5 ms·
At the risk of getting repetitive: I think rms was speaking strictly from a utilitarian perspective-- that is, Jobs' absence is overall a good thing for the FOS
by dbbo 15y ago
At the risk of getting repetitive: I think rms was speaking strictly from a utilitarian perspective-- that is, Jobs' absence is overall a good thing for the FOSS movement (even though that might not actually be true, unless Cook is more committed to FOSS than Jobs). I can see how some find his statement tactless, but I'm not offended by it because Jobs was not an important person in my life. That doesn't mean that his life had no value, but his life wasn't more valuable to me than the life of any of the thousands of people who die every day from preventable causes. I honestly don't understand why so many people claim to be sad because Jobs is gone. Why did they feel so connected to a CEO? Steve Jobs was not your uncle. You have no rational reason to be upset over his death, and especially over what a coot like rms says about him. If you're upset enough to "fork the FSF" you're probably suffering from some illusory feeling of connectedness towards Jobs. I don't agree with a lot of what the FSF says, but one single comment made by one single guy is not going to make me turn my back on the whole organization. I will no longer be reading Larry's blog if he thinks this kind of flighty and ostentatious display of disapproval is warranted.
- desireco42 15y ago+1 (I especially agree with last part where you question forking FSF)
- desireco42 15y agoI am really proud of this downvotes I got for supporting free software :)
- prodigal_erik 15y ago"+1 agree" without adding new ideas is very poorly received on HN, no matter what the topic, because we can't afford to have everyone doing that. Just upvote.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- EiZei 15y agoStrictly from an utilitarian perspective RMS should keep his big fat mouth shut when someone -especially somebody as popular as Jobs - dies.
- dbbo 15y agoI don't really think popularity is a reason to suppress rms' constitutional rights (he is a US citizen as far as I know), no matter how crazy or alienating his opinions are.
- cyrus_ 15y agoCome on, no one is saying he shouldn't have the right to express his opinion, just that he could have worded them in a way that didn't make people cringe.
- dbbo 15y agoCould you give an example of what he could have said to express the same idea at this time _without_ offending people?
- JeremyBanks 15y agoPosts like this, jumping the the defence of "rights" that nobody's challenging, sound more pathetic each time I read them.
- dbbo 15y agoWhen he's censured like that outside the legal system, his rights are being challenged-- e.g. "He shouldn't have said that" is an expression of disapproval that to me suggests "People shouldn't be allowed to say that". It's pathetic to me that some people seem to think that free speech should only apply to people with whom they agree.