lets them get on with their life, I suppose Stallman is doing the same when he borrows a phone, otherwise avoiding them to the best of his ability.
  - mehrdada 5y ago
    To portray RMS as "against tech" is a very misleading characterization of him (he is an OS developer after all). To judge someone as a hypocrite, you have to first understand (1) what they say, (2) how they act, and then (3) compare the two. I don't think he ever said "don't use tech". You are vastly mischaracterizing what his position is.

pgt 5y ago

Every year RMS sounds less crazy.

usaman 5y ago

who is RMS?

lightsighter 5y ago
Richard M Stallman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

SilverRed 5y ago

They don't ignore him, they just don't have the same priorities. Having privacy with a phone means giving up a lot of other things which people value.

shapefrog 5y ago
>Having privacy with a phone means giving up ... Well it would mean giving up the phone entirely.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

https://xkcd.com/743/ https://xkcd.com/743/