Linked by Linux Review on Tue 20th Mar 2012 17:07 UTC
It's been a while since we caught up with Stallman. But a couple months ago we took a look around at what's happening with law, politics and technology and realized that he maybe perhaps his extremism and paranoia were warranted all along. So when we were contacted by an Iranian Linux publication and asked if we would like to publish an English translation of a recent interview they had done with Stallman, I thought that it was a particularly rich opportunity.
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RE[4]: I just don't follow...
by Tuishimi on Tue 20th Mar 2012 22:03
in reply to "RE[3]: I just don't follow..."
Member since:2005-07-06
RE[5]: I just don't follow...
by r_a_trip on Wed 21st Mar 2012 11:40
in reply to "RE[4]: I just don't follow..."
Member since:2005-07-06
but I think by his standards/ideals that makes us unethical.
No, not unethical, but subjugated. Remember, you are using the software and accepting someone elses unethical restrictions. You didn't distribute it to someone else and placed restrictions on someone else.
Stallman is the pure endpoint of the Free Software ideals. I don't think it is possible to be more Stallman than Stallman. So he should be used as a checkpoint on where you yourself stand with regards to software freedom. As with many things, this issue is full of shades of grey.
RE[4]: I just don't follow...
by danger_nakamura on Tue 20th Mar 2012 23:10
in reply to "RE[3]: I just don't follow..."
Member since:2011-06-21
Not only that, but there are some areas... actually a lot of areas, where there is no free software solution. For example, I have a piece of software that allows me to edit/organize sounds from my Yamaha synth on a PC, which takes me minutes to do, instead of the hours it would take to do it directly on the synth. This software is not free, and there is not a free alternative, and I sure as hell don't have the time or expertise to build my own. So I'm just not supposed to use this software for ethical reasons? *pfffffffffffft* Whatever 
Stallman is off his rocker.
Stallman is off his rocker. Only inasmuch as anyone taking a principled moral stand is off their rocker. While I agree with you that no real harm is being done, in a philosophical vacuum you are, by using that software, contributing to the larger problem and helping to remove the impetus to have free software developed that fills that need. An idealist can often have difficulty stepping outside the vacuum, but I'm not sure that this is a bad thing. The world needs idealists.
My own personal philosophy is to use free software when it suits my needs, but to use non-free software when this isn't the case. For example, there are better (as in technically superior) non-free mail programs than Thunderbird, but TB does everything I need it to do, so that's what I use.
That's fine. But Stallman is tackling what he percieves to be a social issue, not meeting of the needs of individuals. As such, from his perspective, this attitude is part of the problem. You are meeting your needs at the expense of the larger potential for social improvement.
Again - not saying that I agree But I can certainly understand where he is coming from.
News
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.More News »
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Not only that, but there are some areas... actually a lot of areas, where there is no free software solution. For example, I have a piece of software that allows me to edit/organize sounds from my Yamaha synth on a PC, which takes me minutes to do, instead of the hours it would take to do it directly on the synth. This software is not free, and there is not a free alternative, and I sure as hell don't have the time or expertise to build my own. So I'm just not supposed to use this software for ethical reasons? *pfffffffffffft* Whatever
My own personal philosophy is to use free software when it suits my needs, but to use non-free software when this isn't the case. For example, there are better (as in technically superior) non-free mail programs than Thunderbird, but TB does everything I need it to do, so that's what I use.