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From the article: So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource
by narag 18y ago
From the article:
So I said, "Cuba has an important resource - lots of people who have never learned to use Windows. And here you are, destroying that resource, gratuitously. If you are not ready yet to switch these clubs so that they teach people free software, at least you should shut them down until they can."
Does he say this seriously? I've seen people using this kind of hyperbole when in a partisan environment to have a laughs. But I have no clue from the article that this is humorous.
- corentin 18y agoHe certainly is serious. But as long as his ridiculous totalitarian/communist ideas only apply to software, he's mostly harmless.
- gaius 18y agoI think Stallman's $1M grant from the MacArthur Foundation has given him a rather skewed idea about how economics works for most people even in the US, let alone the rest of the world.
- alecco 18y agoHN, wtf. Stallman is many things but would never, ever be "totalitarian/communist." Who is voting this troll up? Come on, this is supposed to be a hacker site. He even talks about regime change in Cuba to open up.
- galactus 18y agoI think he just forgot "unamerican"
- corentin 18y agoThat's not what I'm talking about. Stallman declared he'd rather see computer clubs closed than using Windows. He wants to convert (I'm quoting the article) the "important resource" (read: people 'unspoiled' by Windows) to free software (just like Che Guevara who went to Africa to convert people unspoiled by capitalism to the ideal of communism). So I rest my case: as far as software is concerned, he is a totalitarian.
- alecco 18y ago> That's not what I'm talking about. Yes, you are. > Stallman declared he'd rather see computer clubs closed than using Windows. Your paraphrasing is out of context and switches meanings. I am not going to even quote as you conveniently didn't quote that paragraph. > He wants to convert (I'm quoting the article) the "important resource" (read: people 'unspoiled' by Windows) to free software Yeah, so? He wants Free Software. Nothing new. > (just like Che Guevara who went to Africa to convert people unspoiled by capitalism to the ideal of communism). This is a very pathetic and childish hyperbole. You are the equivalent of the Fox News crowd for software. (That's a hyperbole pun.)
- omouse 18y agoMy god, it's amazing to see the vitrol here. It looks like a lot of people don't like mixing their politics with their software.
- JulianMorrison 18y agoIf the cost of using Linux is less than the cost of using Windows, but the cost of ripping out existing Windows and re-training users is large enough to overwhelm the gain, then a population that uses neither but could learn Linux is at an advantage.
- gaius 18y agoYou're assuming that learning a PC operating system is an end in and of itself. It isn't. People in the real world use computers to get stuff done. For a Linux-using population to have an "advantage" you first need to know what they want to accomplish, then you need show how it can be done more quickly and easily on Linux, which is where the Linux house of cards comes tumbling down. This is not "year zero" of the Linux desktop.
- JulianMorrison 18y agoYou might have had a point half a decade ago. Nowadays it's pretty easy to get stuff done on Linux.
- gaius 18y agoYou might have had a point if you knew what goal the Cubans were trying to accomplish before you were all "rah rah Linux". Choose the right tool for the job.
- corentin 18y agoNearly all the professional applications (engineering, finance, accounting, etc.) only run on Windows (or Mac OS X for the design stuff).
- omouse 18y agoThey can learn to write software to replace these so-called professional applications.
- 18y ago
- marksutherland 18y agoI thought it was a surprisingly good interview until I got to that bit. The unnecessary 4 Freedoms rant should have tipped me off I suppose.
- kragen 18y agoIt's completely serious. Stallman thinks the social harm done by proprietary software licenses is greater than the good done by the ability to use the software. Do you think that's an unreasonable or laughable position? The consequence that it is better to close down the clubs than to let them encourage proprietary software usage is almost inescapable given the above premise.
- corentin 18y agoLike most of us, I discovered programming using proprietary software (namely MS-DOS and QBASIC), and if an intolerant idiot tried to prevent me from using those tools, he would have been hit by a (then) heavy keyboard. (by the way, the case against using BASIC is certainly stronger than the case against using proprietary software.)
- kragen 18y agoYeah, I probably would have felt the same way. On the other hand, it's fortunate that five-year-olds don't generally decide major public policy issues; I can remember a lot of things I felt similarly passionate about at the time.
- narag 18y agoThe consequence that it is better to close down the clubs than to let them encourage proprietary software usage is almost inescapable given the above premise. 1) cuban boys discovering hacking in computer clubs 2) something I'm too stupid to understand 3) clubs should be shut Good work!
- nandemo 18y agoIt is unreasonable. Just imagine the amount of wealth that has been created in the past couple of decades by using proprietary software. Though one could argue the same could have been done with free software, he's saying (as you paraphrase) that it's better to have no progress at all than to have progress at the cost of using proprietary.
- 18y ago