Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 24th Sep 2009 13:35 UTC, submitted by Hiev
Mono Project If you don't like personal, blog-style reporting, you might want to skip this item. A few days ago, during a speech at Software Freedom Day in Boston, Richard Stallman has, at least in my book, crossed a line that I thought he would never cross.
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theTSF
Member since:
2005-09-27

RMS is so focus on "Pure" Open Source Software that he has lost all aspects of proportion.
His latest rants on SaaS and Cloud Computing, and now Mono. Is just to show how stuck in the 80's and 90's he is. He wants to toss out any ways to improve the impression of open source software that he didn't come up with.

javiercero1 Member since:
2005-11-10

He is a purist, and his opinions are out there. However, I give the man his due... and to this day EMACS and GCC for example are pretty usable, and have a big deal of quality to them. I can not say the same for the convoluted mess that GNOME is, and don't get me started with mono. So maybe these projects would also benefit from their very own "purists" to at least give them some sort of direction.

A lot of people think that the main problem with FOSS is that they are copying other people's technologies. I beg to differ, the main problem with FOSS is their piss poor quality and lack of consistency/standardization, mainly due to the lack of actual strong leadership/vision.

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David Member since:
1997-10-01

This pretty much sums up out out of touch Stallman is: he does not really use the web. He has some crazy-ass wget-to-email method for reading web content. I learned this when I was corresponding with him on some open source related topic years ago. But he isn't really operating in the same technological reality that the rest of us are. I found this interesting article:
http://lunduke.com/?p=725

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 4

Hiev Member since:
2005-09-27

This pretty much sums up out out of touch Stallman is: he does not really use the web. He has some crazy-ass wget-to-email method for reading web content. I learned this when I was corresponding with him on some open source related topic years ago. But he isn't really operating in the same technological reality that the rest of us are. I found this interesting article:
http://lunduke.com/?p=725


I can't believe what i just saw, so nasty, eww.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

TheBadger Member since:
2005-11-14

RMS is so focus on "Pure" Open Source Software that he has lost all aspects of proportion.


Hello? It's Free Software. If you aren't aware of the ideological difference and think a belated prefixing of open source with the word "pure" gets you to the same place, you should catch up on your reading.

His latest rants on SaaS and Cloud Computing, and now Mono. Is just to show how stuck in the 80's and 90's he is. He wants to toss out any ways to improve the impression of open source software that he didn't come up with.


Stuck in the 80s and 90s with cloud computing? In fact there are parallels with previous decades, although you may not be able to articulate them: the centralisation of control, use of mainframes vs. personal computers. What goes around comes around and is eventually learned the hard way by those who couldn't be bothered to take the history lesson in the first place.

Stallman's arguments against centralised infrastructure (which you don't control) are rooted in fact and reason; his critics' criticism of him is rooted in excessive use of words like "extremist" and those which question his sanity. And having been proven right several times (look up Bitkeeper while you're reading up on the difference between Free Software and open source), I'll take Stallman's opinion over yours (and the rest of the peanut gallery) any time.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 6

clei Member since:
2008-10-04

RMS is so focus on "Pure" Open Source Software that he has lost all aspects of proportion.
His latest rants on SaaS and Cloud Computing, and now Mono. Is just to show how stuck in the 80's and 90's he is. He wants to toss out any ways to improve the impression of open source software that he didn't come up with.


Cloud Computing is an *IMPROVEMENT*?

Well, if you're a Windows Shareware/Commerical Software Vendor, it would be since you could more easily contract to hold people's data hostage...

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2