13 ms·

RMS lifestyle

196 points by init0 13y ago

IvyMike 13y ago
It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car but sure as hell will mooch a ride. This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was malicious--it was more like if RMS was hungry, would just be happy that someone was kind enough to leave him something to eat in the AI lab fridge. It was kind of considered an honor--after all, what were you going to do, complain, get him angry, and delay the release of Hurd?
- gohrt 13y ago
  Huh. I thought he had a free-libre cell phone at some point. Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash, and power it down when not in use, I thought. Like drug dealers do. Still surveillable, but no more than any borrowed phone.
  - GhotiFish 13y ago
    his priorities are more to do with freedom then they are to do with tracking. I don't think he would use those phones because those phones do not have their source available.
    - dbrian 13y ago
      "I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices." - RMS
  - pmarin 13y ago
    Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash you can not do it in many countries like Spain where you have to provide your ID (because of terrorism).
    - thejosh 13y ago
      Same as Australia.
    - claudius 13y ago
      Hm, curious. In Germany (and Austria, wherefrom I got my N9), it is perfectly fine to buy a phone. What you cannot do (legally) is buy a SIM card without ID – however, most shops just require you to fill in some form and don’t bother checking any form of ID.
      - soult 13y ago
        In Germany there is a "swapping" service[1] for SIM cards where you can send your prepaid SIM and will get a random SIM that another person sent in. And in Austria you can purchase both phones and (prepaid) SIMs without any ID or form to fill out. 1: http://www.daten-speicherung.de/index.php/kartentausch/ http://www.daten-speicherung.de/index.php/kartentausch/
      - deleted 13y ago
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  - jrabone 13y ago
    I discovered a couple of years ago (when my phone, er, met with a nasty firmware accident) that you cannot buy a phone in the UK over the counter without also buying a Pay-As-You-Go SIM with a traceable means of payment (ie. card). They simply refused to sell the phone to me unless I forked over £10 for a SIM I didn't want. Apparently the French are to blame for this little piece of legislation. I politely told them that the only reason I was in their shop was because it was an emergency, and I hoped that they enjoyed their future career packing boxes for internet retail, at least until they were replaced by robots. Harsh, but I never said I was a nice person.
    - sigzero 13y ago
      > but I never said I was a nice person No, apparently you're a dick.
    - quasque 13y ago
      This is not the case in all situations, I think you were just unlucky with the policy of that company. Last phone I bought was paid for in cash, no questions asked. It wasn't from one of the large phone retailers, but not from anywhere dodgy, either [edit: it was from the Internet café here http://goo.gl/maps/DkMa2 http://goo.gl/maps/DkMa2]. The SIM card was also purchased in cash from a newsagent without having to provide any identifying details. I wasn't even going out of my way to avoid being traced - like you, I just needed a phone in an emergency, as my screen had broken on the old one.
  - glaze 13y ago
    Some cellphones can be wiretapped even when powered off. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html
    - gohrt 13y ago
      Fair enough. > Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; Someone like RMS would be comfortable pulling out a battery, I expect.
    - deleted 13y ago
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- yason 13y ago
  It is not a problem if his friends don't object to borrowing him a phone, nor is it Stallman's responsibility to carry a phone so that his friends don't even have to not object. If someone doesn't like him asking for a phone or lunch or whatever, then I assume it would be up to that someone to reject his request. It's not like Stallman goes around grabbing people's phones or lunches without asking first.
  - IvyMike 13y ago
    I've been reflecting on this, and I guess my annoyance is that I actually strongly agree with RMS that cell phones have us in a self-imposed virtual surveillance state. But in the end, the devil's deal of owning the phone is one I can't refuse, so I make the choice to bear that burden. BTW, on second reading, the lunch story came off harsher in my telling than I intended--it was really supposed to be a story of one of his cute eccentricities--"this dude doesn't think like your average person". Which is probably why he's able to contribute so much more to society than the average person. I would totally make lunch for RMS every day, given the opportunity. If he would only tell us what his favorite food was.
  - simula67 13y ago
    Let me put forth another analogy from 'Surely You are Joking Mr Feynman': Lets say you believe killing someone is evil. Then would you think it is OK to ask some else to kill someone for you ? There is a reason people may not object to Stallman's request. Whatever that reason is it helps promote the surveillence mechanism that Stallman believes to be cellphones.
    - lambda 13y ago
      But Stallman does not believe that making a phone call is evil. Nor does he believe that choosing to allow yourself to be tracked is evil. He objects to being tracked himself. If someone else has already chosen to be tracked, he might think that they made a poor decision, but it's their decision to make. There's nothing wrong with then asking them to use your phone. This is nothing like asking someone to kill for you. Killing is always wrong. Trading your freedom for being tracked for the ability to make phone calls on the move is a personal decision. Now, he would probably prefer that people not have to make that decision; that phones ran all free software, with no locked hardware that you can't get access to, so you could control your own phone and determine when it did or didn't broadcast. But that doesn't make it wrong for someone else to make a different decision than he did.
- belorn 13y ago
  I know many people who do not own a car. Somehow, the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? forever doomed to walk and always only walk? Given the city where I live, only about 10-20% of people I know has a car. That would make it kind of depressing if we dictated their lives in the way described. Thats just don't make any sense. The fridge thing do, but after the first sentence in your comment I have a small distrust regarding if you are giving the whole context here. Maybe the fridge is used for shared purchases of drinks/food/snacks that everyone could take when needed. How did other people use the fridge, and what was the initial purpose when the fridge was bought?
  - IvyMike 13y ago
    > the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? Nope, that was not the argument. > I have a small distrust Ha. At best this is a friend-of-a-friend story from 20 years ago, posted on the internet. If there's any consequence to you trusting this story, I'd highly recommend against it.
- kybernetikos 13y ago
  "It costs a great deal of money to keep Gandhi living in poverty," one of his followers said affectionately.
- iso8859-1 13y ago
  There are landline phones too, you know. Stallman was a hacker since before people were carrying cell phones everywhere, I'm sure he'd manage.
wiml 13y ago
Given the title, I was hoping this was narrated by Psy.
dos1 13y ago
Dude is so strange. I mean seriously, who knows that much about that many kinds of esoteric music? It's like he wants to be contrary to the rest of the population on purpose.
- dos1 13y ago
  Edit: Fuck you HN. RMS is an extremist. I should hope that most of you have the critical thinking skills to realize that his extremism is just as dangerous as Timothy McVeigh's. Edit 2: Honest question, how can I delete my account on HN? I've come to realize (sadly) how many hours I've wasted on this bullshit. PG, please ban this account.
  - fixxer 13y ago
    Until he parks a truck full of explosives outside a federal building and kills 168 innocents (including 19 children under 6), I think not. Now, pipe down and let the adults speak.
    - dos1 13y ago
      Yeah, because body count is the only comparator that matters. Extremism is extremism. RMS is an extremist. I want nothing to do with someone who is incapable of empathizing with the other side.
      - koide 13y ago
        Oh, I get it, you're an anti-extremism extremist. You should try to empathize with RMS.
  - greenyoda 13y ago
    Really? Who has RMS blown up lately? For that matter, how many people has he even convinced to be like him?
  - copx 13y ago
    The vital different between Stallman and McVeigh is that Stallman has never killed anyone (as far as we know). His "free software" ideology is not militant. Yes, some of his views can be called radical and extreme but that does not automatically mean he is dangerous.
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reedlaw 13y ago
I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices. I find this hard to believe. Wouldn't the extra battery usage make it obvious, especially on Android devices that can track this as well as network usage at a very low level? Or is there some kind of hardware-level surveillance mechanism built in to cellphones?
- timcederman 13y ago
  For phones to function they have to talk to cellular towers continuously. You can triangulate a location based on the chatter. Phone companies also keep detailed logs.
  - reedlaw 13y ago
    What about being made into listening devices? That would require turning on the microphone and transmitting the signal without the user noticing. Is that possible?
    - deleted 13y ago
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    - NegativeK 13y ago
      It is possible, and it is done. I believe American law enforcement needs a warrant to do it.
    - ekr 13y ago
      All your data (conversations, text messages etc) goes through the network, and those network operators can easily access it. It's just the same with ISPs though. I don't know if that's what he meant by 'listening devices'. In any way, a lot of these statements make a lot of sense for many citizens in different parts of the world (China etc), where there's a corrupt government and a suppressed freedom of speech. For an US citizen I suppose they may be exaggerated. But I share many of his views, and he obviously deserves a lot more respect than some people show towards him. EDIT. And of course, if it's running non-free software the cell phone can easily be made to transmit microphone data without the user noticing.
simonsarris 13y ago
It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS Opinions" I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people. For instance: > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he could have said that he was aesthetically minimalist (or minimalist with accessories in general). Instead ties become a value judgement, and he sees tie-wearers as "victims" at best. In fact, though many would describe him as minimalist in lifestyle if they had to sum it up in a sentence, he doesn't use the term. This piece is really exclusively opinions. > When I wait for my baggage in an airport, I always do one of these two. And I notice the people around me, feeling anxious and getting nothing done. What a waste. His reasoning in general here seems arbitrary and condescending. If I didn't know who we were reading about beforehand I'd gander they were prone to being capricious. I wonder if we should tell him that trains run non-free software, just like phones. In general the biggest takeaway I got from this is that he seems to have a very negative view of almost all other people.
- kingi 13y ago
  does RMS actually use a checking account?
  - misframer 13y ago
    That would be interesting to know. I'm pretty sure he only uses cash for transactions since it's easier to stay anonymous. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets compensated with briefcases filled with bills...
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- gohrt 13y ago
  "I refuse to own a tie" is a fact, not an opinion. Much of the following discussion is an opinion. He's not a "minimalist", he is a freedom activist. He believes ties impinge on freedom. The passenger does not run the train software. The train owner can choose what kind of software they want to use. RMS's trains (of which he has none) do not run non-free software. RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decades, you aren't going to discredit him with 5 minutes of snark. > he seems to have a very negative view of almost all other people. And yet he dedicates his life to improving theirs, even though he could easily accumulate a few million dollars and retire. I'll take enemies like him over friends to make an effort to personally attack strangers for having a principled lifestlye, any day.
yarou 13y ago
rms is probably the first, original troll. His very life is the punchline to the joke of annoying mainstream people.
- deleted 13y ago
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zdw 13y ago
"The Free Software Foundation's dress code says that a propeller beanie is required, but other clothing is optional. However, we don't enforce it." Thank goodness for that.
sage_joch 13y ago
I think he makes a good point about ties.
- nwienert 13y ago
  I disagree with him on ties. I think a lot of people enjoy wearing ties because they think they look good. It's mens style. Just like how he likes plain t-shirts. This from someone who almost never wears them, but thinks they look good in general.
  - ics 13y ago
    Aside from fashion, I think a tie generally reminds people of their own posture. I'm prone to some heavy slouching day in and day out but a tie quite literally keeps me straight (a bent tie feels... displeasing).
- interpol_p 13y ago
  I think he generalises far too much. People wear ties for a lot of reasons. They can make you feel more confident, you might like the aesthetics, or you might want to impress (which is the reason RMS gave for not liking them), you might wear them out of respect (a funeral, for instance).
  - sage_joch 13y ago
    To be fair, he does say "If ties were simply a clothing option, I would decline to use them but there would be no reason to make a fuss about it." His complaints are about the situations in which there is an expectation to wear a tie.
- dreamfactory 13y ago
  Ties are no more pointless than collars really. The point of dressing formally in an interview is explicitly to show respect and deference in order to demonstrate that you can work with someone else and subjugate your own ego for a team goal; that's hardly a secret.
brvs 13y ago
If you're curious to know more about RMS for some reason this is fun to browse through: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developers-public/2011-October/007647.html https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developer... "I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up." I really want to know what horrific experience RMS had with breakfast in the past such that you can't even mention it to him!!
- aclevernickname 13y ago
  RMS is legendary for not getting up before the crack of noon. "Breakfast" is for "mornings". he has neither.
  - droidist2 13y ago
    Is that really what he means though? Most people use the word "breakfast" to refer to the first meal of the day (or lack thereof) eaten within a few hours of waking up. Also the type of food. If you sleep in on a Saturday until noon, you'll probably tend to want breakfast food when you first wake up. The time of day is far behind those two factors for what constitutes breakfast in popular usage.
    - epochwolf 13y ago
      > If you sleep in on a Saturday until noon, you'll probably tend to want breakfast food when you first wake up. It's 9am on a Saturday here and I just ate two slices of cold pizza. Not everyone desires "breakfast food" first thing in the moring. :)
      - droidist2 13y ago
        Of course I wasn't saying that applies in every single case. I even double-qualified that part ("probably tend to"), but you still responded with "not everyone." I give up. :)
kyle_t 13y ago
I get the impression that this lifestyle is a very solitary one although it does seem to be by choice. Which is fine but he seems to make quite a few assumptions about the way other people live their life and why. For example: "However, there is an absurd social pressure on men to wear ties. They do this as a form of sucking up to the boss." Perhaps they just like the way they look in tie? ------------------------------------------------- Edited to add more context to quote.
- petercooper 13y ago
  I think the post might be old (though post 1998). Tie wearers haven't been the majority in any tech setting I can think of post dot-com boom (although I have no experience of academia where they may well remain hot.) I'm a frequent tie wearer and tend to be the odd one out nowadays even in management-heavy situations! :-)
  - hga 13y ago
    In the relevant Boston area business and social circles in the '80s, a techie wearing a tie, even to interviews, was pretty much unheard of, so I'm pretty sure that goes way back further. If you'd been in those circles in the '80s, you clearly would have been viewed as eccentric as RMS for being a "frequent tie wearer", but all else being equal, we would have loved you as much as we loved him ^_^.
jetblackio 13y ago
Sounds a lot like Dwight Shrute from 'The Office'. At least, I found myself reading this in Dwight's voice.
kunai 13y ago
While his eccentricities mirror those of a mad scientist (or really just an institutionalized person, depending on whom you ask), you cannot deny that RMS is a genius. His work in free software has enabled much recursive work in the computer science fields that wouldn't be possible without his contributions. gcc is without a doubt still the most advanced compiler available today. The GNU coreutils are nowhere near the simplicity of the old UNIX and BSD userland utilities, but they improve upon them exponentially, and offer far more ease of use and efficiency bar perhaps the Plan 9 userland. While I don't use emacs (VIM junkie), I think emacs is still brilliant operating system, and the editor is actually finally good enough for daily usage. While his strict insistence on accurate semantics, such as GNU+Linux versus Linux and "free software" vs "open source," seems annoying, pushy, and generally weird, he has valid reasons to back the insistence up. What reasons do you have to back your criticism of him up?
- interject 13y ago
  I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
  - quesera 13y ago
    I think most folks here know all of the above. The point you might be overlooking is that the GNU userland was established back in the 80s. Most UNIXes (there were many, and at least a dozen "common" ones) shipped with AT&T or custom or (later) BSD versions of these userland tools. GNU was brilliant because it was portable to most of those pathologically differentiated UNIXes, and it meant that arguments and behaviors were predictable, after you installed the GNU tools. Then along came Linux. Of course it used the GNU tools. Everyone used GNU tools. The different part was that the kernel was free and not BSD (which had recently emerged from serious political and licensing drama, and -- if the old story is to be believed -- Linus was completely unaware of). Soon there were dozens of operating systems sharing that kernel. The important categorization of them is that they were all Linux. And yeah, they ran the GNU userland, like every other non-pathological UNIX that wasn't BSD. Any other choice would have been hugely surprising (and doomed Linux). So yes, GNU deserves prominence. But "GNU" wasn't omitted from the common naming due to any hostility or ignorance. It was just obvious, and not new or noteworthy in that sense. It hurt RMS's feelings, and he has been vocal about it. Everyone agrees that GNU deserves much respect, but many people are turned off by the way RMS has reacted to his feelings of disappointment. It's not fair, but few things in life are, and many people have difficulty sympathizing with RMS.
itafroma 13y ago
The comments here, are for the most part, incredibly disappointing. I don't understand the point of bashing a guy, however public, for merely stating his preferences: I'm sure people could find some of everyone's preferences equally curious. Whatever the intent in submitting this to Hacker News was, it's turning into pointless bullying and should probably just be killed.
- dylangs1030 13y ago
  That's a stretch. If he's allowed to post his opinions, we're allowed to post ours. The strength of HN is in the dialectic. He has some clearly strange habits - I wouldn't call him extreme, radical or militant per se, but he obviously doesn't carry himself like most people. I don't think the majority of us are trying to diminish his contributions to the internet community. Rather, we're commenting on how odd he is. That's okay, it's just humorous in a nutty way. RMS takes the cynical beliefs people often think when they hear Christmas music and hate it, and takes it to actually doing it (to provide one example). "Ugh, fuck the holidays. I hate always having to spend money on people I pretend to like." ^Most of us get over it. RMS has the anti-social (I don't mean that in a DSM or pejorative sense) solidarity to actually stop celebrating holidays. It's admirable, just weird.
- rtpg 13y ago
  Many of the statements he makes in this are implicit value judgments. For example, his closing statement: > When I wait for my baggage in an airport, I always do one of these two. And I notice the people around me, feeling anxious and getting nothing done. What a waste. Even with the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean this as snarky( I do not know RMS personally, so I cannot judge too much), he imposes his lifestyle decisions (working all the time) as a sort of absolute truth. >None of my shirts carry messages (such as words or symbols). That practice strikes me as lacking dignity, so I won't wear clothing with symbols, not even for causes I support. This is not a matter of ethical disapproval, so I don't mind selling hats and shirts with free software slogans on behalf of the FSF; but I choose not to wear them myself. I get not wanting to have messages on your shirt. Loads of people are like that. But to simultaneously say that it lacks dignity but then act as if this isn't a value judgement is a bit contrarian. I think this is more one of those things that are more annoying than somehow "fundamentally" wrong but the fact that he "doesn't mind" using other people's cell phones or rewards cards is reminiscent of a lot of annoying people I've known in my life. Your personal preferences stop being immune from criticism when they end up imposing things on others.
logjam 13y ago
Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs): 1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology Computer Society 1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant") 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray Hopper Award "For pioneering work in the development of the extensible editor EMACS (Editing Macros)." 1996: Honorary doctorate from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology 1998: Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award 1999: Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award 2001: The Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award for Social/Economic Well-Being (武田研究奨励賞) 2001: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Glasgow 2002: United States National Academy of Engineering membership 2003: Honorary doctorate, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel 2004: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Nacional de Salta. 2004: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del Perú. 2007: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 2007: First Premio Internacional Extremadura al Conocimiento Libre 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad de Los Angeles de Chimbote. 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Pavia 2008: Honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, in Peru 2009: Honorary doctorate, from Lakehead University 2011: Honorary doctorate, from National University of Córdoba. 2012: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad César Vallejo de Trujillo, in Peru 2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Latinoamericana Cima de Tacna, in Peru 2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad José Faustino Sanchez Carrió, in Peru. Source: Wikipedia But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties.
- gohrt 13y ago
  Your first sentence is deeply meaningful. The rest is all gunk -- it's basically his equivalent of his Facebook friends list.
  - mbel 13y ago
    It's maybe me being subjective, but the last one seems to have a bit of meaning too.
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krapp 13y ago
Can someone explain to me his rationale for having websites mailed to himself?
- phektus 13y ago
  "I have several free web browsers on my laptop, but I generally do not look at web sites from my own machine, aside from a few sites operated for or by the GNU Project, FSF or me. I fetch web pages from other sites by sending mail to a program (see git://git.gnu.org/womb/hacks.git) that fetches them, much like wget, and then mails them back to me. Then I look at them using a web browser, unless it is easy to see the text in the HTML page directly." Source: http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html Maybe because he's just interested in the textual content.
- andor 13y ago
  Given the amount of web sites he blogs about each day, I can't imagine he still uses this email workflow. On May 31st he made more than 30 posts: http://www.stallman.org/archives/2013-mar-jun.html http://www.stallman.org/archives/2013-mar-jun.html
- ancarda 13y ago
  Ads, tracking cookies, annoying JavaScript, Facebook like buttons (tracking), inane comments just to name a few. Modern websites are pretty horrible.
  - krapp 13y ago
    Everything but the inane comments I can understand. If you want to avoid those, you might as well just move to a Tibetan monastery. It just seems like an odd, circuitous route to take. I would have expected him to just use Lynx or something.
    - keithpeter 13y ago
      It may be because of being able to read and formulate a response offline (Stallman seems to spend a lot of his time travelling, not all locations allow permanent wifi connections). It may also be a simple 'single firehose' approach - all tasks as email.
10098 13y ago
Is this page a substitute for a facebook profile? :-)
pauljonas 13y ago
God bless RMS!
dylangs1030 13y ago
Genius or not, is he a misanthrope? Yes, he has a splendid list of cool things he's done, and he's a luminary. But why compile a list of things that basically says, "I generally don't like people, the things most people do or have, or the silly rituals most people enjoy." I can respect his opinions, but he comes across as very condescending... That said, I do admire how much of a diehard he is about his beliefs. Not many people actually "walk the walk" when it comes to not owning a cell phone in today's age...
- rtpg 13y ago
  I try reading this while assuming the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he's doing it on purpose (it feels like he isn't even aware that he's doing it). It makes the entire thing easier to read.
  - suhastech 13y ago
    This kind of thinking did happen to me when I tried to generate a consistent world view. At this point, there are just too many contradictions, I'd rather forget and simply accept the absurd. For example, being an atheist, I don't particularly believe in holidays myself. I do enjoy myself with my family even if it mean a few capitalists make a little more money during the season. On the whole, a meaningless event makes the whole world happy. I'm of a fairly open religion (Hinduism). So, there aren't ardent rules you need to waste time with.
    - pjscott 13y ago
      I don't see the absurdity. You like having holidays because you find them fun. You're happy to go along with religious and/or relentlessly capitalistic holidays for the sake of expediency, because (as mentioned in the previous sentence) holidays are fun for you. There's not a single part of this that doesn't make sense.
      - suhastech 13y ago
        I was referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism#cite_ref-6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism#cite_ref-6
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eksith 13y ago
You can learn a lot about a man from his CSS : http://stallman.org/stallman.css http://stallman.org/stallman.css
rman666 13y ago
This reminds me of this important video, in which RMS can be seen taking advantage of down time to use his computer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pube5Aynsls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pube5Aynsls
- belorn 13y ago
  Of course, it can't possible be a video on that computer that shows the dance so someone who isn't familiar with it can look at it at the same time as performing it. Or he just have it in his hand as someone else is carrying a ball cap on his head. The real question is if it takes away the fun of watching MIT do the Soulja Boy dance.
mwfunk 13y ago
I see a lot of shock at the negative comments about RMS here. Those who are appalled at the lack of respect here need to understand that there are a lot of people within the tech world that have developed very complicated feelings about RMS over the course of the past 20-30 years. I mean, sure, a lot of people who don't know a whole lot about him or haven't had to deal with him over the course of decades might have shallow knee-jerk opinions on him: they hate him, they love him, or they barely know who he is. But I suspect a lot of the anti-RMS sentiment that you might see on someplace like HN comes from a much deeper place than that. I don't hate the guy, personally, and I do think that the good he's done has outweighed the bad. I also agree with him on quite a few fronts, to a degree. However, he has alienated a LOT of people over the years for no good reason other than his own personality issues and a seeming complete lack of a reflective nature or an innate sense of perspective or empathy. I feel sorry for him more than anything else, because I think he's a deeply troubled guy who unfortunately ended up in a life path that sort of rewarded him for staying in his deeply troubled state. He's always had lots of admirers and supporters, not to mention grants and speaking gigs. As a result, he never had any external forces that might compel him to grow up beyond a certain point, intellectually or emotionally. I think a lot of the more nuanced, deep, and well-fermented RMS hate you might see stems not so much from total disagreement, but rather disappointment from wasted potential. He's somebody who's had a lot of great ideas from which so many great things have sprouted, but he's a terrible steward for those ideas. He ends up making it about him somehow, or takes so many things to such ridiculous extremes, or justifies his ideas for all the wrong reasons, or intentionally alienates the people that he should be trying to build bridges to, that he ends up discrediting the kernels of brilliant truth that are at the heart of much of his philosophy. So, there are a ton of people who at one time or another were inspired by RMS in their larval stages to value freedom and sharing and openness, but grew to see him as an impediment to those very ideals. I'm one of those people and I so wish that it didn't have to be this way. I don't think you're seeing people criticizing his views on ties, so much as you're seeing disillusionment at a much deeper level with RMS' personal and intellectual failings, which are pretty broadly on display even when he's writing about trivial things like ties or hobbies or cell phones.
- foobarbazqux 13y ago
  I've had a similar experience, and I appreciate the compassion in your post.
DanBlake 13y ago
"I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices." [citation needed]
- bandushrew 13y ago
  http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html
- belorn 13y ago
  [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking There, sources for you, through a indirect layer that is Wikipedia. The actually sources are at the bottom under "References".
rtpg 13y ago
>I first started actually speaking French during my first visit to France. I decided on arrival in the airport that I would speak only French for the whole 6 weeks. This was frustrating to colleagues whose English was much better than my French. But it enabled me to learn. I admire the man for being willing to do that. Best way to learn a language is to actually use it. I'd say it'd require courage, but I don't know if courage is a quantity in RMS, he seems to just do what he wants. I am not aware of how bad his French was at the time though. I guess majorly inconveniencing those around him is not as important to him (something that seems to be recurring in these sorts of discussions about RMS).
- dreamfactory 13y ago
  Somewhat reminds me of Eddie Izzard doing a standup tour of France in rudimentary schoolboy French. (I guess murdering the language to the French of all people was rather part of the joke.)
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- gonvaled 13y ago
  What is wrong about that sentence? The scientific method has to do with falsifiable theories. Religion is not falsifiable. On scientific grounds alone, religion has no place. You can believe there is a god, or that there isn't. Both beliefs have nothing to do with science - and neither with atheism. The atheist takes this proposition to the last consequence: "I do not believe" (either on the existence, or on the non-existence). That is, the matter is of no particular interest.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
laureny 13y ago
Stallman on Harry Potter: > I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I only urge you not to pay for them. Quite the upstanding citizen. His justification for this is even more bizarre, he accuses JK Rowling of something hypothetical: > Suppose that the mistakenly sold Harry Potter books had been ebooks: then instead of ordering her fans not to read her books, Rowling could have ordered them erased. and then demanding she apologizes for something she never did: > I think we should forgive Rowling (or her publisher) when she (or it) > Recognizes that this injunction was wrong. > Promises not to do anything like it again.
- pjscott 13y ago
  At least link to the page you're quoting snippets from, for context: http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html
- icebraining 13y ago
  > I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I only urge you not to pay for them. Quite the upstanding citizen. What's your issue with it? Is it wrong to read without paying for it, now? Personally, I like libraries.
- leephillips 13y ago
  "Quite the upstanding citizen." In the very next sentence, Stallman suggests that you borrow one from someone, and in the sentence after that that you use a public library. I think your out-of-context quote is a dishonest attempt to portray Stallman as suggesting something he did not. Dishonest, childish, and thoroughly contemptible. I'm not a Stallman fan by any means [0], but I doubt he would stoop to this level of dishonesty to attempt to discredit anyone. The rest of your comment is also wrong and confused, but I can't tell if it's also from dishonesty or simply stupidity. (If I must: he is suggesting an apology would be appropriate for a real injunction that her lawyers actually got, not for "something she never did". For example.) [0] http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html
  - 13y ago
hoodoof 13y ago
I found his linked article on why he has not had a family to be rather sad. A very bleak outlook on the attainability of love and happiness.
Xcelerate 13y ago
Since this is a thread about his personal preferences, I will add my personal commentary of them. He seems to hold very strong opinions about certain things, but it appears (at least to me) that not a lot of thought went into forming these. Some are just arbitrary ("Not all my shirts are red or purple, but many are. I like those colors.") and some are just wrong ("I am an Atheist, for scientific reasons"). He's a very interesting fellow though (obviously a genius in his work) and has contributed a lot to the free software movement. It's nice to see what he's up to lately. [gonvaled replied to me below; and my reply here] I'm not commenting on his belief (or lack thereof), simply from whence it came. I make that comment regardless of the fact that I am either a theist or an atheist. My research consists of developing QFT/QM numerically for simulation, so I can say there is no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any scientific reason. Dirac's equation? Nope. Creation-annihilation operators? Nope. Did I miss an equation somewhere? Science explains how nature works and provides predictive capacity; that's it. Do you disagree with that? Furthermore, I didn't list any criticism of Richard (as I have none); in fact I gave him two compliments: "genius" and "he's interesting and I like following what he's up to".
- belorn 13y ago
  > no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any scientific reason. when people talk about scientific reasoning, I assume it also includes the scientific method. As such, atheist and it tend to agree that any prevailing theory should be abandon as soon as a better theory is suggested. This however is strictly contrary to faith, in that faith is the constant belief no matter what other theories exist. (also see The God Delusion for an expanded version, and other arguments of scientific reasoning and atheism.)
  - gonvaled 13y ago
    It is more fundamental than that: religion does not offer any falsifiable claims. It is not that we do not apply the scientific method to it. It is that, by design, religion is out of bounds of the scientific method.
    - 13y ago
auctiontheory 13y ago
Am I the only one who was reminded of Julian Assange?
- gwern 13y ago
  No; I've thought in the past that Assange and RMS fit into an interesting category of 'movement leaders who hold back the movement by personal dramaz', except to be fair, RMS has never sabotaged FLOSS to anywhere near the extent that Assange seems to have sabotaged Wikileaks.
jmgao 13y ago
> In general, in any area of art or sensation, there are many ways for something to be good, and they cannot be compared and ordered >Indian classical music (I tend to enjoy Carnatic more than Hindustani) what
- icebraining 13y ago
  Good and enjoyable and not the same. I enjoy plenty of music that I don't consider good.
hoodoof 13y ago
With all due respect, and acknowledging many other bright people with a similar situation (i.e Bill Gates), he comes across as being on the autism/aspergers spectrum.
- pjscott 13y ago
  That's hardly disrespectful -- and Stallman himself has agreed with you, describing himself as "borderline autistic". The label certainly seems to fit.
bitsoda 13y ago
How does he reconcile using somebody else's cell phone to make a call if he's not willing to use one himself?
- icebraining 13y ago
  He doesn't say that owning a cellphone is wrong; he says he doesn't want to be tracked by using one. Using someone else's doesn't help track that person (they're being tracked regardless), so why would it be contradictory?
  - bitsoda 13y ago
    He seems to have an issue with using any device -- borrowed or owned -- if it features non free software, like most phones have today.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  Did he say it was a cell-phone he borrowed?
klrr 13y ago
It's sad how people here nit-pick on this. He have done so damn much, and still you guys critize some silly behavior of his. I think it's mostly beacuase the frequent readers, contributors and commenters here on HN are software developers, business people and designers, not hackers...
znowi 13y ago
Despite his controversial figure, I very much respect RMS. I may not agree with his life choices, but his integrity and resolve of the pursuit of his ideals are at the least inspiring. It is sad to see the "tieless" generation of beards and freedom slowly fading and having not found understanding in our time of rockstars and ninjas.
kmasters 13y ago
I hesitate to add to this conversation if thats what this is. I've seen alot of comments saying that "if RMS can post his opinions then we can post ours" Thats completely true, its also completely juvenile and unnecessary. RMS is a controversial figure, but I dont think this debate over something as (by comparison) trivial as "What madonna requires backstage before a concert", has any productive value. You can justify your own judgements of him based on what you perceive his value judgements of others to be all you want. At least he's willing to be honest about who he is. 20-30 years of baggage or not, leave the guy be and go do something to make the world a better place.
drcube 13y ago
"If I had a family..." This is sad. Stallman is one of my favorite people (among people I've never met), and everyone deserves a family of some sort. Not necessarily kids, but simply a small group of people who he loves, who love him back, and who would spend his free time with him.
- hga 13y ago
  Sigh, that would be very difficult. Without going into the personal details, based on my interactions with him in the '80s I'd say that's not going to happen, especially since he's old enough it's unlikely he'll "mellow out" until possibly when he gets a lot older. Maybe, someday, but that's not the way to bet.
Zigurd 13y ago
I had not previously heard of Grav-mass. Now to go find Newton ornaments. It doesn't really matter if they fall off.
keithpeter 13y ago
"...I do use airline frequent flier numbers because the airlines demand to know my identity anyway." "...However, I absolutely refuse to take Amtrak trains because they check passengers ID (sometimes, not all the time)." Are these two statements contradictory, or is there something special about what Amtrak do that threatens privacy more than the disclosure of identity to an airline? This is a genuine question, I have never visited the US. (In the UK, you can still walk into a railway station and buy a ticket for cash without showing ID anywhere within the mainland. You will not be asked for anything other than the ticket on the train unless you are using a Student or Senior Citizen's railcard to claim the discount.) The more I think about the nature of software, the more I find Stallman's views about software freedom compelling.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  It's hard to get overseas by train.
  - keithpeter 13y ago
    True, although we did manage it in the UK. Hard to see how that casts any light on the (apparent) contradiction.
    - dllthomas 13y ago
      You managed it over a pretty small hop, compared to what you'd have to do to get anywhere from the US. Anyway, it casts light on the apparent contradiction simply because life is made of trade-offs. The choice to prefer (say) Greyhound (or a personal vehicle) to Amtrak is a wholly different thing than the choice to visit or not visit (say) Indonesia. The same concern may merit the former but not the latter.
      - keithpeter 13y ago
        So it is a contradiction, but one forced by circumstance.
stiff 13y ago
This thread reflects how little HN has to do with hacker culture those days. I read the article and enjoyed very much his description of the process by which he learns foreign languages and how he tries to make maximum use of every bit of free time. Then I went to the comments and saw the batshit comments about ties. Time to rename the site to "Hater News".
- shizzy0 13y ago
  Hacker News is too much about becoming rich to have much love for Stallman.
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ecopoesis 13y ago
Is RMS the proto-hipster? He only likes music until it becomes popular. I wonder if he tries to be different so he can be different and unique, and that all his bluster and quirks come from this desire for uniqueness rather than his fight for "freedom."
leephillips 13y ago
Like many brilliant and pure souls, Mr. Stallman can be naive. Here he is uncritically regurgitating other people's political propaganda: http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html
lenkite 13y ago
I wish I could add some gentle CSS3 to his page

196 points by init0 13y ago

It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car but sure as hell will mooch a ride. This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was malicious--it was more like if RMS was hungry, would just be happy that someone was kind enough to leave him something to eat in the AI lab fridge. It was kind of considered an honor--after all, what were you going to do, complain, get him angry, and delay the release of Hurd?

gohrt 13y ago
Huh. I thought he had a free-libre cell phone at some point. Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash, and power it down when not in use, I thought. Like drug dealers do. Still surveillable, but no more than any borrowed phone.
- GhotiFish 13y ago
  his priorities are more to do with freedom then they are to do with tracking. I don't think he would use those phones because those phones do not have their source available.
  - dbrian 13y ago
    "I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices." - RMS
- pmarin 13y ago
  Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash you can not do it in many countries like Spain where you have to provide your ID (because of terrorism).
  - thejosh 13y ago
    Same as Australia.
  - claudius 13y ago
    Hm, curious. In Germany (and Austria, wherefrom I got my N9), it is perfectly fine to buy a phone. What you cannot do (legally) is buy a SIM card without ID – however, most shops just require you to fill in some form and don’t bother checking any form of ID.
    - soult 13y ago
      In Germany there is a "swapping" service[1] for SIM cards where you can send your prepaid SIM and will get a random SIM that another person sent in. And in Austria you can purchase both phones and (prepaid) SIMs without any ID or form to fill out. 1: http://www.daten-speicherung.de/index.php/kartentausch/ http://www.daten-speicherung.de/index.php/kartentausch/
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- jrabone 13y ago
  I discovered a couple of years ago (when my phone, er, met with a nasty firmware accident) that you cannot buy a phone in the UK over the counter without also buying a Pay-As-You-Go SIM with a traceable means of payment (ie. card). They simply refused to sell the phone to me unless I forked over £10 for a SIM I didn't want. Apparently the French are to blame for this little piece of legislation. I politely told them that the only reason I was in their shop was because it was an emergency, and I hoped that they enjoyed their future career packing boxes for internet retail, at least until they were replaced by robots. Harsh, but I never said I was a nice person.
  - sigzero 13y ago
    > but I never said I was a nice person No, apparently you're a dick.
  - quasque 13y ago
    This is not the case in all situations, I think you were just unlucky with the policy of that company. Last phone I bought was paid for in cash, no questions asked. It wasn't from one of the large phone retailers, but not from anywhere dodgy, either [edit: it was from the Internet café here http://goo.gl/maps/DkMa2 http://goo.gl/maps/DkMa2]. The SIM card was also purchased in cash from a newsagent without having to provide any identifying details. I wasn't even going out of my way to avoid being traced - like you, I just needed a phone in an emergency, as my screen had broken on the old one.
- glaze 13y ago
  Some cellphones can be wiretapped even when powered off. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html
  - gohrt 13y ago
    Fair enough. > Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; Someone like RMS would be comfortable pulling out a battery, I expect.
  - deleted 13y ago
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yason 13y ago
It is not a problem if his friends don't object to borrowing him a phone, nor is it Stallman's responsibility to carry a phone so that his friends don't even have to not object. If someone doesn't like him asking for a phone or lunch or whatever, then I assume it would be up to that someone to reject his request. It's not like Stallman goes around grabbing people's phones or lunches without asking first.
- IvyMike 13y ago
  I've been reflecting on this, and I guess my annoyance is that I actually strongly agree with RMS that cell phones have us in a self-imposed virtual surveillance state. But in the end, the devil's deal of owning the phone is one I can't refuse, so I make the choice to bear that burden. BTW, on second reading, the lunch story came off harsher in my telling than I intended--it was really supposed to be a story of one of his cute eccentricities--"this dude doesn't think like your average person". Which is probably why he's able to contribute so much more to society than the average person. I would totally make lunch for RMS every day, given the opportunity. If he would only tell us what his favorite food was.
- simula67 13y ago
  Let me put forth another analogy from 'Surely You are Joking Mr Feynman': Lets say you believe killing someone is evil. Then would you think it is OK to ask some else to kill someone for you ? There is a reason people may not object to Stallman's request. Whatever that reason is it helps promote the surveillence mechanism that Stallman believes to be cellphones.
  - lambda 13y ago
    But Stallman does not believe that making a phone call is evil. Nor does he believe that choosing to allow yourself to be tracked is evil. He objects to being tracked himself. If someone else has already chosen to be tracked, he might think that they made a poor decision, but it's their decision to make. There's nothing wrong with then asking them to use your phone. This is nothing like asking someone to kill for you. Killing is always wrong. Trading your freedom for being tracked for the ability to make phone calls on the move is a personal decision. Now, he would probably prefer that people not have to make that decision; that phones ran all free software, with no locked hardware that you can't get access to, so you could control your own phone and determine when it did or didn't broadcast. But that doesn't make it wrong for someone else to make a different decision than he did.
belorn 13y ago
I know many people who do not own a car. Somehow, the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? forever doomed to walk and always only walk? Given the city where I live, only about 10-20% of people I know has a car. That would make it kind of depressing if we dictated their lives in the way described. Thats just don't make any sense. The fridge thing do, but after the first sentence in your comment I have a small distrust regarding if you are giving the whole context here. Maybe the fridge is used for shared purchases of drinks/food/snacks that everyone could take when needed. How did other people use the fridge, and what was the initial purpose when the fridge was bought?
- IvyMike 13y ago
  > the argument here is that those shouldn't now be allowed to use a buss, taxi, train, or go with a friend somewhere in a car? Nope, that was not the argument. > I have a small distrust Ha. At best this is a friend-of-a-friend story from 20 years ago, posted on the internet. If there's any consequence to you trusting this story, I'd highly recommend against it.
kybernetikos 13y ago
"It costs a great deal of money to keep Gandhi living in poverty," one of his followers said affectionately.
iso8859-1 13y ago
There are landline phones too, you know. Stallman was a hacker since before people were carrying cell phones everywhere, I'm sure he'd manage.

wiml 13y ago

Given the title, I was hoping this was narrated by Psy.

dos1 13y ago

Dude is so strange. I mean seriously, who knows that much about that many kinds of esoteric music? It's like he wants to be contrary to the rest of the population on purpose.

dos1 13y ago
Edit: Fuck you HN. RMS is an extremist. I should hope that most of you have the critical thinking skills to realize that his extremism is just as dangerous as Timothy McVeigh's. Edit 2: Honest question, how can I delete my account on HN? I've come to realize (sadly) how many hours I've wasted on this bullshit. PG, please ban this account.
- fixxer 13y ago
  Until he parks a truck full of explosives outside a federal building and kills 168 innocents (including 19 children under 6), I think not. Now, pipe down and let the adults speak.
  - dos1 13y ago
    Yeah, because body count is the only comparator that matters. Extremism is extremism. RMS is an extremist. I want nothing to do with someone who is incapable of empathizing with the other side.
    - koide 13y ago
      Oh, I get it, you're an anti-extremism extremist. You should try to empathize with RMS.
- greenyoda 13y ago
  Really? Who has RMS blown up lately? For that matter, how many people has he even convinced to be like him?
- copx 13y ago
  The vital different between Stallman and McVeigh is that Stallman has never killed anyone (as far as we know). His "free software" ideology is not militant. Yes, some of his views can be called radical and extreme but that does not automatically mean he is dangerous.

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reedlaw 13y ago

I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices. I find this hard to believe. Wouldn't the extra battery usage make it obvious, especially on Android devices that can track this as well as network usage at a very low level? Or is there some kind of hardware-level surveillance mechanism built in to cellphones?

timcederman 13y ago
For phones to function they have to talk to cellular towers continuously. You can triangulate a location based on the chatter. Phone companies also keep detailed logs.
- reedlaw 13y ago
  What about being made into listening devices? That would require turning on the microphone and transmitting the signal without the user noticing. Is that possible?
  - deleted 13y ago
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  - NegativeK 13y ago
    It is possible, and it is done. I believe American law enforcement needs a warrant to do it.
  - ekr 13y ago
    All your data (conversations, text messages etc) goes through the network, and those network operators can easily access it. It's just the same with ISPs though. I don't know if that's what he meant by 'listening devices'. In any way, a lot of these statements make a lot of sense for many citizens in different parts of the world (China etc), where there's a corrupt government and a suppressed freedom of speech. For an US citizen I suppose they may be exaggerated. But I share many of his views, and he obviously deserves a lot more respect than some people show towards him. EDIT. And of course, if it's running non-free software the cell phone can easily be made to transmit microphone data without the user noticing.

simonsarris 13y ago

It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS Opinions" I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people. For instance: > As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie. Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he could have said that he was aesthetically minimalist (or minimalist with accessories in general). Instead ties become a value judgement, and he sees tie-wearers as "victims" at best. In fact, though many would describe him as minimalist in lifestyle if they had to sum it up in a sentence, he doesn't use the term. This piece is really exclusively opinions. > When I wait for my baggage in an airport, I always do one of these two. And I notice the people around me, feeling anxious and getting nothing done. What a waste. His reasoning in general here seems arbitrary and condescending. If I didn't know who we were reading about beforehand I'd gander they were prone to being capricious. I wonder if we should tell him that trains run non-free software, just like phones. In general the biggest takeaway I got from this is that he seems to have a very negative view of almost all other people.

kingi 13y ago
does RMS actually use a checking account?
- misframer 13y ago
  That would be interesting to know. I'm pretty sure he only uses cash for transactions since it's easier to stay anonymous. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets compensated with briefcases filled with bills...
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gohrt 13y ago
"I refuse to own a tie" is a fact, not an opinion. Much of the following discussion is an opinion. He's not a "minimalist", he is a freedom activist. He believes ties impinge on freedom. The passenger does not run the train software. The train owner can choose what kind of software they want to use. RMS's trains (of which he has none) do not run non-free software. RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decades, you aren't going to discredit him with 5 minutes of snark. > he seems to have a very negative view of almost all other people. And yet he dedicates his life to improving theirs, even though he could easily accumulate a few million dollars and retire. I'll take enemies like him over friends to make an effort to personally attack strangers for having a principled lifestlye, any day.

yarou 13y ago

rms is probably the first, original troll. His very life is the punchline to the joke of annoying mainstream people.

deleted 13y ago
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zdw 13y ago

"The Free Software Foundation's dress code says that a propeller beanie is required, but other clothing is optional. However, we don't enforce it." Thank goodness for that.

sage_joch 13y ago

I think he makes a good point about ties.

nwienert 13y ago
I disagree with him on ties. I think a lot of people enjoy wearing ties because they think they look good. It's mens style. Just like how he likes plain t-shirts. This from someone who almost never wears them, but thinks they look good in general.
- ics 13y ago
  Aside from fashion, I think a tie generally reminds people of their own posture. I'm prone to some heavy slouching day in and day out but a tie quite literally keeps me straight (a bent tie feels... displeasing).
interpol_p 13y ago
I think he generalises far too much. People wear ties for a lot of reasons. They can make you feel more confident, you might like the aesthetics, or you might want to impress (which is the reason RMS gave for not liking them), you might wear them out of respect (a funeral, for instance).
- sage_joch 13y ago
  To be fair, he does say "If ties were simply a clothing option, I would decline to use them but there would be no reason to make a fuss about it." His complaints are about the situations in which there is an expectation to wear a tie.
dreamfactory 13y ago
Ties are no more pointless than collars really. The point of dressing formally in an interview is explicitly to show respect and deference in order to demonstrate that you can work with someone else and subjugate your own ego for a team goal; that's hardly a secret.

brvs 13y ago

If you're curious to know more about RMS for some reason this is fun to browse through: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developers-public/2011-October/007647.html https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developer... "I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up." I really want to know what horrific experience RMS had with breakfast in the past such that you can't even mention it to him!!

aclevernickname 13y ago
RMS is legendary for not getting up before the crack of noon. "Breakfast" is for "mornings". he has neither.
- droidist2 13y ago
  Is that really what he means though? Most people use the word "breakfast" to refer to the first meal of the day (or lack thereof) eaten within a few hours of waking up. Also the type of food. If you sleep in on a Saturday until noon, you'll probably tend to want breakfast food when you first wake up. The time of day is far behind those two factors for what constitutes breakfast in popular usage.
  - epochwolf 13y ago
    > If you sleep in on a Saturday until noon, you'll probably tend to want breakfast food when you first wake up. It's 9am on a Saturday here and I just ate two slices of cold pizza. Not everyone desires "breakfast food" first thing in the moring. :)
    - droidist2 13y ago
      Of course I wasn't saying that applies in every single case. I even double-qualified that part ("probably tend to"), but you still responded with "not everyone." I give up. :)

kyle_t 13y ago

I get the impression that this lifestyle is a very solitary one although it does seem to be by choice. Which is fine but he seems to make quite a few assumptions about the way other people live their life and why. For example: "However, there is an absurd social pressure on men to wear ties. They do this as a form of sucking up to the boss." Perhaps they just like the way they look in tie? ------------------------------------------------- Edited to add more context to quote.

petercooper 13y ago
I think the post might be old (though post 1998). Tie wearers haven't been the majority in any tech setting I can think of post dot-com boom (although I have no experience of academia where they may well remain hot.) I'm a frequent tie wearer and tend to be the odd one out nowadays even in management-heavy situations! :-)
- hga 13y ago
  In the relevant Boston area business and social circles in the '80s, a techie wearing a tie, even to interviews, was pretty much unheard of, so I'm pretty sure that goes way back further. If you'd been in those circles in the '80s, you clearly would have been viewed as eccentric as RMS for being a "frequent tie wearer", but all else being equal, we would have loved you as much as we loved him ^_^.

jetblackio 13y ago

Sounds a lot like Dwight Shrute from 'The Office'. At least, I found myself reading this in Dwight's voice.

kunai 13y ago

While his eccentricities mirror those of a mad scientist (or really just an institutionalized person, depending on whom you ask), you cannot deny that RMS is a genius. His work in free software has enabled much recursive work in the computer science fields that wouldn't be possible without his contributions. gcc is without a doubt still the most advanced compiler available today. The GNU coreutils are nowhere near the simplicity of the old UNIX and BSD userland utilities, but they improve upon them exponentially, and offer far more ease of use and efficiency bar perhaps the Plan 9 userland. While I don't use emacs (VIM junkie), I think emacs is still brilliant operating system, and the editor is actually finally good enough for daily usage. While his strict insistence on accurate semantics, such as GNU+Linux versus Linux and "free software" vs "open source," seems annoying, pushy, and generally weird, he has valid reasons to back the insistence up. What reasons do you have to back your criticism of him up?

interject 13y ago
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
- quesera 13y ago
  I think most folks here know all of the above. The point you might be overlooking is that the GNU userland was established back in the 80s. Most UNIXes (there were many, and at least a dozen "common" ones) shipped with AT&T or custom or (later) BSD versions of these userland tools. GNU was brilliant because it was portable to most of those pathologically differentiated UNIXes, and it meant that arguments and behaviors were predictable, after you installed the GNU tools. Then along came Linux. Of course it used the GNU tools. Everyone used GNU tools. The different part was that the kernel was free and not BSD (which had recently emerged from serious political and licensing drama, and -- if the old story is to be believed -- Linus was completely unaware of). Soon there were dozens of operating systems sharing that kernel. The important categorization of them is that they were all Linux. And yeah, they ran the GNU userland, like every other non-pathological UNIX that wasn't BSD. Any other choice would have been hugely surprising (and doomed Linux). So yes, GNU deserves prominence. But "GNU" wasn't omitted from the common naming due to any hostility or ignorance. It was just obvious, and not new or noteworthy in that sense. It hurt RMS's feelings, and he has been vocal about it. Everyone agrees that GNU deserves much respect, but many people are turned off by the way RMS has reacted to his feelings of disappointment. It's not fair, but few things in life are, and many people have difficulty sympathizing with RMS.

itafroma 13y ago

The comments here, are for the most part, incredibly disappointing. I don't understand the point of bashing a guy, however public, for merely stating his preferences: I'm sure people could find some of everyone's preferences equally curious. Whatever the intent in submitting this to Hacker News was, it's turning into pointless bullying and should probably just be killed.

dylangs1030 13y ago
That's a stretch. If he's allowed to post his opinions, we're allowed to post ours. The strength of HN is in the dialectic. He has some clearly strange habits - I wouldn't call him extreme, radical or militant per se, but he obviously doesn't carry himself like most people. I don't think the majority of us are trying to diminish his contributions to the internet community. Rather, we're commenting on how odd he is. That's okay, it's just humorous in a nutty way. RMS takes the cynical beliefs people often think when they hear Christmas music and hate it, and takes it to actually doing it (to provide one example). "Ugh, fuck the holidays. I hate always having to spend money on people I pretend to like." ^Most of us get over it. RMS has the anti-social (I don't mean that in a DSM or pejorative sense) solidarity to actually stop celebrating holidays. It's admirable, just weird.
rtpg 13y ago
Many of the statements he makes in this are implicit value judgments. For example, his closing statement: > When I wait for my baggage in an airport, I always do one of these two. And I notice the people around me, feeling anxious and getting nothing done. What a waste. Even with the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean this as snarky( I do not know RMS personally, so I cannot judge too much), he imposes his lifestyle decisions (working all the time) as a sort of absolute truth. >None of my shirts carry messages (such as words or symbols). That practice strikes me as lacking dignity, so I won't wear clothing with symbols, not even for causes I support. This is not a matter of ethical disapproval, so I don't mind selling hats and shirts with free software slogans on behalf of the FSF; but I choose not to wear them myself. I get not wanting to have messages on your shirt. Loads of people are like that. But to simultaneously say that it lacks dignity but then act as if this isn't a value judgement is a bit contrarian. I think this is more one of those things that are more annoying than somehow "fundamentally" wrong but the fact that he "doesn't mind" using other people's cell phones or rewards cards is reminiscent of a lot of annoying people I've known in my life. Your personal preferences stop being immune from criticism when they end up imposing things on others.

logjam 13y ago

Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs): 1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology Computer Society 1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant") 1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray Hopper Award "For pioneering work in the development of the extensible editor EMACS (Editing Macros)." 1996: Honorary doctorate from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology 1998: Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award 1999: Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award 2001: The Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award for Social/Economic Well-Being (武田研究奨励賞) 2001: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Glasgow 2002: United States National Academy of Engineering membership 2003: Honorary doctorate, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel 2004: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Nacional de Salta. 2004: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del Perú. 2007: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 2007: First Premio Internacional Extremadura al Conocimiento Libre 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad de Los Angeles de Chimbote. 2007: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Pavia 2008: Honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, in Peru 2009: Honorary doctorate, from Lakehead University 2011: Honorary doctorate, from National University of Córdoba. 2012: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad César Vallejo de Trujillo, in Peru 2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Latinoamericana Cima de Tacna, in Peru 2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad José Faustino Sanchez Carrió, in Peru. Source: Wikipedia But here on Hacker News (of all places), let's instead criticize his personal preferences on fucking ties.

gohrt 13y ago
Your first sentence is deeply meaningful. The rest is all gunk -- it's basically his equivalent of his Facebook friends list.
- mbel 13y ago
  It's maybe me being subjective, but the last one seems to have a bit of meaning too.
13y ago

krapp 13y ago

Can someone explain to me his rationale for having websites mailed to himself?

phektus 13y ago
"I have several free web browsers on my laptop, but I generally do not look at web sites from my own machine, aside from a few sites operated for or by the GNU Project, FSF or me. I fetch web pages from other sites by sending mail to a program (see git://git.gnu.org/womb/hacks.git) that fetches them, much like wget, and then mails them back to me. Then I look at them using a web browser, unless it is easy to see the text in the HTML page directly." Source: http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html Maybe because he's just interested in the textual content.
andor 13y ago
Given the amount of web sites he blogs about each day, I can't imagine he still uses this email workflow. On May 31st he made more than 30 posts: http://www.stallman.org/archives/2013-mar-jun.html http://www.stallman.org/archives/2013-mar-jun.html
ancarda 13y ago
Ads, tracking cookies, annoying JavaScript, Facebook like buttons (tracking), inane comments just to name a few. Modern websites are pretty horrible.
- krapp 13y ago
  Everything but the inane comments I can understand. If you want to avoid those, you might as well just move to a Tibetan monastery. It just seems like an odd, circuitous route to take. I would have expected him to just use Lynx or something.
  - keithpeter 13y ago
    It may be because of being able to read and formulate a response offline (Stallman seems to spend a lot of his time travelling, not all locations allow permanent wifi connections). It may also be a simple 'single firehose' approach - all tasks as email.

10098 13y ago

Is this page a substitute for a facebook profile? :-)

pauljonas 13y ago

God bless RMS!

dylangs1030 13y ago

Genius or not, is he a misanthrope? Yes, he has a splendid list of cool things he's done, and he's a luminary. But why compile a list of things that basically says, "I generally don't like people, the things most people do or have, or the silly rituals most people enjoy." I can respect his opinions, but he comes across as very condescending... That said, I do admire how much of a diehard he is about his beliefs. Not many people actually "walk the walk" when it comes to not owning a cell phone in today's age...

rtpg 13y ago
I try reading this while assuming the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he's doing it on purpose (it feels like he isn't even aware that he's doing it). It makes the entire thing easier to read.
- suhastech 13y ago
  This kind of thinking did happen to me when I tried to generate a consistent world view. At this point, there are just too many contradictions, I'd rather forget and simply accept the absurd. For example, being an atheist, I don't particularly believe in holidays myself. I do enjoy myself with my family even if it mean a few capitalists make a little more money during the season. On the whole, a meaningless event makes the whole world happy. I'm of a fairly open religion (Hinduism). So, there aren't ardent rules you need to waste time with.
  - pjscott 13y ago
    I don't see the absurdity. You like having holidays because you find them fun. You're happy to go along with religious and/or relentlessly capitalistic holidays for the sake of expediency, because (as mentioned in the previous sentence) holidays are fun for you. There's not a single part of this that doesn't make sense.
    - suhastech 13y ago
      I was referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism#cite_ref-6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism#cite_ref-6

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eksith 13y ago

You can learn a lot about a man from his CSS : http://stallman.org/stallman.css http://stallman.org/stallman.css

rman666 13y ago

This reminds me of this important video, in which RMS can be seen taking advantage of down time to use his computer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pube5Aynsls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pube5Aynsls

belorn 13y ago
Of course, it can't possible be a video on that computer that shows the dance so someone who isn't familiar with it can look at it at the same time as performing it. Or he just have it in his hand as someone else is carrying a ball cap on his head. The real question is if it takes away the fun of watching MIT do the Soulja Boy dance.

mwfunk 13y ago

I see a lot of shock at the negative comments about RMS here. Those who are appalled at the lack of respect here need to understand that there are a lot of people within the tech world that have developed very complicated feelings about RMS over the course of the past 20-30 years. I mean, sure, a lot of people who don't know a whole lot about him or haven't had to deal with him over the course of decades might have shallow knee-jerk opinions on him: they hate him, they love him, or they barely know who he is. But I suspect a lot of the anti-RMS sentiment that you might see on someplace like HN comes from a much deeper place than that. I don't hate the guy, personally, and I do think that the good he's done has outweighed the bad. I also agree with him on quite a few fronts, to a degree. However, he has alienated a LOT of people over the years for no good reason other than his own personality issues and a seeming complete lack of a reflective nature or an innate sense of perspective or empathy. I feel sorry for him more than anything else, because I think he's a deeply troubled guy who unfortunately ended up in a life path that sort of rewarded him for staying in his deeply troubled state. He's always had lots of admirers and supporters, not to mention grants and speaking gigs. As a result, he never had any external forces that might compel him to grow up beyond a certain point, intellectually or emotionally. I think a lot of the more nuanced, deep, and well-fermented RMS hate you might see stems not so much from total disagreement, but rather disappointment from wasted potential. He's somebody who's had a lot of great ideas from which so many great things have sprouted, but he's a terrible steward for those ideas. He ends up making it about him somehow, or takes so many things to such ridiculous extremes, or justifies his ideas for all the wrong reasons, or intentionally alienates the people that he should be trying to build bridges to, that he ends up discrediting the kernels of brilliant truth that are at the heart of much of his philosophy. So, there are a ton of people who at one time or another were inspired by RMS in their larval stages to value freedom and sharing and openness, but grew to see him as an impediment to those very ideals. I'm one of those people and I so wish that it didn't have to be this way. I don't think you're seeing people criticizing his views on ties, so much as you're seeing disillusionment at a much deeper level with RMS' personal and intellectual failings, which are pretty broadly on display even when he's writing about trivial things like ties or hobbies or cell phones.

foobarbazqux 13y ago
I've had a similar experience, and I appreciate the compassion in your post.

DanBlake 13y ago

"I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices." [citation needed]

bandushrew 13y ago
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html
belorn 13y ago
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking There, sources for you, through a indirect layer that is Wikipedia. The actually sources are at the bottom under "References".

rtpg 13y ago

>I first started actually speaking French during my first visit to France. I decided on arrival in the airport that I would speak only French for the whole 6 weeks. This was frustrating to colleagues whose English was much better than my French. But it enabled me to learn. I admire the man for being willing to do that. Best way to learn a language is to actually use it. I'd say it'd require courage, but I don't know if courage is a quantity in RMS, he seems to just do what he wants. I am not aware of how bad his French was at the time though. I guess majorly inconveniencing those around him is not as important to him (something that seems to be recurring in these sorts of discussions about RMS).

dreamfactory 13y ago
Somewhat reminds me of Eddie Izzard doing a standup tour of France in rudimentary schoolboy French. (I guess murdering the language to the French of all people was rather part of the joke.)

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gonvaled 13y ago
What is wrong about that sentence? The scientific method has to do with falsifiable theories. Religion is not falsifiable. On scientific grounds alone, religion has no place. You can believe there is a god, or that there isn't. Both beliefs have nothing to do with science - and neither with atheism. The atheist takes this proposition to the last consequence: "I do not believe" (either on the existence, or on the non-existence). That is, the matter is of no particular interest.
- deleted 13y ago
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laureny 13y ago

Stallman on Harry Potter: > I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I only urge you not to pay for them. Quite the upstanding citizen. His justification for this is even more bizarre, he accuses JK Rowling of something hypothetical: > Suppose that the mistakenly sold Harry Potter books had been ebooks: then instead of ordering her fans not to read her books, Rowling could have ordered them erased. and then demanding she apologizes for something she never did: > I think we should forgive Rowling (or her publisher) when she (or it) > Recognizes that this injunction was wrong. > Promises not to do anything like it again.

pjscott 13y ago
At least link to the page you're quoting snippets from, for context: http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html http://stallman.org/harry-potter.html
icebraining 13y ago
> I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I only urge you not to pay for them. Quite the upstanding citizen. What's your issue with it? Is it wrong to read without paying for it, now? Personally, I like libraries.
leephillips 13y ago
"Quite the upstanding citizen." In the very next sentence, Stallman suggests that you borrow one from someone, and in the sentence after that that you use a public library. I think your out-of-context quote is a dishonest attempt to portray Stallman as suggesting something he did not. Dishonest, childish, and thoroughly contemptible. I'm not a Stallman fan by any means [0], but I doubt he would stoop to this level of dishonesty to attempt to discredit anyone. The rest of your comment is also wrong and confused, but I can't tell if it's also from dishonesty or simply stupidity. (If I must: he is suggesting an apology would be appropriate for a real injunction that her lawyers actually got, not for "something she never did". For example.) [0] http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html
- 13y ago

hoodoof 13y ago

I found his linked article on why he has not had a family to be rather sad. A very bleak outlook on the attainability of love and happiness.

Xcelerate 13y ago

Since this is a thread about his personal preferences, I will add my personal commentary of them. He seems to hold very strong opinions about certain things, but it appears (at least to me) that not a lot of thought went into forming these. Some are just arbitrary ("Not all my shirts are red or purple, but many are. I like those colors.") and some are just wrong ("I am an Atheist, for scientific reasons"). He's a very interesting fellow though (obviously a genius in his work) and has contributed a lot to the free software movement. It's nice to see what he's up to lately. [gonvaled replied to me below; and my reply here] I'm not commenting on his belief (or lack thereof), simply from whence it came. I make that comment regardless of the fact that I am either a theist or an atheist. My research consists of developing QFT/QM numerically for simulation, so I can say there is no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any scientific reason. Dirac's equation? Nope. Creation-annihilation operators? Nope. Did I miss an equation somewhere? Science explains how nature works and provides predictive capacity; that's it. Do you disagree with that? Furthermore, I didn't list any criticism of Richard (as I have none); in fact I gave him two compliments: "genius" and "he's interesting and I like following what he's up to".

belorn 13y ago
> no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any scientific reason. when people talk about scientific reasoning, I assume it also includes the scientific method. As such, atheist and it tend to agree that any prevailing theory should be abandon as soon as a better theory is suggested. This however is strictly contrary to faith, in that faith is the constant belief no matter what other theories exist. (also see The God Delusion for an expanded version, and other arguments of scientific reasoning and atheism.)
- gonvaled 13y ago
  It is more fundamental than that: religion does not offer any falsifiable claims. It is not that we do not apply the scientific method to it. It is that, by design, religion is out of bounds of the scientific method.
  - 13y ago

auctiontheory 13y ago

Am I the only one who was reminded of Julian Assange?

gwern 13y ago
No; I've thought in the past that Assange and RMS fit into an interesting category of 'movement leaders who hold back the movement by personal dramaz', except to be fair, RMS has never sabotaged FLOSS to anywhere near the extent that Assange seems to have sabotaged Wikileaks.

jmgao 13y ago

> In general, in any area of art or sensation, there are many ways for something to be good, and they cannot be compared and ordered >Indian classical music (I tend to enjoy Carnatic more than Hindustani) what

icebraining 13y ago
Good and enjoyable and not the same. I enjoy plenty of music that I don't consider good.

hoodoof 13y ago

With all due respect, and acknowledging many other bright people with a similar situation (i.e Bill Gates), he comes across as being on the autism/aspergers spectrum.

pjscott 13y ago
That's hardly disrespectful -- and Stallman himself has agreed with you, describing himself as "borderline autistic". The label certainly seems to fit.

bitsoda 13y ago

How does he reconcile using somebody else's cell phone to make a call if he's not willing to use one himself?

icebraining 13y ago
He doesn't say that owning a cellphone is wrong; he says he doesn't want to be tracked by using one. Using someone else's doesn't help track that person (they're being tracked regardless), so why would it be contradictory?
- bitsoda 13y ago
  He seems to have an issue with using any device -- borrowed or owned -- if it features non free software, like most phones have today.
dllthomas 13y ago
Did he say it was a cell-phone he borrowed?

klrr 13y ago

It's sad how people here nit-pick on this. He have done so damn much, and still you guys critize some silly behavior of his. I think it's mostly beacuase the frequent readers, contributors and commenters here on HN are software developers, business people and designers, not hackers...

znowi 13y ago

Despite his controversial figure, I very much respect RMS. I may not agree with his life choices, but his integrity and resolve of the pursuit of his ideals are at the least inspiring. It is sad to see the "tieless" generation of beards and freedom slowly fading and having not found understanding in our time of rockstars and ninjas.

kmasters 13y ago

I hesitate to add to this conversation if thats what this is. I've seen alot of comments saying that "if RMS can post his opinions then we can post ours" Thats completely true, its also completely juvenile and unnecessary. RMS is a controversial figure, but I dont think this debate over something as (by comparison) trivial as "What madonna requires backstage before a concert", has any productive value. You can justify your own judgements of him based on what you perceive his value judgements of others to be all you want. At least he's willing to be honest about who he is. 20-30 years of baggage or not, leave the guy be and go do something to make the world a better place.

drcube 13y ago

"If I had a family..." This is sad. Stallman is one of my favorite people (among people I've never met), and everyone deserves a family of some sort. Not necessarily kids, but simply a small group of people who he loves, who love him back, and who would spend his free time with him.

hga 13y ago
Sigh, that would be very difficult. Without going into the personal details, based on my interactions with him in the '80s I'd say that's not going to happen, especially since he's old enough it's unlikely he'll "mellow out" until possibly when he gets a lot older. Maybe, someday, but that's not the way to bet.

Zigurd 13y ago

I had not previously heard of Grav-mass. Now to go find Newton ornaments. It doesn't really matter if they fall off.

keithpeter 13y ago

"...I do use airline frequent flier numbers because the airlines demand to know my identity anyway." "...However, I absolutely refuse to take Amtrak trains because they check passengers ID (sometimes, not all the time)." Are these two statements contradictory, or is there something special about what Amtrak do that threatens privacy more than the disclosure of identity to an airline? This is a genuine question, I have never visited the US. (In the UK, you can still walk into a railway station and buy a ticket for cash without showing ID anywhere within the mainland. You will not be asked for anything other than the ticket on the train unless you are using a Student or Senior Citizen's railcard to claim the discount.) The more I think about the nature of software, the more I find Stallman's views about software freedom compelling.

dllthomas 13y ago
It's hard to get overseas by train.
- keithpeter 13y ago
  True, although we did manage it in the UK. Hard to see how that casts any light on the (apparent) contradiction.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    You managed it over a pretty small hop, compared to what you'd have to do to get anywhere from the US. Anyway, it casts light on the apparent contradiction simply because life is made of trade-offs. The choice to prefer (say) Greyhound (or a personal vehicle) to Amtrak is a wholly different thing than the choice to visit or not visit (say) Indonesia. The same concern may merit the former but not the latter.
    - keithpeter 13y ago
      So it is a contradiction, but one forced by circumstance.

stiff 13y ago

This thread reflects how little HN has to do with hacker culture those days. I read the article and enjoyed very much his description of the process by which he learns foreign languages and how he tries to make maximum use of every bit of free time. Then I went to the comments and saw the batshit comments about ties. Time to rename the site to "Hater News".

shizzy0 13y ago
Hacker News is too much about becoming rich to have much love for Stallman.
- deleted 13y ago
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ecopoesis 13y ago

Is RMS the proto-hipster? He only likes music until it becomes popular. I wonder if he tries to be different so he can be different and unique, and that all his bluster and quirks come from this desire for uniqueness rather than his fight for "freedom."

leephillips 13y ago

Like many brilliant and pure souls, Mr. Stallman can be naive. Here he is uncritically regurgitating other people's political propaganda: http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html

lenkite 13y ago

I wish I could add some gentle CSS3 to his page