5 ms·

RMS started open source because of printer driver issues (he wanted the source code but wasn't allowed it and thought it as a betrayal of the hacker culture). T

RMS started open source because of printer driver issues (he wanted the source code but wasn't allowed it and thought it as a betrayal of the hacker culture). This post is like history repeating itself.

pessimizer 4y ago
We can blame RMS for inspiring business to react to him with Open Source, but he started Free Software.
- Flankk 4y ago
  I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Free Software is actually GNU/Free Software. GNU/Free Software is not an ecosystem unto itself, but rather one component of a fully functioning GNU ecosystem.
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    Is this some kind of annoying autoreply for everyone who mentions RMS? Sorry for saying the guy who started the Free Software Foundation started Free Software, and not Open Source. Open Source, which is different from and often hostile to Free Software, which is also often hostile to it.
    - forgotpwd16 4y ago
      It's a meme. https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Interjection https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Interjection Speaking of RMS writings and your comment, he also wrote on free software v. open source. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.... Wouldn't go that far to call them hostile.
      - matheusmoreira 4y ago
        Looks like RMS addressed this 4chan shitpost in the GNU website. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/incorrect-quotation.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/incorrect-quotation.html Actually pretty funny! I can't believe he wrote an article about it.
        pessimizer 4y ago
        > The version with Linux, we call “GNU/Linux.” It is OK to call it “GNU” when you want to be really short, but it is better to call it “GNU/Linux” so as to give Torvalds some credit.
        matheusmoreira 4y ago
        It's so funny how he didn't actually disagree with the content of the message. Just pointed out mistakes and then went even further than the original shitpost ever did with the "it's just GNU but we should give that Torvalds some credit" thing.
        Flankk 4y ago
      - pessimizer 4y ago
        > The two now describe almost the same category of software, but they stand for views based on fundamentally different values. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, essential respect for the users' freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. It says that nonfree software is an inferior solution to the practical problem at hand. > For the free software movement, however, nonfree software is a social problem, and the solution is to stop using it and move to free software. edit: of course it's a bit Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil, but it's hard to throw a rock without hitting an OSS advocate who thinks that Free Software is communist fascism.
    - matheusmoreira 4y ago
      > Is this some kind of annoying autoreply for everyone who mentions RMS? Yes. I remember there was a 4chan Stallman interjector written in Perl. The script would reply to anyone talking about Linux with that text. I can't seem to find that code anymore but I found newer incarnations of the concept such as this Telegram interjector. https://github.com/perronet/interjection-bot/blob/master/stallman.py https://github.com/perronet/interjection-bot/blob/master/sta...
quickthrower2 4y ago
Computer history’s biggest yak shave.
kristopolous 4y ago
It's interesting. Primary source documents from the 1980s really talk about it as a debacle between Symbolics and Lisp Machines Inc, Stallman being caught in the middle and then deciding they were both bad. While on the other hand, contemporary accounts date it to a Xerox 9700 printer at MIT in 1980. I don't know. You could say in the 1980s the printer story sounded too absurd so they emphasized the clash of Titans aspect or you could say that we really like provincial origin stories these days so this "a simple motivated man with a great idea" framework is more appealing This kind of stuff is fascinating; how history is narrated differently throughout time For people uninitiated, the idea is materially, only discrete events happen. Stories are the narrative sense making humans project on them.
- hgsgm 4y ago

pessimizer 4y ago

We can blame RMS for inspiring business to react to him with Open Source, but he started Free Software.

Flankk 4y ago
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Free Software is actually GNU/Free Software. GNU/Free Software is not an ecosystem unto itself, but rather one component of a fully functioning GNU ecosystem.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Is this some kind of annoying autoreply for everyone who mentions RMS? Sorry for saying the guy who started the Free Software Foundation started Free Software, and not Open Source. Open Source, which is different from and often hostile to Free Software, which is also often hostile to it.
  - forgotpwd16 4y ago
    It's a meme. https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Interjection https://wiki.installgentoo.com/index.php/Interjection Speaking of RMS writings and your comment, he also wrote on free software v. open source. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.... Wouldn't go that far to call them hostile.
    - matheusmoreira 4y ago
      Looks like RMS addressed this 4chan shitpost in the GNU website. https://www.gnu.org/gnu/incorrect-quotation.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/incorrect-quotation.html Actually pretty funny! I can't believe he wrote an article about it.
      - pessimizer 4y ago
        > The version with Linux, we call “GNU/Linux.” It is OK to call it “GNU” when you want to be really short, but it is better to call it “GNU/Linux” so as to give Torvalds some credit.
        matheusmoreira 4y ago
        It's so funny how he didn't actually disagree with the content of the message. Just pointed out mistakes and then went even further than the original shitpost ever did with the "it's just GNU but we should give that Torvalds some credit" thing.
        Flankk 4y ago
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      > The two now describe almost the same category of software, but they stand for views based on fundamentally different values. For the free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, essential respect for the users' freedom. By contrast, the philosophy of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software “better”—in a practical sense only. It says that nonfree software is an inferior solution to the practical problem at hand. > For the free software movement, however, nonfree software is a social problem, and the solution is to stop using it and move to free software. edit: of course it's a bit Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil, but it's hard to throw a rock without hitting an OSS advocate who thinks that Free Software is communist fascism.
  - matheusmoreira 4y ago
    > Is this some kind of annoying autoreply for everyone who mentions RMS? Yes. I remember there was a 4chan Stallman interjector written in Perl. The script would reply to anyone talking about Linux with that text. I can't seem to find that code anymore but I found newer incarnations of the concept such as this Telegram interjector. https://github.com/perronet/interjection-bot/blob/master/stallman.py https://github.com/perronet/interjection-bot/blob/master/sta...

quickthrower2 4y ago

Computer history’s biggest yak shave.

kristopolous 4y ago

It's interesting. Primary source documents from the 1980s really talk about it as a debacle between Symbolics and Lisp Machines Inc, Stallman being caught in the middle and then deciding they were both bad. While on the other hand, contemporary accounts date it to a Xerox 9700 printer at MIT in 1980. I don't know. You could say in the 1980s the printer story sounded too absurd so they emphasized the clash of Titans aspect or you could say that we really like provincial origin stories these days so this "a simple motivated man with a great idea" framework is more appealing This kind of stuff is fascinating; how history is narrated differently throughout time For people uninitiated, the idea is materially, only discrete events happen. Stories are the narrative sense making humans project on them.

hgsgm 4y ago