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vanschelven

Keep Control of Your Computing, So It Doesn't Control You!

from https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/keep-control-of-your-computin...

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For all his idiosyncratic traits, Stallman was remarkably prescient about many things.

Absolutely, though I think sadly his idiosyncratic traits played against his message (and I say this as a big rms fan).

I think it's similar with the original post. Regardless of how I feel about present-day computing, I think comparing it with war devices designed to maim and kill people, and that can (and do) keep maiming and killing people long after a war is over isn't going to be very effective.

It seems like most of those traits stem from an overall consistency in ethical perspective.

I think Stallman figured out early on how much he valued collaboration over competition, and liberty over authority; and moved on naturally from there.

There’s enough stories about Stallman’s “eccentricities” that aren’t the result of ethical choices. The man’s hygiene is sort of legendary at this point. None of this is to say he’s wrong or argue against his ethical consistency or the admirable fidelity to which he holds to his ethics, but the dude is odd for reasons beyond his choice of email client.

Choosing not to manage hygiene is a pretty common anti-authoritarian move.

Sure, I would argue that good hygiene is a useful tool for liberal collaboration, but that doesn't make his behavior ideologically inconsistent.

Not OP but I think it is good to balance a healthy respect for disregarding cultural norms with a perceived understanding of your outsider perspective and the given cost. I'm a big fan of Stallman and have worked people of similar dispositions. while they provide very clear insight and intermittent productivity spurts, it comes at a huge social cost that in some cases can make or break a team. In the long-term they could be right, but in the short-term it becomes an all-or-nothing crusade. I've been there myself and I've reassembled the pieces of a team after others did the same. Anti-authoritarianism is noble and justified, but it is no rational excuse for poor hygiene if you want to connect with other people and have a non-imaginary impact on the world.

> can make or break a team

I don't think Stallman cares about that nearly as much as you do. He already resolved that problem by making his work about collaboration instead of competition. That's really the whole point of free software in the first place.

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm here to encourage idiosyncrasies. My entire point is that you aren't going to win such a person over with an appeal to authority, because that was their point already.

Prophets are often more than a bit idiosyncratic. It’s a lot easier to really see society from the outside.

And this is why geeks don’t understand why the “Year of the Linux desktop” doesn’t happen - most people don’t care (and neither do I on my phone).

I want the least friction possible when using my computer. As a user, the biggest complaints I have about the App Store were not being able to buy an ebook directly from the Kindle app and other restrictions on buying digital content from the app because of Apple’s rules. That’s a least temporarily been fixed in the US because of the judge contempt order.

As far as the 30%? It came out in the trial that 90% of in app revenue is coming from pay to win games. Why should I care about them?

The small Indy developers are paying 15% - the very few who exist and are successful

I think the difference with geeks is that they're/we're willing to put up with up front one-off friction to avoid ongoing friction.

Gold point! But, the real world is so far gone by now that fully GPLed computing isnt realistic right now. I would first try to push for more users of non corporate OSes for the beginning, let's say more /e/ more lineage more graphene OS users. And maybe cool alternatives to Maps applications like OSMand

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