7 ms·

Stallmans problem is that he is always right. It just takes 20 years for everyone else to notice. The secondary problem is that everyone's paycheck here depend

Stallmans problem is that he is always right. It just takes 20 years for everyone else to notice. The secondary problem is that everyone's paycheck here depends on him being wrong, so we get character assassination instead.

jazzyjackson 4y ago
is it character assassination if it's true?
- thrown_22 4y ago
DrewADesign 4y ago
Being right about a problem doesn't mean you're right about your proposed solutions. For the most part, his absolutism limited his ideas to lightly influencing the people trying in earnest to solve those problems rather than actually doing the leg work.* In my old job in academia, I called this "trickle-down public good." He wants to be a symbol for the good and true of free software, but is largely a symbol of ivory tower academic culture throwing shade at people who don't pretend we live in the star trek universe. * Edit: the problems with software licensing which is the primary thing people know him for. See how many bios even mention his software development work, and then see how many fail to mention his free software zealotry. To even assume his development accomplishments are what people are talking about when discussing his public activities is strange even in a crowd of software developers. If he wrote that same exact software for IBM, or even if he had written it for GNU and not worn crazy outfits to software conventions, nobody would be talking about him 'at all.'
- thrown_22 4y ago
  You're talking about the original author of GCC here. You know, the compiler that kept free software running between 1990 and 2015? The sheer erasure of his contributions would be comical if it wasn't done so maliciously.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - DrewADesign 4y ago
    I'm clearly not talking about his contributions as a software developer, but as a public intellectual.
    - UpstandingUser 4y ago
      That wasn't clear to me
      - DrewADesign 4y ago
        Well now it is. I'm not really sure how you would think that gcc or any other GNU software solved a problem which nobody noticed until twenty years later-- the context for my comment-- but sure.
deleted 4y ago
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jazzyjackson 4y ago

is it character assassination if it's true?

thrown_22 4y ago

DrewADesign 4y ago

Being right about a problem doesn't mean you're right about your proposed solutions. For the most part, his absolutism limited his ideas to lightly influencing the people trying in earnest to solve those problems rather than actually doing the leg work.* In my old job in academia, I called this "trickle-down public good." He wants to be a symbol for the good and true of free software, but is largely a symbol of ivory tower academic culture throwing shade at people who don't pretend we live in the star trek universe. * Edit: the problems with software licensing which is the primary thing people know him for. See how many bios even mention his software development work, and then see how many fail to mention his free software zealotry. To even assume his development accomplishments are what people are talking about when discussing his public activities is strange even in a crowd of software developers. If he wrote that same exact software for IBM, or even if he had written it for GNU and not worn crazy outfits to software conventions, nobody would be talking about him 'at all.'

thrown_22 4y ago
You're talking about the original author of GCC here. You know, the compiler that kept free software running between 1990 and 2015? The sheer erasure of his contributions would be comical if it wasn't done so maliciously.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- DrewADesign 4y ago
  I'm clearly not talking about his contributions as a software developer, but as a public intellectual.
  - UpstandingUser 4y ago
    That wasn't clear to me
    - DrewADesign 4y ago
      Well now it is. I'm not really sure how you would think that gcc or any other GNU software solved a problem which nobody noticed until twenty years later-- the context for my comment-- but sure.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]