Richard Stallman: How I do my computing | Hacker News Reader

Richard Stallman: How I do my computing

stallman.org

54 pointswooby22 comments

There's something very enticing about someone who's principled and has managed to stick to their principles. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it in Stallman's case. I wish the world had stuck to his principles, but it clearly hasn't and it's unlikely it will ever inch closer. That's not to claim that he should reverse course or abandon his position.

It does transform his stance from a political one to a personal one: he's choosing what he'll allow in his life or not, consequences be damned. I've tried this in my own life with varying degrees of intensity and success, and I'm not sure if I'm jealous of Stallman or not. Is he lonely? Has he missed out on people or experiences? (almost certainly) Do his stances give him the fulfillment he believes they do?

> I wish the world had stuck to his principles, but it clearly hasn't and it's unlikely it will ever inch closer

This puts perfectly my thoughts on stallman. I think the world would certainly be a better place if everyone adhered to his principles. However, I think his way is neither the best way nor the improvement which can most successfully be brought into action.

I don't think it is necessary that everyone does things Stallman's way; the fact that rms knows what his principles are, articulates them clearly, and lives according to them consistently provides an informative example from which the rest of us can borrow whichever elements we find useful. We don't all need to live like Stallman does for his ideas to have value, because he's already doing that for us. He is essentially a modern secular prophet.

But -- I can form my own ideas. I don't think that his ideas are anywhere close to perfect. He seems relatively fixed in his ways, so I don't see him contributing to dialogue or discussion of how ideas can be changed or improved.

I do agree some of these stuff. I find C++ ugly too. I pay for everything in cash. For email service, I just run my own; it does not use any webpages at all.

They also mention nonfree JavaScript codes in webpages. Even if it is free, it does not necessarily mean that it is the program that you want to run, and even if it is, you might want to modify the program and then to run the modified version; most web browser software does not seem to consider such thing.

"I did write some code in Java once, but the code was in C and Lisp (I simply happened to be in Java at the time ;-)" - heh

> I reject Facebook because it requires each used (i.e., person used by Facebook) to have just one account,

I'm never sure whether I admire him or think he's a holy fool, but I do like the way he reframes "users" as "used" here.

I honestly believe that in this day and age Richard Stallman's way of viewing computing is haplessly out of touch and no longer relevant.

I say this as someone who saw him talk to my cambridge / boston area university's ACM group, afterwords he bummed a ride from my friend back to MIT. He dismissed most questions from students and while we were riding back in my friend's car (with Richard Stallman in the front seat) he basically didn't answer any questions and just argued semantics.

I love Richard Stallman and what he stands for, but I think we need to re-evaluate how we digest and understand his opinions on computing in current times.

why is that? what makes something relevant? I think just the opposite - it's increasingly relevant, even though I don't follow his ethical system.

how is your single conversation with him relevant? It doesn't seem relevant at all, sample size of 1... maybe it would be if you bothered to tell us what he dismissed.

This last part seems disingenuous, but how so?

I'll grant you this: he hasn't said much that's new and also of interest in the past 10 or 20 years probably. But his past thinking is still extremely relevant.

His solution to "not using Uber because it's a security nightmare" was literally to bum a ride from someone in the audience who happened to be my friend.

He also had this hilarious policy / agreement with ACM to have some kid giving him a new glass of tea every 1.4 minutes or something. It was petty and weird.

How does being weird make his views on computing irrelevant?

> cambridge / boston area university

Is this a long winded way of saying “Harvard”?

Slow clap...

Apparently the Harvard Scandals and high incidents of rape on campus are finally catching up with Harvard, nevermind the awful things its alumni have done: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/fashion/harvard-scandal-a...

Why is this relevant in any context to this thread? Congratulations - you are now on a high horse made of marble.

OP inferred they went to Harvard.

I hope y’all realize this doesn’t make you look more humble, and in fact does the opposite.

I didn't go to Harvard.

Slower clap...

> I skimmed documentation of Python after people told me it was fundamentally similar to Lisp. My conclusion is that that is not so. `read', `eval', and `print' are all missing in Python.

I believe he may be mistaken about this :D

Then again, he's a stickler for definitions. He may have some very specific idea in mind about these functions that the `input`, `eval` and `print` functions somehow don't satisfy

Most people think he is a kook.

I wonder what they will think once we're all on the Chinese-style "social credit" system--if we're even allowed to have our own thoughts by then?

Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Six-Pack, but your insulin refill has been declined.

Why?!

Our records indicate that you ordered chicken for lunch yesterday, and chose fried instead of baked. I'm so sorry. Have a nice day!

Stallman's computing page has been up for years. How is it now appearing on HN?

1. HN accepts new submissions of previously submitted links after a particular period.

2. Someone who was seeing it for the first time thought it would be of interest to HN users.

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