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Richard Stallman's Computer Setup
- kayoone 15y agoThis has been on here a couple of times already. I respect his Setup, but i think if your not the founder of the Free Software Movement, this is a bit extreme ;)
- waferbaby 15y agoThat's what I thought, that it's been posted before.
- why-el 15y agoIt's awesome how small this entry is compared to what other developers would describe as their setup.
- schraeds 15y agoHe isn't a developer, he is a front man for a decades old movement.
- noarchy 15y agoHow do you define "developer"? The man has certainly written his share of code, and has contributed it to the community. I don't know how he has made his living, over the years, but I bet he's been paid to develop at some point.
- slowpoke 15y agoRMS makes his money by being paid for roughly half (iirc) of the talks and speeches he gives around the world. That has been his only source of income for years now.
- why-el 15y agoI am also not sure we should tie developer with money.
- xiaomai 15y agoI read an interview with him many years ago in which he said he can't do much programming anymore due to painful arthritis.
- ordinary 15y agoOn the other hand, "mail is what [he does] most of the time". I don't mean to belittle his achievements, I'm generally a fan of Stallman, but if that's really the case, then maybe we should call him a manager, rather than a developer.
- upthedale 15y agoRichard Stallman's Computer Setup from 2 years ago
- schraeds 15y agoAnd I bet he is still waiting to find a laptop that his free and open to replace is yulong
- lunarscape 15y agoHe won't have to wait long. Yeeloong have a quad-core Loongson-3A 13.3" laptop on the way.
- Natsu 15y agoHe could also get one of these: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/spark-the-first-free-software-linux-tablet-is-on-its-way/10255 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/spark-the-first-free-s...
- lunarscape 15y agoThe device (ZT-180) is already out there and runs Android. Good luck to the devs trying to get kernel source from Zenithink though, not to mind hardware drivers. They've already said they've run into problems. The vast majority of Chinese tablet manufacturers do not honour the GPL and it's already killed one Linux tablet project, CordiaTab. In that case the Chinese company actually tried to extort money from the developers.
- reirob 15y agoCan you please provide a URL with more information about the quad-core Loongson-3A 13.3" laptop?
- lunarscape 15y agoChinese: http://www.lemote.com/products/computer/yilong/312.html http://www.lemote.com/products/computer/yilong/312.html Translated: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemote.com%2Fproducts%2Fcomputer%2Fyilong%2F312.html http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&...
- mino 15y agoNot a very appealing setup in 2012.
- kprobst 15y agoNot a very appealing setup, period.
- Argorak 15y agoPractically? No. From the ultra-geek perspective? Yes.
- lysol 15y agoThe real geeks I know what to get work done, not send email all day.
- Argorak 15y agoThe real geeks I know would at least dream of building a computer of which they control all pieces of software. Maybe for the achievement only, but they at least dream of it. I am pretty sure that RMS gets his work done as well, whatever that work is. I wouldn't suspect him to be _lazy_.
- ufo 15y agoYou do realise that a big part of RMS's job is sending email, right?
- jamespo 15y agoHow do their achievements stack up against RMS?
- Avshalom 15y agoPeople were getting work done back when RMS's computer would have been cutting edge.
- asto 15y ago
- sek 15y agoWell, not the best way to expand your horizon. When he would use things like the iPad from time to time, he would understand that convenience is the biggest threat to open source. Nobody cares how free Stallman's device really is. When he would speak for better open source devices, he would actually make progress. Right now is Shuttleworth advancing the free software movement to be accessible for everyone. Reminds me of these ultra leftists, who declare their own government and live without electricity and fresh water. What do they achieve in the big picture? They do this just to feel better themself. Linus Torvalds is the man who made everything possible. Google/Facebook would never have existed with a Hurd kernel and Git is now the big accelerator of open source. Stallman started it, but what did he achieve significant in the last 20 years?
- thurn 15y agoGoogle and Facebook would never exist the way they do today without the free software movement. Both of them rely on a huge stack of open-source technology. Stallman's ideas are what makes it possible for a college kid to run a web startup today essentially for free.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- lazerwalker 15y agoI think sek's post was more along the lines of "but what has he done for me lately?" Right now, for every piece of open software that has enabled all kinds of world-changing good things, there's a dozen situations where open software is not a viable solution when compared to the closed alternatives for a wide variety of reasons, unless you're explicitly choosing to use only open software as a show of support for an ideological cause. What frustrates me about Stallman is that he spends his time lecturing people about why they're bad people for not using open software, instead of actively working to make open software a more appealing solution more of the time.
- ebiester 15y ago
- rudiger 15y agoYou have to give the guy some credit; Stallman believes in the free software movement, fights for it, and refuses to compromise his rights or values.
- ldesegur 15y agoRichard Stallman is to software what Jean-Paul Sartres was to philosophy during his time and still now. JPS like RMS was living through his convictions and ideas to the point of refusing the Nobel prize because it would have tinted his motivations. RMS would do the same without any questions. Don't get them wrong: these people are not fanatic, they are just living and breathing a cause they started for a good reason. It takes courage not to give up to consumerism from corporates who try to milk everyone for the goal of making money and definitely not for bringing better living to our lives. Apple, Google, Facebook, they have a simple goal: $$$. When I see a guy talented and proficient like RMS defending his cause on a 9" OLPC, that takes guts.
- Czarnian 15y agoDon't get them wrong: these people are not fanatic, they are just living and breathing a cause they started for a good reason. AKA Fanaticism. He's become an inflexible, computerized hermit. His dogmatic adherence to a demonstrably untenable principal of "freedom" has relegated him a permanent state of pre-1995 digital stasis. He's not principled, he's dogmatic. At best, he's a cautionary tale demonstrating the state of the world if he had his way.
- fragsworth 15y ago> At best, he's a cautionary tale demonstrating the state of the world if he had his way. How do you know what the state of the world would have been if he had his way? All you know is his state in our current world, which is vastly different from a world with nothing but free software. You think hardware manufacturers wouldn't use free software if that was all that existed? You have no idea what the world of technology would look like if we had nothing but free software. And neither do I, and neither does Richard Stallman. But we do suspect it would be better. At the very least, don't discount the possibility.
- feralchimp 15y agoThe saddest part of all this is that kids will read it and think "this is what 'sticking to my principles' is going to get me, so fuck it." RMS used up his "I was there when" cred a long time ago. He's now the demented grandparent no one has the heart to tell to STFU when he yells at the TV. And yet simultaneously, one of the greats.
- dasil003 15y agoShow some respect son. Seriously.
- feralchimp 15y agoI did. Seriously.
- hackermom 15y ago"Hey, I'm a geek; it's my job to make things difficult for myself."
- 8ig8 15y agoThe Lemote link was broken when I was reading the article. This may be the updated link? http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.htm...
- andrewflnr 15y agoI guess, that's the same one I came down here to post. Looks like it might be a pretty neat little machine.
- nabilt 15y agoI am curious to know what cloud services he uses if any. I'm researching alternatives to proprietary/hosted software for some of my important data so I can avoid the privacy and security issues. Some of the services I would like to replace are GMail/Calendar/Contacts, Lastpass, RescueTime. Any suggestions?
- elehack 15y agoI don't think he uses any, particularly since he is only connected to the internet 2-3 times a day. He uses Emacs for all his mail and, presumably, contact management. Last I knew, he was still using RMail, not even something newer like Gnus.
- iso8859-1 15y agoI don't really think he uses any, that would be kind of against the whole concept, since all those cloud providers have their own API.
- S4M 15y agoHey! That might be the set up I was looking for in order to hack on my clojure project during a 14 hours flight I will be taking in couple of months. At least it's not gonna take battery.
- brudgers 15y ago>"Once or twice or maybe three times a day I connect and transfer mail in and out. Before sending mail, I always review and revise the outgoing messages. That gives me a chance to catch mistakes and faux pas." I consider that a practice worthy of adoption.
- JoshTriplett 15y agoSadly, this didn't actually provide the details of the most interesting bit of this setup: a separate system that receives URLs via email and emails back a text version of the webpage, which allows integrating browsing into an almost entirely offline batch-processing setup.
- there 15y agoHe probably e-mails his assistant to do it, just like he speaks out against cell phones but will just ask to borrow someone else's. http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/rms-cell-phones http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/rms-cell-phones Edit: according to http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html he does use normal web browsers from time to time and even has a Twitter account for posting comments on websites. For text articles, his script probably just runs something like "lynx -dump" on the URL and e-mails it back.
- jrockway 15y agoRMS said he would ask someone nearby for a phone, not necessarily a cell phone. Landline phones don't use software, they're a microphone connected to some wires. But you can't exactly carry one around with you. Not sure why John Gruber cares about this, but...
- Czarnian 15y agoThese days, if you ask someone for a phone and you are more than a few feet away from a landline, you're asking for a cell phone. To say otherwise is being disingenuous. To me, it demonstrates a far less altruistic motivations.
- keenerd 15y ago> To me, it demonstrates a far less altruistic motivations. He does not have a problem with cell phones. He has a problem with the fact that if you use the same cell phone repeatably, you give up a large portion of your privacy though all the meta-information that can be collected. To make a simple analogy: RMS's cell phones complaints are the same as his compaints about the CharlieCard system that lets you pay for rides in the MA public transit system. If someone gets your card, they can find when and where you entered/exited trains. So RMS uses a card swap system where a pool of people exchange cards. This muddies the waters enough to make tracking your movements much harder.
- crististm 15y agoWhen this link appears on HN I make a quick diff on two things and none of them change: what Stallman uses and what the comments are (I can make a bet I'll see comments about his mail forwarded web pages). And there are also comments about how GPL is restrictive and BSD is not... But hey - this guy has principles and sticks to his guns. I respect him for that and I don't give a dime if he uses a one inch display on a PC with 64K of RAM
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- INTPenis 15y agoIncidentally same computer I have. Linux siguran 3.1.0-1-loongson-2f #1 Tue Jan 10 15:20:55 UTC 2012 mips64 GNU/Linux It's fun for a hobby because it feels like the old days of Linux when you had to patch and compile a lot to get things running. Of course my other computers are macs, this is just for the commute to work on some hobby stuff.
- brunomiranda 15y agoVery narrow minded in my option. There's a reason why people prefer an iPad over a Lemote Yeelong. There is more to life than principles. I do respect his opinion but if he would like to continue to make a difference in the open software community he could stop spending so much time in email and concentrate on technology advancements and how to promote open source.
- herf 15y agoWonder if this netbook has open source hard disk firmware?
- reedlaw 15y agoAre there really no other fully free systems available on the market by now?
- aquinn 15y agoThe bios seemed to be his only sticking point about not using other hardware. Maybe something like coreboot might fill that need now?
- prtamil 15y ago5 years back when Mr.Stallman worried about Privacy,Free Software I used to think he is nuts.. Now with SOPA/PIPA scenario its nuts to not listen him. So now i'm following his advice i will never move my data to Cloud.....
- g3orge 15y agoThis is from Jan 23, 2010. It's probably not his current setup.
- xbryanx 15y agoI love that Sears was the most likely seller, when I did a product search for the Lemote Yeeloong.
- mark_l_watson 15y agoSome comments on the other posts here: I often find people to be most interesting and potentially valuable to communicate with when I don't totally agree with them. I don't agree with some of Richard's positions but acknowledge his huge contributions. I believe that he deserves some positive karma every time I use Emacs, gcc toolchain, various GNU utilities, and software and services built using GNU software (Google, Twitter, many libraries and applications, etc.) His knowledge, talent, and works are broad and deep in scope. It is interesting to hear so much dislike for the guy, but people have the rights to their opinions.
- spenrose 15y agoStallman reminds me more of Steve Jobs than anyone else does: - 70's wunderkind - simple, clear belief about what computing should be - realized his vision, creating permanent improvement enjoyed directly or indirectly by every computer user - uncompromising in his determination to control his environment Personally I believe he has some major blind spots -- so did Jobs. The failure of this community to hold him in comparable regard is just that, a failure.
- logain2006 15y agoWow. I think that's the stupidest thing I've heard in a while. Yes, Steve Jobs, the guy who wants absolute control over every single device that he sells you FOR MONEY - on both software AND hardware level is JUST LIKE Stallaman. I have to say, the quality of HN has gone so downhill recently, I might have to seek an alternative community.
- jeffreyg 15y agoIf people were to pick one reason HN has 'gone downhill', disrespectful comment replies would top the list. A controversial feature request- when a new account reaches a negative karma level within a certain period, HN will display all other usernames associated with the IP address of the throwaway.
- logain2006 15y agoI disagree. Disrespectful comments are just a symptom of the disease. The disease is people saying unbelievably idiotic things, with no regard to fact or logic. Now, if no one were to post retarded bullshit like "Steve Jobs is so much like Stallman", it would be damn difficult for me to disrespect him/her. PS - The mere fact that many people decided to downvote the obvious facts in my previous post just says this place has quickly managed to fill up with fucking idiots.
- rhizome 15y agoYou're making it worse.
- jballanc 15y agoTo understand Stallman, I highly recommend one read up on the history of Lisp Machines. Wikipedia's page is actually fairly decent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machines In particular, I think this passage give some key insight into how Stallman developed his philosophy: > Around this time Symbolics (Noftsker's company) began operations – it had been hindered by Noftsker's promise to give Greenblatt a year’s head start, and by severe delays in procuring venture capital. Symbolics still had the major advantage that while 3 or 4 of the AI Lab hackers had gone to work for Greenblatt, a solid 14 other hackers had signed onto Symbolics. There were two AI Lab people who did not get hired by either: Richard Stallman and Marvin Minsky. Stallman, however, blamed Symbolics for the decline of the hacker community that had centered around the AI lab. For two years, from 1982 to the end of 1983, Stallman worked by himself to clone the output of the Symbolics programmers, with the aim of preventing them from gaining a monopoly on the lab's computers.
- atomical 15y agoSeeing larger developers using a really small computer with a really small screen is similar to seeing a basketball player driving a compact. It makes you wonder... Why?
- yabai 15y agoStallman...the uncompromising philosopher! 'Gotta love 'em!
- davidcollantes 15y agoIt is a pretty crappy setup (just my humble opinion), but if he is happy with it...
- 1337uberh4x 15y ago>doesn't use internet Linus Torvalds warned you: This man is insane.
- MikeOnFire 15y agoWalking the talk is a big thing with RMS.