
RMS lifestyle - init0
http://stallman.org/rms-lifestyle.html
======
IvyMike
It annoys me how willing he is to push the externalities of his decisions onto
other people. ("I won't carry a cell phone, but fortunately everyone else does
and I can just mooch off of them"). It's like that friend who won't own a car
but sure as hell will mooch a ride.

This reminds me of a story my friend told me. Back in the early 90's(?) my
friend had his lunch eaten by RMS, several times. I don't think it was
malicious--it was more like if RMS was hungry, would just be happy that
someone was kind enough to leave him something to eat in the AI lab fridge.

It was kind of considered an honor--after all, what were you going to do,
complain, get him angry, and delay the release of Hurd?

~~~
gohrt
Huh. I thought he had a free-libre cell phone at some point.

Anyway, one can buy a throwaway cell phone in cash, and power it down when not
in use, I thought. Like drug dealers do.

Still surveillable, but no more than any borrowed phone.

~~~
jrabone
I discovered a couple of years ago (when my phone, er, met with a nasty
firmware accident) that you cannot buy a phone in the UK over the counter
without also buying a Pay-As-You-Go SIM with a traceable means of payment (ie.
card). They simply refused to sell the phone to me unless I forked over £10
for a SIM I didn't want. Apparently the French are to blame for this little
piece of legislation.

I politely told them that the only reason I was in their shop was because it
was an emergency, and I hoped that they enjoyed their future career packing
boxes for internet retail, at least until they were replaced by robots. Harsh,
but I never said I was a nice person.

~~~
sigzero
> but I never said I was a nice person

No, apparently you're a dick.

------
simonsarris
It's Stallman's own title, but a much more accurate title would be "RMS
Opinions"

I think it's interesting for that reason though, because it doesn't say as
much about his actual lifestyle as it does what he thinks about other people.
For instance:

> As a matter of principle, I refuse to own a tie.

Tells us more about an opinion he's made about other people. If he wanted to
be more descriptive of his lifestyle, he could have said that he was
aesthetically minimalist (or minimalist with accessories in general). Instead
ties become a value judgement, and he sees tie-wearers as "victims" at best.

In fact, though many would describe him as minimalist in lifestyle if they had
to sum it up in a sentence, he doesn't use the term. This piece is really
exclusively opinions.

> When I wait for my baggage in an airport, I always do one of these two. And
> I notice the people around me, feeling anxious and getting nothing done.
> What a waste.

His reasoning in general here seems arbitrary and condescending. If I didn't
know who we were reading about beforehand I'd gander they were prone to being
capricious. I wonder if we should tell him that trains run non-free software,
just like phones.

In general the biggest takeaway I got from this is that he seems to have a
_very_ negative view of almost all other people.

~~~
gohrt
"I refuse to own a tie" is a fact, not an opinion. Much of the following
discussion is an opinion.

He's not a "minimalist", he is a freedom activist. He believes ties impinge on
freedom.

The passenger does not run the train software. The train owner can choose what
kind of software they want to use. RMS's trains (of which he has none) do not
run non-free software.

RMS has thought deeply through these issues for _decades_ , you aren't going
to discredit him with 5 minutes of snark.

> he seems to have a very negative view of almost all other people.

And yet he dedicates his life to improving theirs, even though he could easily
accumulate a few million dollars and retire. I'll take enemies like him over
friends to make an effort to personally attack strangers for having a
principled lifestlye, any day.

~~~
valleyer
> RMS has thought deeply through these issues for decades, you aren't going to
> discredit him with 5 minutes of snark.

OTOH, religion has been pondered well longer than RMS has been alive. RMS is
not going to discredit the Church with 20 years of heresy.

------
kunai
While his eccentricities mirror those of a mad scientist (or really just an
institutionalized person, depending on whom you ask), you cannot deny that RMS
is a genius. His work in free software has enabled much recursive work in the
computer science fields that wouldn't be possible without his contributions.
gcc is without a doubt still the most advanced compiler available today. The
GNU coreutils are nowhere near the simplicity of the old UNIX and BSD userland
utilities, but they improve upon them exponentially, and offer far more ease
of use and efficiency bar perhaps the Plan 9 userland. While I don't use emacs
(VIM junkie), I think emacs is still brilliant operating system, and the
editor is actually finally good enough for daily usage.

While his strict insistence on accurate semantics, such as GNU+Linux versus
Linux and "free software" vs "open source," seems annoying, pushy, and
generally weird, he has valid reasons to back the insistence up.

What reasons do you have to back your criticism of him up?

~~~
interject
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is
in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux.
Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free
component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs,
shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by
POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day,
without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU
which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are
not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part
of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that
allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The
kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it
can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is
normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system
is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux"
distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

~~~
NotUncivil
Just FYI: the text of the parent's post is taken verbatim from a comment RMS
once made but this text is probably best known as the most popular "copypasta"
(reposted text) on 4chan's technology board (called "/g/" from the Japanese
word for "technology"). You shouldn't reply to the poster in earnest.

Interestingly enough, /g/ is obsessed with RMS and the regulars' attitude
towards him is the epitome of a love-hate relationship. The sheer number of
images they've produced featuring him is quite impressive.

------
mwfunk
I see a lot of shock at the negative comments about RMS here. Those who are
appalled at the lack of respect here need to understand that there are a lot
of people within the tech world that have developed very complicated feelings
about RMS over the course of the past 20-30 years.

I mean, sure, a lot of people who don't know a whole lot about him or haven't
had to deal with him over the course of decades might have shallow knee-jerk
opinions on him: they hate him, they love him, or they barely know who he is.
But I suspect a lot of the anti-RMS sentiment that you might see on someplace
like HN comes from a much deeper place than that.

I don't hate the guy, personally, and I do think that the good he's done has
outweighed the bad. I also agree with him on quite a few fronts, to a degree.
However, he has alienated a LOT of people over the years for no good reason
other than his own personality issues and a seeming complete lack of a
reflective nature or an innate sense of perspective or empathy.

I feel sorry for him more than anything else, because I think he's a deeply
troubled guy who unfortunately ended up in a life path that sort of rewarded
him for staying in his deeply troubled state. He's always had lots of admirers
and supporters, not to mention grants and speaking gigs. As a result, he never
had any external forces that might compel him to grow up beyond a certain
point, intellectually or emotionally.

I think a lot of the more nuanced, deep, and well-fermented RMS hate you might
see stems not so much from total disagreement, but rather disappointment from
wasted potential. He's somebody who's had a lot of great ideas from which so
many great things have sprouted, but he's a terrible steward for those ideas.
He ends up making it about him somehow, or takes so many things to such
ridiculous extremes, or justifies his ideas for all the wrong reasons, or
intentionally alienates the people that he should be trying to build bridges
to, that he ends up discrediting the kernels of brilliant truth that are at
the heart of much of his philosophy.

So, there are a ton of people who at one time or another were inspired by RMS
in their larval stages to value freedom and sharing and openness, but grew to
see him as an impediment to those very ideals. I'm one of those people and I
so wish that it didn't have to be this way. I don't think you're seeing people
criticizing his views on ties, so much as you're seeing disillusionment at a
much deeper level with RMS' personal and intellectual failings, which are
pretty broadly on display even when he's writing about trivial things like
ties or hobbies or cell phones.

~~~
hga
An excellent summation.

I'd add a few more things, at least from the 70s/80s (I left the relevant
social circle in the 90s when I left the Boston area):

A near complete lack of personal security and safety awareness and savvy,
which wouldn't matter so much to others except:

No respect for others' relationships with SOs; the ham-handed way he'd hit on
your girlfriend was mostly a bit annoying, best avoided by having your
girlfriend's other SO on the other side of her and you both going into "alpha
male don't fsck with us" physical projection mode ^_^ ... BUT: it put him and
some fellow diners in jeopardy when he hit on a gangster's moll in the late
night Boston Chinatown restaurant the circle frequented (as related to me by a
reliable 1st hand witness).

It was said, albeit denied, that RMS took a technical disagreement with Dan
Weinreb to the point of purging MIT-AI backup tapes, and this was why Dan left
for LLL and the S-1 project. Now, as I note Dan denied this, but the very fact
it was credible during the period Dan was absent tells you how abrasive he can
be in technical matters.

Somewhat troubled, yes (it doesn't make my deeply troubled threshold, at
_worst_ we're talking the personality disorder level of mental illness and to
my knowledge and observation it didn't rise to that level though the '80s),
and note most of these observations are from before he became really famous.

(See my disclaimers here: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5804156>)

------
itafroma
The comments here, are for the most part, incredibly disappointing. I don't
understand the point of bashing a guy, however public, for merely stating his
preferences: I'm sure people could find some of everyone's preferences equally
curious.

Whatever the intent in submitting this to Hacker News was, it's turning into
pointless bullying and should probably just be killed.

~~~
dylangs1030
That's a stretch. If he's allowed to post his opinions, we're allowed to post
ours. The strength of HN is in the dialectic.

He has some clearly _strange_ habits - I wouldn't call him extreme, radical or
militant per se, but he obviously doesn't carry himself like most people.

I don't think the majority of us are trying to diminish his contributions to
the internet community. Rather, we're commenting on how odd he is. That's
_okay_ , it's just humorous in a nutty way.

RMS takes the cynical beliefs people often think when they hear Christmas
music and hate it, and takes it to actually _doing it_ (to provide one
example).

"Ugh, _fuck_ the holidays. I hate always having to spend money on people I
pretend to like."

^Most of us get over it. RMS has the anti-social (I don't mean that in a DSM
or pejorative sense) solidarity to actually stop celebrating holidays. It's
admirable, just weird.

------
dylangs1030
Genius or not, is he a misanthrope? Yes, he has a splendid list of cool things
he's done, and he's a luminary.

But why compile a list of things that basically says, "I generally don't like
people, the things _most_ people do or have, _or_ the silly rituals most
people enjoy."

I can respect his opinions, but he comes across as very condescending...

That said, I do admire how much of a diehard he is about his beliefs. Not many
people actually "walk the walk" when it comes to not owning a _cell phone_ in
today's age...

~~~
rtpg
I try reading this while assuming the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he's
doing it on purpose (it feels like he isn't even aware that he's doing it). It
makes the entire thing easier to read.

~~~
suhastech
This kind of thinking did happen to me when I tried to generate a consistent
world view.

At this point, there are just too many contradictions, I'd rather forget and
simply accept the _absurd_.

For example, being an atheist, I don't particularly believe in holidays
myself. I do enjoy myself with my family even if it mean a few capitalists
make a little more money during the season. On the whole, a meaningless event
makes the whole world happy.

I'm of a fairly open religion (Hinduism). So, there aren't ardent rules you
need to waste time with.

~~~
pjscott
I don't see the absurdity. You like having holidays because you find them fun.
You're happy to go along with religious and/or relentlessly capitalistic
holidays for the sake of expediency, because (as mentioned in the previous
sentence) holidays are fun for you. There's not a single part of this that
doesn't make sense.

~~~
suhastech
I was referring to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism#cite_ref-6>

------
keithpeter
_"...I do use airline frequent flier numbers because the airlines demand to
know my identity anyway."_

 _"...However, I absolutely refuse to take Amtrak trains because they check
passengers ID (sometimes, not all the time)."_

Are these two statements contradictory, or is there something special about
what Amtrak do that threatens privacy more than the disclosure of identity to
an airline? This is a genuine question, I have never visited the US.

(In the UK, you can still walk into a railway station and buy a ticket for
cash without showing ID anywhere within the mainland. You will not be asked
for anything other than the ticket on the train unless you are using a Student
or Senior Citizen's railcard to claim the discount.)

The more I think about the nature of software, the more I find Stallman's
views about software freedom compelling.

~~~
dllthomas
It's hard to get overseas by train.

~~~
keithpeter
True, although we did manage it in the UK. Hard to see how that casts any
light on the (apparent) contradiction.

~~~
dllthomas
You managed it over a pretty small hop, compared to what you'd have to do to
get anywhere from the US.

Anyway, it casts light on the apparent contradiction simply because life is
made of trade-offs. The choice to prefer (say) Greyhound (or a personal
vehicle) to Amtrak is a wholly different thing than the choice to visit or not
visit (say) Indonesia. The same concern may merit the former but not the
latter.

~~~
keithpeter
So it _is_ a contradiction, but one forced by circumstance.

~~~
dllthomas
That's certainly one way to look at it.

------
brvs
If you're curious to know more about RMS for some reason this is fun to browse
through:
[https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developer...](https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developers-
public/2011-October/007647.html)

"I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will
do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up."

I really want to know what horrific experience RMS had with breakfast in the
past such that you can't even mention it to him!!

~~~
aclevernickname
RMS is legendary for not getting up before the crack of noon. "Breakfast" is
for "mornings". he has neither.

~~~
droidist2
Is that really what he means though? Most people use the word "breakfast" to
refer to the first meal of the day (or lack thereof) eaten within a few hours
of waking up.

Also the type of food. If you sleep in on a Saturday until noon, you'll
probably tend to want breakfast food when you first wake up.

The time of day is far behind those two factors for what constitutes breakfast
in popular usage.

~~~
epochwolf
> If you sleep in on a Saturday until noon, you'll probably tend to want
> breakfast food when you first wake up.

It's 9am on a Saturday here and I just ate two slices of cold pizza. Not
everyone desires "breakfast food" first thing in the moring. :)

~~~
droidist2
Of course I wasn't saying that applies in every single case. I even double-
qualified that part ("probably tend to"), but you still responded with "not
everyone." I give up. :)

~~~
brvs
"Among English speakers, "breakfast" can be used to refer to [the first meal
of the day] or to refer to a meal composed of traditional breakfast foods
(such as eggs, oatmeal and sausage) served at any time of day." [1]

Even Wikipedia doesn't have a strict definition. I propose a standards
committee meet to disambiguate this once and for all.

[1.] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast>

------
jetblackio
Sounds a lot like Dwight Shrute from 'The Office'. At least, I found myself
reading this in Dwight's voice.

------
kyle_t
I get the impression that this lifestyle is a very solitary one although it
does seem to be by choice. Which is fine but he seems to make quite a few
assumptions about the way other people live their life and why.

For example:

"However, there is an absurd social pressure on men to wear ties. They do this
as a form of sucking up to the boss."

Perhaps they just like the way they look in tie?

\-------------------------------------------------

Edited to add more context to quote.

~~~
petercooper
I think the post might be old (though post 1998). Tie wearers haven't been the
majority in any tech setting I can think of post dot-com boom (although I have
no experience of academia where they may well remain hot.) I'm a frequent tie
wearer and tend to be the odd one out nowadays even in management-heavy
situations! :-)

~~~
hga
In the relevant Boston area business and social circles in the '80s, a techie
wearing a tie, even to interviews, was pretty much unheard of, so I'm pretty
sure that goes way back further.

If you'd been in those circles in the '80s, you clearly would have been viewed
as eccentric as RMS for being a "frequent tie wearer", but all else being
equal, we would have loved you as much as we loved him ^_^.

------
stiff
This thread reflects how little HN has to do with hacker culture those days. I
read the article and enjoyed very much his description of the process by which
he learns foreign languages and how he tries to make maximum use of every bit
of free time. Then I went to the comments and saw the batshit comments about
ties.

Time to rename the site to "Hater News".

~~~
shizzy0
Hacker News is too much about becoming rich to have much love for Stallman.

------
rtpg
>I first started actually speaking French during my first visit to France. I
decided on arrival in the airport that I would speak only French for the whole
6 weeks. This was frustrating to colleagues whose English was much better than
my French. But it enabled me to learn.

I admire the man for being willing to do that. Best way to learn a language is
to actually use it. I'd say it'd require courage, but I don't know if courage
is a quantity in RMS, he seems to just do what he wants.

I am not aware of _how_ bad his French was at the time though. I guess majorly
inconveniencing those around him is not as important to him (something that
seems to be recurring in these sorts of discussions about RMS).

~~~
dreamfactory
Somewhat reminds me of Eddie Izzard doing a standup tour of France in
rudimentary schoolboy French. (I guess murdering the language to the French of
all people was rather part of the joke.)

------
laureny
Stallman on Harry Potter:

> I don't say you shouldn't read these books. That I leave to the author. I
> only urge you not to pay for them.

Quite the upstanding citizen.

His justification for this is even more bizarre, he accuses JK Rowling of
something hypothetical:

> Suppose that the mistakenly sold Harry Potter books had been ebooks: then
> instead of ordering her fans not to read her books, Rowling could have
> ordered them erased.

and then demanding she apologizes for something she never did:

> I think we should forgive Rowling (or her publisher) when she (or it) >
> Recognizes that this injunction was wrong. > Promises not to do anything
> like it again.

~~~
leephillips
"Quite the upstanding citizen."

In the very next sentence, Stallman suggests that you borrow one from someone,
and in the sentence after that that you use a public library. I think your
out-of-context quote is a dishonest attempt to portray Stallman as suggesting
something he did not. Dishonest, childish, and thoroughly contemptible. I'm
not a Stallman fan by any means [0], but I doubt he would stoop to this level
of dishonesty to attempt to discredit anyone.

The rest of your comment is also wrong and confused, but I can't tell if it's
also from dishonesty or simply stupidity. (If I must: he is suggesting an
apology would be appropriate for a real injunction that her lawyers actually
got, not for "something she never did". For example.)

[0] <http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html>

~~~
laureny
Fair enough, but I still find the philosophy behind it repulsive. "Don't pay
for it, just use the one that somebody else paid for". He follows the same
idea with cell phones, and with food (I've also interacted with him at bars
after conferences and he hardly pays for his drinks either).

If a friend of yours starts showing such behavior, you will quickly cut them
off and think they are jerks. And rightfully so.

------
reedlaw

      I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and
      surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to
      record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be
      remotely converted into listening devices.
    

I find this hard to believe. Wouldn't the extra battery usage make it obvious,
especially on Android devices that can track this as well as network usage at
a very low level? Or is there some kind of hardware-level surveillance
mechanism built in to cellphones?

~~~
timcederman
For phones to function they have to talk to cellular towers continuously. You
can triangulate a location based on the chatter. Phone companies also keep
detailed logs.

~~~
reedlaw
What about being made into listening devices? That would require turning on
the microphone and transmitting the signal without the user noticing. Is that
possible?

~~~
Jach
I don't think it would be that difficult to do without the user noticing. Even
taking a photo or video wouldn't be noticed by a lot of people... I'm reminded
of [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/rat-breeders-
meet...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/rat-breeders-meet-the-men-
who-spy-on-women-through-their-webcams/)

The question is can they do it to everyone frequently, including the handful
of super-nerds out there who love tracing every operation their devices do and
can be certain they don't have some sort of malware? While I don't see the
capability as technologically infeasible, I do think it would be noticed
sooner or later if it was always-on.

If such a feature does exist, then it would have to be used sparingly on
targeted individuals, and even then if it was used to incriminate them such
evidence would have to come up in court (unless they all get the
s/Gitmo/secret prison/ treatment, a big assumption!) and then the world would
know such features exist. Presently I think traditional manners of evidence-
gathering are probably sufficient and people publicly leak all sorts of data
(or have a lot of data logged that can be subpena'd) -- plus every now and
again we hear about some nerd (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5194489>)
reporting they have been bugged. Some people think the CPUs of Intel et al.
have backdoors in them, but if so, there'd be no need to bug computers.

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence... so I don't really take the
government backdoors in everything by default too seriously. I'd need some
sort of evidence showing their existence to change my mind.

~~~
hkolek
> I'd need some sort of evidence showing their existence to change my mind.

Here you go, seems pretty well sourced:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device#Remotel...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device#Remotely_activated_mobile_phone_microphones)

Also: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A>

~~~
Jach
Thanks for those, updated. It's also nice to see that it works as I would
expect: the software isn't there by default but if the government wants you in
particular, they can legally coerce the phone companies to install the
software without you knowing and use that evidence in a trial.

------
zdw
"The Free Software Foundation's dress code says that a propeller beanie is
required, but other clothing is optional. However, we don't enforce it."

Thank goodness for that.

------
znowi
Despite his controversial figure, I very much respect RMS. I may not agree
with his life choices, but his integrity and resolve of the pursuit of his
ideals are at the least inspiring.

It is sad to see the "tieless" generation of beards and freedom slowly fading
and having not found understanding in our time of rockstars and ninjas.

------
klrr
It's sad how people here nit-pick on this. He have done so damn much, and
still you guys critize some silly behavior of his. I think it's mostly
beacuase the frequent readers, contributors and commenters here on HN are
software developers, business people and designers, not hackers...

------
ecopoesis
Is RMS the proto-hipster? He only likes music until it becomes popular.

I wonder if he tries to be different so he can be different and unique, and
that all his bluster and quirks come from this desire for uniqueness rather
than his fight for "freedom."

------
rman666
This reminds me of this important video, in which RMS can be seen taking
advantage of down time to use his computer:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pube5Aynsls>

~~~
belorn
Of course, it can't possible be a video on that computer that shows the dance
so someone who isn't familiar with it can look at it at the same time as
performing it.

Or he just have it in his hand as someone else is carrying a ball cap on his
head. The real question is if it takes away the fun of watching MIT do the
Soulja Boy dance.

------
eksith
You can learn a lot about a man from his CSS :

<http://stallman.org/stallman.css>

------
Xcelerate
Since this is a thread about his personal preferences, I will add my personal
commentary of them.

He seems to hold very strong opinions about certain things, but it appears (at
least to me) that not a lot of thought went into forming these. Some are just
arbitrary ("Not all my shirts are red or purple, but many are. I like those
colors.") and some are just wrong ("I am an Atheist, for scientific reasons").

He's a very interesting fellow though (obviously a genius in his work) and has
contributed a lot to the free software movement. It's nice to see what he's up
to lately.

 _[gonvaled replied to me below; and my reply here]_

I'm not commenting on his belief (or lack thereof), simply from whence it
came. I make that comment regardless of the fact that I am either a theist or
an atheist. My research consists of developing QFT/QM numerically for
simulation, so I can say there is no law of nature that supports his statement
that atheism stems from any scientific reason. Dirac's equation? Nope.
Creation-annihilation operators? Nope. Did I miss an equation somewhere?
Science explains how nature works and provides predictive capacity; that's it.
Do you disagree with that?

Furthermore, I didn't list any criticism of Richard (as I have none); in fact
I gave him two compliments: "genius" and "he's interesting and I like
following what he's up to".

~~~
belorn
> no law of nature that supports his statement that atheism stems from any
> scientific reason.

when people talk about scientific reasoning, I assume it also includes the
scientific method. As such, atheist and it tend to agree that any prevailing
theory should be abandon as soon as a better theory is suggested. This however
is strictly contrary to faith, in that faith is the constant belief no matter
what other theories exist. (also see The God Delusion for an expanded version,
and other arguments of scientific reasoning and atheism.)

~~~
gonvaled
It is more fundamental than that: religion does not offer any falsifiable
claims. It is not that we do not apply the scientific method to it. It is
that, _by design_ , religion is out of bounds of the scientific method.

~~~
olalonde
> It is more fundamental than that: religion does not offer any falsifiable
> claims

Most religions offer plenty. In the Bible for example, age and creation of the
world, the great flood, praying can cure you, God punishes bad people, etc.
The claims that have been falsified are nowadays interpreted as "metaphorical"
stories.

~~~
icebraining
The claims are not really falsifiable, because when you're dealing with a
literal _deus_ †, any premise of the scientific method - such as, floods
affect the ecosystems and leave evidence - is invalidated.

†As in _deus ex machina_.

------
yarou
rms is probably the first, original troll. His very life is the punchline to
the joke of annoying mainstream people.

------
sage_joch
I think he makes a good point about ties.

~~~
nwienert
I disagree with him on ties. I think a lot of people enjoy wearing ties
because they think they look good. It's mens style. Just like how he likes
plain t-shirts. This from someone who almost never wears them, but thinks they
look good in general.

~~~
ics
Aside from fashion, I think a tie generally reminds people of their own
posture. I'm prone to some heavy slouching day in and day out but a tie quite
literally keeps me straight (a bent tie feels... displeasing).

------
hoodoof
I found his linked article on why he has not had a family to be rather sad. A
very bleak outlook on the attainability of love and happiness.

------
drcube
"If I had a family..."

This is sad. Stallman is one of my favorite people (among people I've never
met), and everyone deserves a family of some sort. Not necessarily kids, but
simply a small group of people who he loves, who love him back, and who would
spend his free time with him.

~~~
hga
Sigh, that would be very difficult.

Without going into the personal details, based on my interactions with him in
the '80s I'd say that's not going to happen, especially since he's old enough
it's unlikely he'll "mellow out" until possibly when he gets a lot older.

Maybe, someday, but that's not the way to bet.

------
hoodoof
With all due respect, and acknowledging many other bright people with a
similar situation (i.e Bill Gates), he comes across as being on the
autism/aspergers spectrum.

~~~
pjscott
That's hardly disrespectful -- and Stallman himself has agreed with you,
describing himself as "borderline autistic". The label certainly seems to fit.

------
leephillips
Like many brilliant and pure souls, Mr. Stallman can be naive. Here he is
uncritically regurgitating other people's political propaganda:

<http://lee-phillips.org/StallmanOnFinkelstein.html>

------
DanBlake
"I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance
devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and
many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices."

[citation needed]

~~~
belorn
[1]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_listening_device>

[2]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking>

There, sources for you, through a indirect layer that is Wikipedia. The
actually sources are at the bottom under "References".

------
krapp
Can someone explain to me his rationale for having websites mailed to himself?

~~~
ancarda
Ads, tracking cookies, annoying JavaScript, Facebook like buttons (tracking),
inane comments just to name a few. Modern websites are pretty horrible.

~~~
krapp
Everything but the inane comments I can understand. If you want to avoid
those, you might as well just move to a Tibetan monastery.

It just seems like an odd, circuitous route to take. I would have expected him
to just use Lynx or something.

~~~
emiljbs
I think the "inane comments" one is a joke about /g/, they sent him a mail
asking him to come and visit the site and he responded with something akin to
"I did but there was only inane comments".

~~~
ancarda
Ah, somebody picked up on that. Although, I should point out I generally
cringe when I see a Facebook thread or something similar at the bottom of
every damn page on every site.

------
jmgao
> In general, in any area of art or sensation, there are many ways for
> something to be good, and they cannot be compared and ordered

>Indian classical music (I tend to enjoy Carnatic more than Hindustani)

what

~~~
icebraining
_Good_ and _enjoyable_ and not the same. I enjoy plenty of music that I don't
consider good.

------
auctiontheory
Am I the only one who was reminded of Julian Assange?

~~~
gwern
No; I've thought in the past that Assange and RMS fit into an interesting
category of 'movement leaders who hold back the movement by personal dramaz',
except to be fair, RMS has never sabotaged FLOSS to anywhere near the extent
that Assange seems to have sabotaged Wikileaks.

------
10098
Is this page a substitute for a facebook profile? :-)

------
Zigurd
I had not previously heard of Grav-mass. Now to go find Newton ornaments. It
doesn't really matter if they fall off.

------
bitsoda
How does he reconcile using somebody else's cell phone to make a call if he's
not willing to use one himself?

~~~
icebraining
He doesn't say that owning a cellphone is wrong; he says he doesn't want to be
tracked by using one. Using someone else's doesn't help track that person
(they're being tracked regardless), so why would it be contradictory?

~~~
bitsoda
He seems to have an issue with using any device -- borrowed or owned -- if it
features non free software, like most phones have today.

------
pauljonas
God bless RMS!

------
wiml
Given the title, I was hoping this was narrated by Psy.

------
lenkite
I wish I could add some _gentle_ CSS3 to his page

------
logjam
Stallman's honors and awards for just some of the great work he's done (like
launching the GNU Project, founding the Free Software Foundation, developing
the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs):

1986: Honorary lifetime membership of the Chalmers University of Technology
Computer Society

1990: Exceptional merit award MacArthur Fellowship ("genius grant")

1990: The Association for Computing Machinery's Grace Murray Hopper Award "For
pioneering work in the development of the extensible editor EMACS (Editing
Macros)."

1996: Honorary doctorate from Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology

1998: Electronic Frontier Foundation's Pioneer award

1999: Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award

2001: The Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award for Social/Economic Well-Being
(武田研究奨励賞)

2001: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Glasgow

2002: United States National Academy of Engineering membership

2003: Honorary doctorate, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel

2004: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Nacional de Salta.

2004: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería del
Perú.

2007: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.

2007: First Premio Internacional Extremadura al Conocimiento Libre

2007: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad de Los Angeles de Chimbote.

2007: Honorary doctorate, from the University of Pavia

2008: Honorary doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, in Peru

2009: Honorary doctorate, from Lakehead University

2011: Honorary doctorate, from National University of Córdoba.

2012: Honorary professorship, from the Universidad César Vallejo de Trujillo,
in Peru

2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad Latinoamericana Cima de Tacna,
in Peru

2012: Honorary doctorate, from the Universidad José Faustino Sanchez Carrió,
in Peru.

Source: Wikipedia

But here on _Hacker_ News (of all places), let's instead criticize his
personal preferences on _fucking ties_.

~~~
glurgh
Surely several of these are possible, by any individual, at once.

You can admire and benefit from Stallman's work and achievements, without
necessarily agreeing with all of his positions.

And if someone essentially judges you _morally_ deficient for as much as using
a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on
superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return.

~~~
waterlesscloud
"And if someone essentially judges you morally deficient for as much as using
a cellphone or MS Windows, it's kind of open season to judge him on
superficial things like his choice of ties or personal habits, in return."

No. It's really not.

~~~
glurgh
I think it is. If you make such a tremendous claim (and it is one), you're
likely to hear some counterclaims. Even if they are 'your singing totally
sucks'

[http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-
impossi...](http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-with-rms-is-
impossible.mp3)

------
kmasters
I hesitate to add to this conversation if thats what this is. I've seen alot
of comments saying that "if RMS can post his opinions then we can post ours"

Thats completely true, its also completely juvenile and unnecessary.

RMS is a controversial figure, but I dont think this debate over something as
(by comparison) trivial as "What madonna requires backstage before a concert",
has any productive value.

You can justify your own judgements of him based on what you perceive his
value judgements of others to be all you want.

At least he's willing to be honest about who he is.

20-30 years of baggage or not, leave the guy be and go do something to make
the world a better place.

------
dos1
Dude is so strange. I mean seriously, who knows that much about that many
kinds of esoteric music? It's like he wants to be contrary to the rest of the
population on purpose.

~~~
dos1
Edit: Fuck you HN. RMS is an extremist. I should hope that most of you have
the critical thinking skills to realize that his extremism is just as
dangerous as Timothy McVeigh's.

Edit 2: Honest question, how can I delete my account on HN? I've come to
realize (sadly) how many hours I've wasted on this bullshit. PG, please ban
this account.

~~~
fixxer
Until he parks a truck full of explosives outside a federal building and kills
168 innocents (including 19 children under 6), I think not.

Now, pipe down and let the adults speak.

~~~
dos1
Yeah, because body count is the only comparator that matters. Extremism is
extremism. RMS is an extremist. I want nothing to do with someone who is
incapable of empathizing with the other side.

~~~
koide
Oh, I get it, you're an anti-extremism extremist. You should try to empathize
with RMS.

