A very interesting "Blogwatch" posting at Computerworld links out to an interview with Richard Stallman wherein he posits that Cloud Computing is a trap to entice users to give up control and privacy and become subject to closed, proprietary platforms. Since RMS is a professional provocateur, I wouldn't consider all of his pronouncements newsworthy. But the thoughtful responses linked in this blog roundup were interesting, and I believe the issue of convenience vs control vis a vis Cloud Computing is a very timely and important debate to be having at this point in IT history.
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Member since:2005-07-07
Member since:2006-01-01
No, I didn't miss it. Richard Stallman can be more jocular than most people like to give him credit for, but that doesn't mean he's not dead serious about his free software ideals.
But since we're discussing the facetious side of Stallman's character, have you read the "Free as in Freedom" book?[1] I was very much caught by surprise in the ending scene of chapter 5, where Stallman suddenly pulls a prank on the waiter when they leave a Chinese restaurant where the interview took place. (And the same fifth chapter also mentions Stallman's jest that "giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance".) It's a funny incident, check it out if you haven't yet read it. ;-)
[1]
http://oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/
Member since:2005-07-06
Where in the world did you get that notion? Richard Stallman is the computing equivalent of that crazy uncle who the whole family is slightly embarrassed of, and who always gets drunk at Thanksgiving dinner, then goes off on rants that end with "...and next thing you know, they'll be trying to take my guns!"
What does it have to do with free software ideals?
Member since:2005-07-24
Nothing, really. At least not directly. It's a matter of political strategy. He's pretty explicit on the matter of his fearing that if it gets called "Linux" instead of "The GNU System" then he loses political clout. He states the matter with a little more sugar coating. But that is essentially what he says.
Edited 2008-10-02 20:41 UTC
Member since:2006-01-01
A lot. There's also a more detailed answer available here:
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html
Member since:
2006-01-01
Nope, I think you're taking Richard Stallman more seriously than he does. Arguing about GNU/Linux is simply a strategy to make people pay more attention to the ideals that the GNU project stands for. Just like in that famous Zen story, you mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon.
Richard Stallman's insistence on asking people to call the operating system GNU/Linux doesn't really indicate he that he would take himself seriously. Instead, it clearly indicates that Stallman takes his free software ideals very seriously. Would a man who takes himself too seriously put a computer disk on his head and call himself Saint IGNUcius?
http://www.stallman.org/saint.html