Okay Stallman, we get it!
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| gru May 28, 2015 1:24 PM EDT |
I wonder if I'm the only one here who thinks this but... Yes, GNU/Linux as we know it today would not exist or would not be as far advanced as it is without the many wonderful tools that Stallman built for GNU. But Stallman released these tools freely (as in freedom), and as expected they were incorporated into other projects on top of Linux and under other user applications. When people say "I'm a Linux user", they mean that they use a distro that contains the Linux kernel, some GNU tools, and various other applications and tools that run on that architecture. What Stallman wants is for everyone to say "I'm a GNU user" instead, I get that. But I'm not going to do that, and neither is 90% of the FOSS community either. Stallman is upset over what amounts to the use of a commonly identifiable brand name to refer to a complex collection of things, and that it's not his own personal brand name being used. The fact of the matter is, if Debian or Fedora had decided to rely solely on GNU and wait for the Hurd kernel in order to build out their distros, where would we be? What if every distro shared Stallman's ideology 100% and snubbed the Linux kernel because of its binary blobs? I can tell you this, I would probably not be running Linux Mint 17.1 on my home computer right now. |
| BernardSwiss May 28, 2015 4:33 PM EDT |
Agreed. But... When you get down to it, how much of this is actually Stallman's supposed mono-mania, and how much is just an artefact of the way the media works, picking and focusing on what it thinks is the most interesting or most colorful, or simply most easily narrated, story? |
| albinard May 28, 2015 5:37 PM EDT |
@ BernardSwiss: +1 |
| JaseP May 29, 2015 9:38 AM EDT |
When it comes to Stallman, he is always, unequivocally 100% correct. Unfortunately, being correct is not always the most important thing. He's right in that people who use proprietary software are suckers. But unfortunately, given the capabilities of 100% free software, like say Navit, and comparing it to Google Maps,... Maps wins hands down... Will Navit ever be where Maps is today (or more importantly, be on par with it at some point in the future)? Maybe. KDE, Gnome (2.X), XFCE, etc. are easily on par with commercial desktop GUI interfaces (in some ways better,... in some ways worse),... But it took the better part of a couple of decades to get there. So,... Stallman's always right,... But,... He's Stallman. So, people are going to tune him out. And then there's what BernardSwiss said,... |
| gru May 29, 2015 10:40 AM EDT |
Wow I've been had! Just read the original article cited in the Guardian. Softpedia took Stallman's words hilariously out of context. See if you can derive an entire article like Softpedia's from this passage: "In 1983, the software field had become dominated by proprietary (ie nonfree) programs, and users were forbidden to change or redistribute them. I developed the GNU operating system, which is often called Linux, to escape and end that injustice." Every once in awhile I like to think about where the FOSS community would be without clickbait sensationalist journalism skewing issues and spinning topics out of thin air to misdirect and distract community members, all for the equivalent of $0.15 for every 25 pageviews. Then I have to stop because I get so angry that I headbutt my own face. |
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