What is Digg?Sponsored by Activision
Introducing DJ Hero Game view!
djhero.com - Scratch and mix 102 songs in 93 original mixes from today's hottest artists. Available Now.
48 Comments
- ieee, on 09/27/2008, -1/+27I don't think RMS gave us wisdom.
I think RMS gave us a vision. A vision that is much more valuable than Open Source Software. That vision is Free(dom) Software and the reasons RMS gives why it is necessary. Sadly most people even the most valuable OSS programmers do not appreciate it. - zmedico, on 09/27/2008, -0/+17FTA:
"When I started it, I didn't think that things would be getting worse for human rights in general except in the field of software. So it's ironic and surprising that we're making progress in software, while the framework of other human rights is collapsing around us into fascism." - mahadiga, on 09/27/2008, -4/+19Thank you Stallman...for giving us Wisdom.
- jacekpoplawski, on 09/27/2008, -0/+10Thank you, GNU.
I don't like many things Stallman says (I am from Poland and I know what communism is, he doesn't), but the fact is that today many of us can use Free Operating System, and I am writting these words in it.
The most important issue in Free Software world now are open drivers for many hardware - mostly video cards, I am happy to use open Radeon driver from xorg, but many people can't with their nVidia cards or newer Radeon cards.
Let's hope next 25 years of GNU will be even better! - message144, on 09/27/2008, -0/+6This is either a troll or just incredibally ignorant. The GNU OS is the hundreds of utilities and applications that make up the OS.
- Slade605, on 09/27/2008, -1/+6FTA: "Richard M. Stallman. Click to enlarge"
- jamesmcm, on 09/27/2008, -0/+5Without GNU, Linux wouldn't exist. And OS X would be radically different also (it uses the GNU core utils).
- mstrebe, on 09/27/2008, -2/+6It really is unfortunate that rather than embracing Linux as someone who was centered on the concept of free and open software would, RMS has spoken very derogatorily of it and of Linus, as if Linux somehow undermined open-source software simply because it wasn't controlled by RMS. In fact, the only thing it undermined was the ego of RMS. His position on the GPL3 vs. GPL2 debate also shows that he simply wants to dictate and has no real interest in discussion, dissent, or the voices of others.
Linus is my hero. - koko775, on 09/27/2008, -0/+3Of course not; he's an ideologist, not a pragmatist. The truth is somewhere in between, but you don't instigate a fundamental paradigm shift in the way software is written and distributed by being somewhere in the middle.
In a way, we have Stallman's hardline position to thank for making the people releasing their code out in the open moderates rather than radicals. - joshuagay, on 09/27/2008, -1/+4"[...] GNU packages accounts for 14.79% of the 16.5GB of source packages used to build the Main repository of the gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution (deltad). They also constitute 6.69% of the 27GBs of source packages from which the Universe repository is built. Linux weighs in at about 253MB and accounts for approximately 1.5% of the source code needed to build the Main repository. Furthermore, Linux itself is generally built using GNU libraries and GNU tools, and on many systems depends on them being there." http://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2008/spring/wikipedia/
- hiPpymIck, on 09/27/2008, -2/+5i would just like to add
theres nothing wrong with intellectual freedom
or old hippies - slugicide, on 09/27/2008, -7/+10Stallman is constantly advocating sacrificing usability for ideology. He's a hard-left partisan. He's like an oar stuck unmoving while the rest are trying to paddle the canoe. It's more important to him that things move left than forward.
- init100, on 09/27/2008, -0/+2@Xlr8ed
Actually, Linux depends on many features of the GNU C Compiler that are not in any C standard. Is there any other compiler than gcc that can compile Linux? Then can you actually say that Linux would be just fine without GNU?
By the way, don't forget the GPL. Without GNU, there would be no GNU GPL. Without it, it is unlikely that Linux would have become what it is. - inactive, on 09/27/2008, -0/+2"Digg is overwhelmingly Pro-Republican. It's the neocons we don't like"
Funniest thing I've heard all week. - benologist, on 09/27/2008, -0/+2JonForTheWin - you're benefiting from *using* the apps, if like just about everyone that's all you do with software then it makes no difference at all that they're open source.
MWeather - rapid development and open APIs aren't a result of being open source or limited to open source. There are plenty of examples of proprietry stuff out there that have open APIs, the most relevant example being digg itself.
Neither of you have touted any benefit of free as in freedom over the more obviously-beneficial free as in beer. - pablo0713, on 09/27/2008, -5/+7Stallman has been trying to catch up to Linus for decades now. Linus developed a kernel that Stallman was unable to do and he's been bitching about it ever since under the guise of GNU and his lectures.
- Kamujin, on 09/28/2008, -0/+2Maybe his mom put a filter on his interweb terminal that blocks the 4,000,000 Obama articles on the front page of digg each day.
- c8h8r8i8s8, on 09/27/2008, -2/+4Nothing against free software or anything, but I went to a Richard Stallman speech last Spring. The guy sat there scratching his stomach and balls for two hours before he took his socks off and started rubbing his feet. Probably the most unprofessional speech I have ever seen.
- hayalci, on 09/27/2008, -0/+2why ? did he do something to you ?
- benologist, on 09/27/2008, -2/+4Most people just want free as in handout. Free as in freedom is only a feature for a tiny, tiny subset of people, it's hard to appreciate the freedom to modify a program when you don't know how, care or want to.
Also I think he gave us fleas too. Gilette should put a bounty on his beard. - stealthc, on 09/27/2008, -7/+8And Hurd is only at version 0.2.
Maybe by the year 2100 he'll have that GNU OS he's been talking about?
'Til then, Linux. - esc27, on 09/29/2008, -0/+1I have to wonder, given his apparent extremist hate for proprietary software if he would object to live saving medical treatment aided by machines using proprietary medical software...
- MWeather, on 09/29/2008, -0/+1If Obama was running against a Republican, we'd see less Obama articles. Problem is, he's running against McCain.
- daftman, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1> That kernel is what gives you a complete OS for those GNU tools to compose. Otherwise you'd have to use someone else's proprietary kernel.
No without Linux you can still have GNU/OpenSolaris. - MWeather, on 09/27/2008, -1/+2"it's hard to appreciate the freedom to modify a program when you don't know how, care or want to."
You don't have to be able to modify the code to benefit from the freedom to do so. The program itself is the product of this freedom, it's rapid development and plethora of features, open api, etc. are the result. - JonForTheWin, on 09/27/2008, -1/+2I don't know how to code at an advanced level, yet I strongly appreciate the Freedom behind ToR and GNU Privacy Guard when traveling abroad.
- init100, on 09/27/2008, -0/+1"RMS has spoken very derogatorily of it and of Linus, as if Linux somehow undermined open-source software simply because it wasn't controlled by RMS."
Links please.
"His position on the GPL3 vs. GPL2 debate also shows that he simply wants to dictate and has no real interest in discussion, dissent, or the voices of others."
If he hadn't been interested in the opinions of others, he would have written the GPLv3 himself without considering any outside opinions. The fact that the GPLv3 was written in an open process with many comments from outside GNU, many of which made it into the license, clearly shows that you are wrong. - daftman, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1> Until there's a functioning GNU kernel, the system is going to be called Linux.
GNU/Linux - Olfster, on 09/27/2008, -0/+1He is definitely an odd character. I just happen to think the world needs more of them in science. Not, I repeat ,Not, politics and religion, where most seem to end up.
- Kamujin, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1Wrong, because without Linux, there would be no such thing as OpenSolaris. Sun's interest in open source is directly correlated with the failure of its closed source initiatives and the success of Linux.
Not GNU/Linux... Linux.
BTW, ***** you RMS. - EatingPie, on 09/28/2008, -1/+2I am an emacs fanatic, and I benefit from the gnu compilers daily -- they're basically the defacto standard on everything *but* Windows.
Stallman deserves respect, absolutely. But he has made mistakes. The biggest one, IMHO, was when Apple instigated the "look and feel" lawsuit against Microsoft, Stallman said it was so against everything the FSF stood for, they would NEVER release emacs, or any other product for the Mac. You can see the irony here, where Apple now uses an Open Source base OS, and Microsoft has been the most anti-competitive, and anti-Open Source of any company.
I have no idea if Stallman publicly recanted, but he certainly did privately. Emacs actually has a special compile flag just for the Mac's Carbon GUI calls, and Apple uses the gnu compilers in their developer tools.
The FSF has been painted as some saintly organization. But in doing that we don't learn from their mistakes. It's important to remember the good and bad every person -- and every organization -- does to get a fuller understanding of who/what they are. (A lesson we should apply to politics as well!)
Stallman has done great things, but you don't do great things without making great mistakes.
-Pie - Biznarie, on 09/28/2008, -0/+1"The program itself is the product of this freedom..."
The software is not held back by copyrights or other software patents. The coders have freedom to make whatever they want, that's is how the software is a product of freedom. - stealthc, on 09/27/2008, -2/+2On Digg, every section is the political section!
- stealthc, on 09/27/2008, -1/+1Until there's a functioning GNU kernel, the system is going to be called Linux.
- stealthc, on 09/27/2008, -1/+1I guess it is kind of a troll. I'm a little tired of the puritanical insistence on stipulating the GNU part of GNU/Linux. That kernel is what gives you a complete OS for those GNU tools to compose. Otherwise you'd have to use someone else's proprietary kernel.
If RMS is going to nitpick for a quarter century about what a kernel is, the rest of us should get to pick on him for failing to build one, just because he subscribes to a design philosophy that kernels should be more complicated than nuclear reactors.
Without RMS, Free Software wouldn't have its soul, but without Torvalds most of us still wouldn't have ever heard of the idea. - pentupentropy, on 09/27/2008, -4/+4i think people do get it. I think that it has taught a lot of people that we need to be more open. Things like not using personal Yahoo! accounts to try to hide political agendas, etc ;)
- inactive, on 09/27/2008, -7/+7I for one don't give a ***** about "BRINGING DOWN EVIL CORPORATE M$!!!11" or "FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM!" other such nonsense. I use Linux because it has many tools that are very useful to me and better design decisions than Windows.
Reminds me of the Torvalds quote:
"Anybody who tells me I can't use a program because it's not open source, go suck on rms. I'm not interested. 99% of that I run tends to be open source, but that's _my_ choice, dammit." - YaroMan22, on 07/16/2009, -0/+0@init100 - I have no links, but ask anyone working on the GNU project what he *used* to say about Linux before he started trying to grab credit for it by calling it "GNU/Linux" he kept trying to get people developing for the REAL GNU and not Linux.
Edit: Actually, come to think of it, look up a certaing glibc maintainer around 2000, he writes about an update to the library before going on for several paragraphs about the sort of lousy crap Stallman pulls when it suits him, includig falsely declaring Linux a "variant" of GNU.
By the way: Using GNU tools doesn't magically turn an operating system or a system distribution into a GNU variant, which is what RMS (And you.) is arguing. - YaroMan22, on 07/16/2009, -0/+0@init100 - Okay, Stallmanist, tell me... what part of GNU is irreplacable in Linux?
Oh wait, there's replacements for EVERY GNU TOOL in Linux. Sure, GNU may have helped Linux come to being, but lets not confuse Linux with GNU.
Oh, and EGCS, klibs, and uclibc.
GCC is NOT the only compiler that can build Linux. Not by along shot. - YaroMan22, on 07/16/2009, -0/+0GNU is only a toolchain. Toolchains don't define the system, the kernel does.
Linux.
Also, the CORRECT definition of Opearting System is "kernel mode software that manages processes, hardware, and resources."
NO GNU THERE. It's ALLLL Linux modules, kernel, and drivers. - YaroMan22, on 07/16/2009, -0/+0He's still advising theology over usability. Unless gNewSense actually worked as well as any other distribution and someone didn't tell me.
- MWeather, on 09/27/2008, -3/+2Digg is overwhelmingly Pro-Republican. It's the neocons we don't like. Good old fashioned Republicans like Ron Paul are worshiped as heroes.
- inactive, on 09/27/2008, -2/+1Why hide political agendas here? The overwhelming majority is anti-Republican.
- JonForTheWin, on 09/27/2008, -4/+2FAIL
Linux is a kernel - Misterberu, on 09/27/2008, -5/+2GNU rules. Free operating systems rule. His picture... doesn't.
- Xlr8ed, on 09/27/2008, -7/+0Actually you have that backwards....Linux is the kernel and would be just fine without GNU which is just tool set.
- mikerev, on 09/27/2008, -10/+3Good god, they should have a "Click to Remove" link under that Wookie's picture instead of "Click to enlarge"
- TheBogie, on 09/27/2008, -11/+0I just wish he would take a shower every now and then.
And maybe stop talking to potted plants.
And stop sleeping in his clothes, in the office.
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is