5 ms·

RMS does this every year

possibilistic 14y ago
Insightful point. I came here to say, "How is it going without the binary blobs?", but RMS certainly manages. Even as a Linux user, I doubt I could ever go completely FOSS. (Or that I would ever want to.)
- LukeShu 14y ago
  I went ~1 year using just one binary blob[1], and it's been about ~.5 years since I replaced the WiFi card that it was for, and have gone 100% FOSS. I'm extremely happy with Parabola GNU/Linux (one of the FSF endorsed distros), both as an OS, and as a community. [1] It was for the iwl3495, and it was actually the only blob on my system--I was manually patching a Linux-libre kernel to re-add that one blob.
- duaneb 14y ago
  I went OSS only for many years. It's not that hard if you use ethernet and don't need 3d acceleration. Could the average person do it? Definitely not.
  - osener 14y ago
    I believe possibilistic was talking about stuff like BIOS firmwares rather than graphics drivers.
  - zanny 14y ago
    The OSS Radeon driver is more than sufficient nowadays for non-3d composting of windows and playback of video. Intels integrated gpu driver is also really good, to the point where you can play ~5 year old games on it just fine with a high end chip. I wonder how you would pull off OSS hard drive / ram / mobo / psu / etc. It would require that the design schematics and documentation are public. I assume many of them are, but some might not be, and it would be a pain to investigate open hardware.
- icebraining 14y ago
  rms uses an open hardware MIPS netbook made in China. According to the Debian wiki, "It is the only laptop with a free BIOS (PMON) and wireless support that doesn't require binary blobs."
  - swa14 14y ago
    >>open hardware MIPS netbook made in China More specificly, the Lemote Yeelong, which is not only made in China (like most hardware I guess), but also designed there. It's neat enough if you can find one, with actually a pretty decent keyboard (for a netbook; rms uses a seperate keyboard with his).
Silhouette 14y ago
He also recommends not using mobile phones, and reads the web using wget. Software freedoms are all very well, but I don't think many people would consider regressing about 20 years technologically a price worth paying. While there are abuses in the worlds of business and government today that might (might) have been prevented if we had insisted on open code and/or open data all along, I am reasonably confident that the various power imbalances as we learn to cope with things like the Internet will have been corrected long before 2032. I don't know what the technological, social and political landscapes will look like by then, but if I were a betting man I'd go with something much more open in most respects than we have today but with a renewed emphasis on personal privacy when it matters.
- icebraining 14y ago
  RMS doesn't read the web using wget because it's the only free software way. It's not like there aren't free browsers, even in gNewSense.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  IIRC he has a bot use wget then mail the page to him. He does this because it means that he will be able to read the page offline as he travels a lot. If you want fully open browsing you can always use IceWeazel: http://www.geticeweasel.org/ http://www.geticeweasel.org/
- Zigurd 14y ago
  Conventional mobile phones have become (some say they always were) Big Brother tracking and surveillance devices. The amount of surveillance your are subject to reduces the value of mobile phones. For some people, reduces it so much as to make them, even when balanced against their usefulness, undesirable. As for regressing 20 years, how often are you able to pick up an incoming call right away? Your phone is 90% of the time a mini Internet tablet, not a portable version of a land-line phone. The privacy issue isn't just theoretical. There is a blacklist of more than 3000 activist construction workers maintained by police and UK companies. Could the people on that blacklist have kept themselves under the radar by paying closer attention to communications privacy?
vacri 14y ago
If someone's doing an unusual thing, why does it matter that somone else has done it before?
- bntly 14y ago
  Because it makes it far less odd?
  - epo 14y ago
    First time I've read of RMS being cited as an exemplar of non-oddness, I'd suspect he'd be secretly offended.
a3_nm 14y ago
RMS is only concerned about the freedom of software on computers. He does not care as much about the freedom of object designs and artistic works.

Insightful point. I came here to say, "How is it going without the binary blobs?", but RMS certainly manages. Even as a Linux user, I doubt I could ever go completely FOSS. (Or that I would ever want to.)

LukeShu 14y ago
I went ~1 year using just one binary blob[1], and it's been about ~.5 years since I replaced the WiFi card that it was for, and have gone 100% FOSS. I'm extremely happy with Parabola GNU/Linux (one of the FSF endorsed distros), both as an OS, and as a community. [1] It was for the iwl3495, and it was actually the only blob on my system--I was manually patching a Linux-libre kernel to re-add that one blob.
duaneb 14y ago
I went OSS only for many years. It's not that hard if you use ethernet and don't need 3d acceleration. Could the average person do it? Definitely not.
- osener 14y ago
  I believe possibilistic was talking about stuff like BIOS firmwares rather than graphics drivers.
- zanny 14y ago
  The OSS Radeon driver is more than sufficient nowadays for non-3d composting of windows and playback of video. Intels integrated gpu driver is also really good, to the point where you can play ~5 year old games on it just fine with a high end chip. I wonder how you would pull off OSS hard drive / ram / mobo / psu / etc. It would require that the design schematics and documentation are public. I assume many of them are, but some might not be, and it would be a pain to investigate open hardware.
icebraining 14y ago
rms uses an open hardware MIPS netbook made in China. According to the Debian wiki, "It is the only laptop with a free BIOS (PMON) and wireless support that doesn't require binary blobs."
- swa14 14y ago
  >>open hardware MIPS netbook made in China More specificly, the Lemote Yeelong, which is not only made in China (like most hardware I guess), but also designed there. It's neat enough if you can find one, with actually a pretty decent keyboard (for a netbook; rms uses a seperate keyboard with his).

Silhouette 14y ago

He also recommends not using mobile phones, and reads the web using wget. Software freedoms are all very well, but I don't think many people would consider regressing about 20 years technologically a price worth paying. While there are abuses in the worlds of business and government today that might (might) have been prevented if we had insisted on open code and/or open data all along, I am reasonably confident that the various power imbalances as we learn to cope with things like the Internet will have been corrected long before 2032. I don't know what the technological, social and political landscapes will look like by then, but if I were a betting man I'd go with something much more open in most respects than we have today but with a renewed emphasis on personal privacy when it matters.

icebraining 14y ago
RMS doesn't read the web using wget because it's the only free software way. It's not like there aren't free browsers, even in gNewSense.
jiggy2011 14y ago
IIRC he has a bot use wget then mail the page to him. He does this because it means that he will be able to read the page offline as he travels a lot. If you want fully open browsing you can always use IceWeazel: http://www.geticeweasel.org/ http://www.geticeweasel.org/
Zigurd 14y ago
Conventional mobile phones have become (some say they always were) Big Brother tracking and surveillance devices. The amount of surveillance your are subject to reduces the value of mobile phones. For some people, reduces it so much as to make them, even when balanced against their usefulness, undesirable. As for regressing 20 years, how often are you able to pick up an incoming call right away? Your phone is 90% of the time a mini Internet tablet, not a portable version of a land-line phone. The privacy issue isn't just theoretical. There is a blacklist of more than 3000 activist construction workers maintained by police and UK companies. Could the people on that blacklist have kept themselves under the radar by paying closer attention to communications privacy?

vacri 14y ago

If someone's doing an unusual thing, why does it matter that somone else has done it before?

bntly 14y ago
Because it makes it far less odd?
- epo 14y ago
  First time I've read of RMS being cited as an exemplar of non-oddness, I'd suspect he'd be secretly offended.

a3_nm 14y ago

RMS is only concerned about the freedom of software on computers. He does not care as much about the freedom of object designs and artistic works.