Stallman doesn't use a web browser | Hacker News Reader

Stallman doesn't use a web browser

lwn.net

39 pointsiamelgringo21 comments

To all sarcastic commenters:

Hey, dudes: he built a bunch of cool and famous software, some of which you are using without paying a dime for, and even making money with.

He has no blog. Can't be found on Facebook. Apparently doesn't even like surfing web. But there is a wiki page about him and he gets recognized while walking down the street.

His name is Richard Stallman. What is YOUR name? What have YOU built?

Ahh the cult of celebrity. No longer confined to the big screen!

What, he can't be brilliant and famous while also being a weirdo? This is like Daniel Day-Lewis' cobbler stint.

Indeed! And I think Stallman comes off OK in the full referenced OpenBSD-related thread, too. He's precise and peculiar, but calm and consistent, while the people responding to him get quite pissy.

That's still an ad hominem.

And remember, through all of this emailing-a-server-to-get-the-page-emailed-back ordeal, he doesn't use an on-line email reader either! He downloads new messages in a batch and reads them off-line. He then writes responses that get uploaded and sent off in bulk later.

At least, that was the way it worked last time I read about it.

I wonder if he's using UUCP?

Why should we care?

I liken Stallman to a fanatical religious person. Although intelligent, they're completely out of touch with reality. Stallman has brainwashed himself with ridiculous beliefs.

Don't drink the (un)Kool-Aid too!

Gnul-aid?

Perhaps because he has accomplished a great deal and may have some advice for those who wish to as well? Seriously, he is out of touch with reality because he doesn't waste his time browsing the web?

He does crank dat while waiting for the wget bar to finish.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/bos/533096562.html

And Donald Knuth doesn't use email. Maybe there is a lesson here? Hint: timewasters, interruptions, multitasking vs productivity...

There were 4 rooms for my first C++ class at uni: 3 with brand new Pentium II's and 1 with the old (and slow) 486's. No wonder, nobody wanted to be in that latter room for the exam at the end of the semester. So the teacher had to randomly dispatch people in those 4 rooms.

Funny surprise: the results from the 486's room were slightly better (than the results in other rooms). Hypotheses: people in the 486's room were thinking twice before launching the slow compilation (leading to less compilation errors), as opposed to launching it often in other rooms (with probably more compilation errors). Bottom line: increasing the focus reduces waste of time.

This phenomena is mentioned in The Mythical Man Month. An interactive debug session is three times more productive than batch submissions. However, when access to computational power becomes too easy, people fiddle aimlessly without a directed plan.

And I thought it was crazy that he didn't use a cell phone ("personal tracking device"... as he calls it)...

Gotta love him.

That's why you stole his username? :P

I'm sure you know the story, but for the benefit of the newbies:

It is supposedly: 'Rupert Murdoch Sucks'.

I don't think he needs it... but he'd have something to say about your use of the word "steal".

Stallman is such a weird dude. I once heard he's afraid of plants.

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