
Richard Stallman on The Setup - mqt
http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/
======
mitko
I don't believe he uses only his netbook. I think he also uses the public
CSAIL computers at Stata Center in MIT. They have a KDE Linux on them.

I have used them from time to time, and as before logging in, at the username
prompt usually you can see the last user that was on the computer. Many times
it was "rms".

------
andrewljohnson
Typical Stallman... taking everything to the extreme and suffering the
consequences. It's the burden of the idealist.

~~~
mtoledo
I admire his willingness to stand to what he believes.

Also, extremisms aside, he's contributed a lot to the community.

~~~
andrewljohnson
Beliefs are the bastion of the uninformed, and those so set in their ways they
can't take a moment to think things through.

~~~
rbanffy
What you call beliefs, I call principles. It's nice to know he doesn't
compromise them.

~~~
cschwarm
And what you call principles, I call dogmata.

~~~
pingswept
Why not compromise and call them principles, just this once? Principles,
dogma-- what's the difference, really?

~~~
pohl
Because if you compromise they're not principals...ok, bad joke. Mod me down.

~~~
pingswept
I'll mod you up for the joke, but down because it was the same as the one I
made.

~~~
pohl
Damn, I missed yours it was so subtle.

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djm
First time I've come across the setup. Here are some interviews with a few
other HN regulars:

<http://paul.graham.usesthis.com/> <http://aaron.swartz.usesthis.com/>

_why is listed on their mainpage too but his interview seems to have been
removed

~~~
telemachos
_why's link works fine: <http://_why.usesthis.com/>

Drawn and quirky (or precious, depending on your taste or mood) as normal for
_why.

~~~
nzmsv
Hmmm. I think this depends on your DNS provider. This link is broken for me: I
think my ISP does not like hostnames starting with underscores.

~~~
telemachos
Interesting. If it helps or anyone else is curious, I'm using OpenDNS.

~~~
nzmsv
This is really strange. None of the browsers on my machine can access this
URL. But

    
    
      dig _why.usesthis.com
    

returns the correct info.

According to Wikipedia, the use of underscores in hostnames is illegal, but
many implementations ignore this. Anyway, the interview is mirrored here:
<http://viewsourcecode.org/why/#7>

~~~
vsync
<http://www.apps.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.html#sec-6.1.3.5>

Looks like underscores are valid in /domain names/ but not in /host names/.

You'll see underscores used many times for SPF records and in Microsoft's
Active Directory.

Also, when you use dig I'm pretty sure it manually recurses the name server
hierarchy while an application will just connect to your local name server
which might have its own policies.

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motters
It sounds as if he operates in batch mode with regard to communication.

~~~
asb
In 2007 at least, he opted to use a demon to email him pages rather than
browse the web:

    
    
        For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer.  (I
        also have not net connection much of the time.)  To look at page I
        send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page back to me.
        It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time.
    

<http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/>

~~~
radu_floricica
I hope it's a joke. I actually did this some 12 years ago. We only had email
access at my high school, and I used to browse ftp sites by email. With emails
being sent only twice a day. I leaned pretty quickly that all the good stuff
is in /pub... saved me a full day of browsing.

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kqr2
RMS had actually switched to an OLPC XO laptop but then dropped it:

<http://www.bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php>

Does anyone know of a US distributor for the Yeeloong netbook?

~~~
Luyt
+1, that is an interesting article. I read he dropped the OLPC because it
allowed running Windows on it. He expects the OLPC to turn millions of
children into Windows users, and compares Windows to an addictive drug, and
Microsoft to a drugs dealer supplying kids with a cheap first 'fix'. Also,
Windows will not run on his Lemote laptop.

~~~
elblanco
I will personally buy a Yeelong netbook and install Windows on it just so RMS
has no computer to use at all if that's how he swings.

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admp
_"This interview is available under the Attribution No Derivatives license."_

Am I the only one who finds that ironic?

~~~
elblanco
That's because despite his dogged persistence on the FSF GNU bit, he really
doesn't care about Freedom.

~~~
prodigal_erik
You think what he has quite literally dedicated his life to doesn't count
simply because he didn't grant you permission to put words in his mouth?

~~~
elblanco
I think RMS is restricting my freedom to put words in his mouth.

------
axod
I don't understand the god like status given to this guy. He's clearly crazy
and from a whole other world than the one real people live in.

Who really cares if their BIOS is open source or not? Why does it matter? Are
the designs used to make his laptop case open source as well? I doubt it.

~~~
bitdiddle
Oh don't be silly, "real people"? Richard Stallman is as real as it gets. He's
a decent programmer from what I can tell from emacs.

Note that there is a distinction between open source and free software. I
think it's important to not conflate the two, which I see a lot these days (in
the real world :)

I predict 500 years from now people will remember him. They won't remember
Bill Gates. Without googling try to recall who was the richest man in Rome?

All the best

~~~
krobertson
If you go up to any person on the street today and ask who Bill Gates is,
they'll more than likely know who. You average person would have no idea who
Richard Stallman.

If your average person doesn't know who he is today, I doubt that'll change to
being more noteworthy in 500 years.

~~~
pg
The first part is true, but in general the second part is false; in general,
there is a big difference between the people who are most famous in their
lifetimes and those who are most famous later from that period.

~~~
gruseom
Exactly so. George Brandes was orders of magnitude more famous than Nietzsche
in the 1890s. There are countless such examples.

~~~
asdflkj
Is there a name for the branch of history that deals specifically with "pop
culture" of past societies?

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leelin
This reminded me of the Don Dodge GOOG/MSFT transition post. Maybe it was the
displays of platform loyalties, or their perceived backwardness of the
technology habits?

[http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2009/11/thank...](http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2009/11/thanks-
microsoft-hello-google.html)

~~~
bugs
Stallman is pretty steady and unchanging in his habits towards software and
internet access.

------
Mz
I really am not familiar with this man, but comments about his unwillingness
to compromise and questioning his sanity make me think of this quote:

 _The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man._ \-- George Bernard Shaw

~~~
herval
Pretty true indeed - as long as the mad man DOES something. As far as Stallman
goes, he coded emacs (along with other people, afaik), gave a name to a
movement - and lived ever after on complaining, criticizing other people and
complaining some more. If we'd depend on this crazy dude for progress, we'd
all be using "fully open-source" inferior hardware produced by kids in China.
Oh, and most of us would be jobless too, since NO ONE PAYS A DIME FOR FREE
SOFTWARE! Talk about progress...

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romland
_accidentally touching the mouse-pad and moving the pointer, which would be a
nuisance_

Sheesh. One would hope he has better reasons than that for using console. It's
not _that_ hard to configure X to not switch window on mouse-over.

No offense RMS. :)

I didn't know about the yeeloong, though. Interesting device.

~~~
rbanffy
> I didn't know about the yeeloong, though. Interesting device.

It seems to be very slow, has a small RAM and just a couple gigabytes of
storage. I would love the idea of a Windows-proof computer I could use, but
this is still not it.

The larger one looks promising.

~~~
bmj
Which, based on what RMS describes, is perfectly fine for his needs.

~~~
rbanffy
Well... It's not for me. I can't recommend it.

------
sailormoon
Ironic that the only laptop running free software from top to bottom is made
in China.

Pretty cool little computers they make too. Check out this:
[http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=134&id=675](http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=134&id=675)

RMB¥1699, that's about AUD$295 or USD $265.

Or if you prefer the iMac form factor:
[http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=136&id=849](http://www.lemote.com/bencandy.php?fid=136&id=849)

WTF is with the name of that PHP script though.

~~~
elblanco
Right, apparently free software is more important than actual freedom in
Stallman's mind.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Where was _your_ computer built?

~~~
elblanco
Never said I was a Freedom (as in "Freedom") activist like RMS.

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access_denied
Full screen Emacs on a laptop? I wouldn't want a bigger screen than 13' with
that setup.

------
strait
RMS is my favorite computing austerity artist.

The RMS Waltz: That's one, two, three internet connections. Now here's one
Emacs (Gnus is not responding), two Emacs (dired and the tramp), three Emacs
(at this time, Count von Count can be heard laughing in the background).

