smonff

>Stallman has never shown the slightest interest in making software that the general public can modify, or in designing, promoting, or doing anything at all to encourage the existence of such software.

Define "general public". As far as I remember, Stallman was a MIT hacker working on stuff like compilers. It is not exactly the kind of thing the "general public" want to know about.

He did some significant parts of Emacs. 30 years after it's creation, this piece of software still exists, has been modified by thousand of people, including non-programmers.

Stallman is not only a software hacker. He is a "hacker", and hacked a piece of law that is a serious little trick that actually created a revolution. Torvalds hacked on the hardware/kernel part under the basic law hack and things started. That's a real success!

The arguments about terminology "GNU/" VS "Linux" are fun but I think we underestimate the law hack.

>More freedom to who?

In the same way that a a very inexperienced french candidate for presidency is claiming that he will "liberate France by the work", ear "deregulate the working laws and make possible for companies to get rid of the employees whenever they want without any compensation". Freedom for employers.

>And how did his political rants help the FSF (and the Free Software movement as a whole) lately?

It's ridiculous. His political statements at rms.org are clearly separated from the FSF stuff. The guy is free to think what he like, practice dance or whatever would please him. And actually his political views are quite coherent with the political ideology of the Free Software movement. And in the same time you cannot remove the fact that he actually created the FSF and GPL.

>He doesn't let the FSF be larger than him. Who's their 2nd in command?

I read the FSF news and information bulletins since something 2016, I don't remind receiving things "signed by RMS". Do you really think that this guy is obsessed by being the number 1 and that there is a number 2? This is a non-profit organisation, with people working for a cause, not a tyrannical political party with people fighting for power.

Criticizing Stallman of the "GNU/"Linux precision is like criticizing a plumber of using pipes.

The guy is just doing it's job and he is doing it quite well!

I find it interesting that the author also mentioned pieces of scrap paper and that some pencil-on-paper have been chosen as illustration for this post: I regret to always conceive things on my computer, because I know that there are special things in the creative process that are easier to drop on a piece of paper than on a file.

But for the final presentation as these codified movie scripts, you better produce something very clear.

Only something like 1/3

Something around 30℅ https://stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2016#tec...

Why having Windows pre-installed when you are sure you won't use it? More, it is very rarely an option available to not get it: I would find interesting that it could be opted-out so people with low budget could skip it and pay less.

If you need to buy plane tickets, it is also recommended.

It looks a bit weird that there is not more Apple products. These devices seems to be very popular, why is there so few talks about them?

Also, sometimes, some activists can deliberately use a mailing list as a public expression channel because it is important that these things can be eared by everybody.

I see it as sticking posters in the street. There is no reasons to use Facebook or Google Groups for most of the Riseup (public) Lists users, not because they want something secret and hidden, but because they don't want to play with some companies rules and appreciate to be a part of a network run by volunteers more than to use profitable fake-free services.

Because it makes sense, not because it is more or less secure.

I would add that Riseup don't claim to be the best on security or privacy.

> Riseup provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change. We are a project to create democratic alternatives and practice self-determination by controlling our own secure means of communications.

This is what they claim on their homepage[1]. Tools built by people who believe in a certain philosophy for people working on "liberatory social change".

They try to operate and control their tools. They don't claim that they are "the-most-secure-email-provider".

They claim to work on what they call "Network Security"[2] (traffic encrypting and providing services outside of the tracking bubble), and define other fields of security ("Human Security", "Device Security", "Message Security"), that the user can improve himself by education. They provide means of education for this.

This is an alternative. Gmail is maybe more "secure", or maybe not, but don't claim these kind of social changes. Gmail is "free" and commercial. Riseup is not free and volunteer-run.

[1] https://riseup.net/

[2] https://riseup.net/en/security/#security-overview

edits: typos

Oh, no!

Firefox was supposed to be "slow" and they are trying to fix it radically with projects like e10s and Quantum.

If the browser is able to eat my RAM a bit less, I would be quite happy to have my add-ons off for some time.

The way Google made us used to transform an email box as a storage and backup place is terrifying. Sending 2Mo attachments become a norm[1] and lots of people consider having their life stored there.

It just seem not sustainable. If you would do this with paper in the past, your place would just be full of junk. Our cloud life is an horrific stack of garbage. We just don't need most of the things we store, keeping everything as proof of evidences for a potential event that will surely never happen, as if we were all super important targets of an improbable crime scene.

I hate this ideology. Thinking about getting out of it is perfectly sane.

[1] Yes I know storage is cheap, but then forget about ecology and climate change control, I have no proof of this but can't believe that all the Google servers of the world don't have an impact, even if it seems quite clean

Self storage is fine but does it guaranty long term documents safety?

I am very sceptical about my ability of maintaining it on the long term.

Sure, but Emacs didn't became Emacs without it's specific freedom ideology. Sorry, but I find it weird to forget about it.

For a Facebook employee, there is many other ways to speak about Emacs than on a closed platform.

In North Korea, I am not sure they have many alternative if they want to chat about freedom of speech.

Though, I appreciate that you compare Facebook to North Korea.

I am chocked that somebody that can be so involved in Emacs can share it's ideas on Facebook.

It would be a big failure for Emacs.

Talking about Emacs on Facebook is awful. As if the thing was "only a text editor" and not a symbol of freedom...

He will soon understand and fill his place with keyboards.

Yes. Thanks for clarifying.

Peers recognition.

I just come back from California, were I found the food very good, especially vegetables, fruits and beer in comparison with French products. Didn't know about the cheeses though.

You can spend 100℅ off you time to think critically at art school. So some people will really manage to become some good thinkers or critics.

But it is not a scientific field. Even scientists (sociology for what I know) working on these fields are attacked for the lack of scientific methodology.

> I'm honestly curious - through your best effort were you unable to tell this comment comes off as pompous and condescending?

Not worst than the writer of the article who present himself this way:

    I am a creator.

Art school provide a wonderful playground of networking. This could be the price to pay. Problem: with networking, you cannot be sur that because you paid the fees it will help you with your "career" (if it can be called this way in the art world).

Anybody pretending that it's possible to do art without being a "nose-browner" lies.

Anybody pretending to be a "creator" often forget to cite his/her sources and influences.

I am not very astonished that, in a domain like art, that stays a dedicated way for higher classes to demonstrate their superiority by owning costly art, prices can be so high for education. But I don't call it an art school, I call it a bank.

In France, art school are free. Wait... The costs are paid by the state! The costs for education that you mention are sick. It would cost Americans less to relocate to Europe and they could eat good cheese.

100% agree with that.

I graduated an art school in France. You don't have to pay for that, the fees are extremely low (you can pay it by working 3h a week as a waiter). So the problem is surely elsewhere than around the financial problem.

The social part is the trickier one. The art school gives you access to a wonderful networking playground, and you discover very quickly that attending vernissages and parties are mostly as importing as "working" on your art.

If you come from a rich family, it will help, not because you will be able to pay the school fees, but because you will be able to play with the social codes for this. Check Pierre Bourdieu for more about this and the social construction around "distinction" and "reproduction".

Even with all this you are still not sure of anything. Most of the artists didn't even attend an art school.

It just means: "You are not a part of the club".