
Richard Stallman's Computer Setup - rdp
http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/
======
spenrose
Stallman reminds me more of Steve Jobs than anyone else does:

    
    
       - 70's wunderkind
       - simple, clear belief about what computing should be
       - realized his vision, creating permanent improvement enjoyed directly or indirectly by every computer user
       - uncompromising in his determination to control his environment
    

Personally I believe he has some major blind spots -- so did Jobs. The failure
of this community to hold him in comparable regard is just that, a failure.

~~~
paulhauggis
"70's wunderkind"

It's obvious he hasn't updated the technology in his house since the 70s. I
still can't believe how he is browsing the web.

"simple, clear belief about what computing should be"

He pushes his own version of freedom upon the world at the expense of their
freedom.

"uncompromising in his determination to control his environment"

Exactly. Personally, I'm glad he is becoming less and less relevant. Stallman
is nothing more than a software dictator.

~~~
yummyfajitas
Could you explain how Stallman is a "software dictator", or how his own
version of freedom comes at the "expense of their freedom"?

~~~
antoncohen
> Could you explain how Stallman is a "software dictator", or how his own
> version of freedom comes at the "expense of their freedom"?

Richard Stallman believes in the freedom of software, not the freedom of
individuals. The GPL ensures that _software_ is always free, by restricting
what you as an individual can do with it. To him software being free in more
important than a persons freedom. The BSD/MIT/ISC licenses give full freedom
to people, including letting people make the software non-free, that is the
freedom of choice.

I personally believe in the freedom of people. I believe people should be able
to make their own choices, even if I disagree with them. That to me is true
freedom. Richard Stallman believes that everyone should do things his way,
that people should not be allowed to choose to do things differently. To me
that is a form of fascism
(<http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fascism>).

~~~
muuh-gnu
> Richard Stallman believes in the freedom of software, not the freedom of
> individuals.

Stallman believes in freedom of indivisuals, _including_ the freedom of
individuals down the stream. The BSD increases only your (egoistic) "freedom"
to cut off other people from water supply, while decreasing everybody elses
freedom to get to the water source, so it maximizes only one single peak of
freedom, while everybody else loses. The GPL levels the access, it maximizes
the total amount of freedom available in the ecosystem.

> That to me is true freedom.

According to that logic, a democracy is "unfree" because you are not allowed
to turn it into a dictatorship, which is the "true freedom" then.

~~~
paulhauggis
"Stallman believes in freedom of indivisuals, _including_ the freedom of
individuals down the stream. The BSD increases only your (egoistic) "freedom"
to cut off other people from water supply, while decreasing everybody elses
freedom to get to the water source"

This isn't true. If I make changes to an app and don't release the changes,
the only think you don't get is my changes. The water source is still
available for all.

"so it maximizes only one single peak of freedom, while everybody else loses.
The GPL levels the access, it maximizes the total amount of freedom available
in the ecosystem."

If the GNU were truly free you wouldn't see so many GNU violators being taken
to court. The GNU is about as free a s copyright. If you consider that
freedom, then yes, it's free.

I would say just don't use GNU software if you don't believe in the licensing,
but it's not that easy. The GNU is like a bomb about to explode. As a business
owner, if one of your employees uses any GNU software in a commercial app and
you have any sort of success, it could be the end of your business if you are
forced to release the source. Why? Because someone can and will compile and
release it for free, circumventing all of your commercial licensing.

------
sek
Well, not the best way to expand your horizon.

When he would use things like the iPad from time to time, he would understand
that convenience is the biggest threat to open source. Nobody cares how free
Stallman's device really is. When he would speak for better open source
devices, he would actually make progress. Right now is Shuttleworth advancing
the free software movement to be accessible for everyone.

Reminds me of these ultra leftists, who declare their own government and live
without electricity and fresh water. What do they achieve in the big picture?
They do this just to feel better themself.

Linus Torvalds is the man who made everything possible. Google/Facebook would
never have existed with a Hurd kernel and Git is now the big accelerator of
open source. Stallman started it, but what did he achieve significant in the
last 20 years?

~~~
thurn
Google and Facebook would _never_ exist the way they do today without the free
software movement. Both of them rely on a huge stack of open-source
technology. Stallman's ideas are what makes it possible for a college kid to
run a web startup today essentially for free.

~~~
lazerwalker
I think sek's post was more along the lines of "but what has he done for me
lately?"

Right now, for every piece of open software that has enabled all kinds of
world-changing good things, there's a dozen situations where open software is
not a viable solution when compared to the closed alternatives for a wide
variety of reasons, unless you're explicitly choosing to use only open
software as a show of support for an ideological cause. What frustrates me
about Stallman is that he spends his time lecturing people about why they're
bad people for not using open software, instead of actively working to make
open software a more appealing solution more of the time.

~~~
tikhonj
Have you ever listened to his talks? I have read a bunch of what he has
written (mostly transcripts of talks) and did not get that impression. His
main point is not that you are a "bad person" for using proprietary software--
rather, it's more like you are the _victim_. Now, he _does_ believe you should
not use proprietary software, but because it's abusive and takes away your
rights. Finally, I could see getting the impression that people _publishing_
proprietary software are "bad", but that's a different story altogether.

Also, we're mostly developers here. Barring a few fields (things like .NET and
iOS), free software _is_ the best option for development. So while an artist
using exclusively free software may be making a sacrifice, I have actually
been _much_ more productive on Linux/Emacs than I ever was on OS X or Windows.
It's really a win-win situation.

------
rudiger
You have to give the guy some credit; Stallman believes in the free software
movement, fights for it, and refuses to compromise his rights or values.

~~~
jorgecastillo
Don't take this the wrong way but I personally feel that the GPL is not a free
software license, I feel it's a community software license. BSD is a free
software license, BSD code is truly yours, you want to create a proprietary
fork you can do it, you want to create a GPLed fork you can do it, you want to
expand the BSD code base you can do it. One thing I really love about BSD
licensed code is that I feel like I own it, best of all this doesn't stop
anyone else from feeling the same.

~~~
slowpoke
_> you want to create a proprietary fork you can do it_

Why should you be allowed to take away the Freedoms of others? The one thing
the GPL restricts is your Freedom to restrict the Freedom of others. That's
the foundation of copyleft: your rights stop where mine begin, and that
includes being granted the four Freedoms of software as defined by the FSF.

In an ideal world, we would not need the GPL. Everyone would have realized
already that it is in no one's prolonged interest to make proprietary
software, and it would be frowned upon to do so. We would have implicit CC-BY
(or -Zero) for everything and be done with it. No more copyright and licensing
crap.

~~~
ceol
_> Why should you be allowed to take away the Freedoms of others?_

No one's freedom is being taken away when you create a proprietary fork. They
are not forced to use your software, and the original is still intact. You do
not automatically have a right to someone else's creation.

I don't mind paying for software, and I don't mind if they don't let me see
their code the same way I don't mind when my local restaurant doesn't let me
inspect their kitchen just because I want to.

~~~
slowpoke
_> No one's freedom is being taken away when you create a proprietary fork._

You're free to make forks for your own personal usage and never give anyone
the source. You don't even have to tell anyone that you did.

As soon as you share that software with anyone and refuse to hand over the
source, and deny the recipient the right to modify and/or redistribute your
program, you _are_ taking away that person's Freedom.

 _> You do not automatically have a right to someone else's creation._

Then why do you insist on taking someone else's creation and basically make it
your own by taking away the Freedoms granted to you by the original creator?

If find it highly unethical to want access to Free Software without having to
actually contribute to it. It's demanding rights without wanting to have to
deal with the responsibilities that come with those rights. It's selfish and
greedy.

 _> I don't mind paying for software_

Except money's got nothing to do with Free Software. It's explicitly stated
that you're allowed to charge for distributing copies. I'm sick and tired of
this "argument". It pops up every time Free Software is discussed here and
elsewhere, and the only thing it proves is that the person bringing it up has
not understood what Free Software is about in the first place.

~~~
tzs
So let me see if I have this straight. If I write some code and do not give it
to you or anyone else, I have not taken anyone's freedom away.

However, if I give you a binary of the code, but do not give you source, I
have taken your freedom away?

For that to make sense, there must be something you could do before I gave you
the binary that you can no longer do. Please name what that thing is.

~~~
bmj
In cases like this, I prefer to equate Stallman's idea of freedom to Illich's
idea of conviviality--a convivial empowers the user, and gives her the ability
to mold it and use it as she sees fit. If you just distribute only a binary,
you aren't distributing a convivial tool. When we lose control of the tools we
use, ultimately we lose some of our freedom.

~~~
pooriaazimi
But, no one is forcing you to take and use my tools. You can take it or leave
it – that's your choice. I grabbed this open source code and made some changes
to it. I can give (or sell) you my modifications if you want. If you don't
want, then you can reverse-engineer my implementation and use that (just like
what GNU/Linux guys did). I'm not taking your freedom away – I'm giving you a
choice.

------
crististm
When this link appears on HN I make a quick diff on two things and none of
them change: what Stallman uses and what the comments are (I can make a bet
I'll see comments about his mail forwarded web pages). And there are also
comments about how GPL is restrictive and BSD is not...

But hey - this guy has principles and sticks to his guns. I respect him for
that and I don't give a dime if he uses a one inch display on a PC with 64K of
RAM

------
JoshTriplett
Sadly, this didn't actually provide the details of the most interesting bit of
this setup: a separate system that receives URLs via email and emails back a
text version of the webpage, which allows integrating browsing into an almost
entirely offline batch-processing setup.

~~~
there
He probably e-mails his assistant to do it, just like he speaks out against
cell phones but will just ask to borrow someone else's.

<http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/rms-cell-phones>

Edit: according to <http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html> he does use
normal web browsers from time to time and even has a Twitter account for
posting comments on websites. For text articles, his script probably just runs
something like "lynx -dump" on the URL and e-mails it back.

~~~
jrockway
RMS said he would ask someone nearby for a phone, not necessarily a cell
phone. Landline phones don't use software, they're a microphone connected to
some wires. But you can't exactly carry one around with you.

Not sure why John Gruber cares about this, but...

~~~
Czarnian
These days, if you ask someone for a phone and you are more than a few feet
away from a landline, you're asking for a cell phone. To say otherwise is
being disingenuous.

To me, it demonstrates a far less altruistic motivations.

~~~
keenerd
> To me, it demonstrates a far less altruistic motivations.

He does not have a problem with cell phones. He has a problem with the fact
that if you use the same cell phone repeatably, you give up a large portion of
your privacy though all the meta-information that can be collected.

To make a simple analogy: RMS's cell phones complaints are the same as his
compaints about the CharlieCard system that lets you pay for rides in the MA
public transit system.

If someone gets your card, they can find when and where you entered/exited
trains. So RMS uses a card swap system where a pool of people exchange cards.
This muddies the waters enough to make tracking your movements much harder.

~~~
Czarnian
What he's doing is leeching off of other peoples resources. A swap implies
that he's letting other people use his phone, which he's not.

~~~
eurleif
The GP said he's swapping the cards, not the phone use. He is using other
peoples' resources without giving back with the phone use, I guess, but so
what? I've let people borrow my phone before, and I don't really care if
they've paid it back or not.

~~~
Czarnian
Don't blame me for his bad analogy.

------
brudgers
> _"Once or twice or maybe three times a day I connect and transfer mail in
> and out. Before sending mail, I always review and revise the outgoing
> messages. That gives me a chance to catch mistakes and faux pas."_

I consider that a practice worthy of adoption.

------
8ig8
The Lemote link was broken when I was reading the article. This may be the
updated link?

[http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.htm...](http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html)

~~~
andrewflnr
I guess, that's the same one I came down here to post. Looks like it might be
a pretty neat little machine.

------
mark_l_watson
Some comments on the other posts here: I often find people to be most
interesting and potentially valuable to communicate with when I don't totally
agree with them. I don't agree with some of Richard's positions but
acknowledge his huge contributions. I believe that he deserves some positive
karma every time I use Emacs, gcc toolchain, various GNU utilities, and
software and services built using GNU software (Google, Twitter, many
libraries and applications, etc.) His knowledge, talent, and works are broad
and deep in scope. It is interesting to hear so much dislike for the guy, but
people have the rights to their opinions.

------
kayoone
This has been on here a couple of times already.

I respect his Setup, but i think if your not the founder of the Free Software
Movement, this is a bit extreme ;)

~~~
waferbaby
That's what I thought, that it's been posted before.

------
prtamil
5 years back when Mr.Stallman worried about Privacy,Free Software I used to
think he is nuts.. Now with SOPA/PIPA scenario its nuts to not listen him. So
now i'm following his advice i will never move my data to Cloud.....

------
upthedale
Richard Stallman's Computer Setup _from 2 years ago_

~~~
schraeds
And I bet he is still waiting to find a laptop that his free and open to
replace is yulong

~~~
lunarscape
He won't have to wait long. Yeeloong have a quad-core Loongson-3A 13.3" laptop
on the way.

~~~
Natsu
He could also get one of these:

[http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/spark-the-first-
free-s...](http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/spark-the-first-free-
software-linux-tablet-is-on-its-way/10255)

~~~
lunarscape
The device (ZT-180) is already out there and runs Android. Good luck to the
devs trying to get kernel source from Zenithink though, not to mind hardware
drivers. They've already said they've run into problems. The vast majority of
Chinese tablet manufacturers do not honour the GPL and it's already killed one
Linux tablet project, CordiaTab. In that case the Chinese company actually
tried to extort money from the developers.

------
jballanc
To understand Stallman, I highly recommend one read up on the history of Lisp
Machines. Wikipedia's page is actually fairly decent:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machines>

In particular, I think this passage give some key insight into how Stallman
developed his philosophy:

> _Around this time Symbolics (Noftsker's company) began operations – it had
> been hindered by Noftsker's promise to give Greenblatt a year’s head start,
> and by severe delays in procuring venture capital. Symbolics still had the
> major advantage that while 3 or 4 of the AI Lab hackers had gone to work for
> Greenblatt, a solid 14 other hackers had signed onto Symbolics. There were
> two AI Lab people who did not get hired by either: Richard Stallman and
> Marvin Minsky. Stallman, however, blamed Symbolics for the decline of the
> hacker community that had centered around the AI lab. For two years, from
> 1982 to the end of 1983, Stallman worked by himself to clone the output of
> the Symbolics programmers, with the aim of preventing them from gaining a
> monopoly on the lab's computers._

------
why-el
It's awesome how small this entry is compared to what other developers would
describe as their setup.

~~~
schraeds
He isn't a developer, he is a front man for a decades old movement.

~~~
noarchy
How do you define "developer"? The man has certainly written his share of
code, and has contributed it to the community. I don't know how he has made
his living, over the years, but I bet he's been paid to develop at some point.

~~~
slowpoke
RMS makes his money by being paid for roughly half (iirc) of the talks and
speeches he gives around the world. That has been his only source of income
for years now.

~~~
why-el
I am also not sure we should tie developer with money.

------
brunomiranda
Very narrow minded in my option. There's a reason why people prefer an iPad
over a Lemote Yeelong. There is more to life than principles. I do respect his
opinion but if he would like to continue to make a difference in the open
software community he could stop spending so much time in email and
concentrate on technology advancements and how to promote open source.

------
nabilt
I am curious to know what cloud services he uses if any. I'm researching
alternatives to proprietary/hosted software for some of my important data so I
can avoid the privacy and security issues. Some of the services I would like
to replace are GMail/Calendar/Contacts, Lastpass, RescueTime. Any suggestions?

~~~
elehack
I don't think he uses any, particularly since he is only connected to the
internet 2-3 times a day.

He uses Emacs for all his mail and, presumably, contact management. Last I
knew, he was still using RMail, not even something newer like Gnus.

------
MikeOnFire
Walking the talk is a big thing with RMS.

------
INTPenis
Incidentally same computer I have.

Linux siguran 3.1.0-1-loongson-2f #1 Tue Jan 10 15:20:55 UTC 2012 mips64
GNU/Linux

It's fun for a hobby because it feels like the old days of Linux when you had
to patch and compile a lot to get things running.

Of course my other computers are macs, this is just for the commute to work on
some hobby stuff.

------
reedlaw
Are there really no other fully free systems available on the market by now?

~~~
aquinn
The bios seemed to be his only sticking point about not using other hardware.
Maybe something like coreboot might fill that need now?

------
S4M
Hey! That might be the set up I was looking for in order to hack on my clojure
project during a 14 hours flight I will be taking in couple of months. At
least it's not gonna take battery.

------
atomical
Seeing larger developers using a really small computer with a really small
screen is similar to seeing a basketball player driving a compact. It makes
you wonder... Why?

------
g3orge
This is from Jan 23, 2010. It's probably not his current setup.

------
herf
Wonder if this netbook has open source hard disk firmware?

------
xbryanx
I love that Sears was the most likely seller, when I did a product search for
the Lemote Yeeloong.

------
yabai
Stallman...the uncompromising philosopher! 'Gotta love 'em!

------
davidcollantes
It is a pretty crappy setup (just my humble opinion), but if he is happy with
it...

------
hackermom
"Hey, I'm a geek; it's my _job_ to make things difficult for myself."

------
mino
Not a very appealing setup in 2012.

~~~
kprobst
Not a very appealing setup, period.

~~~
Argorak
Practically? No. From the ultra-geek perspective? Yes.

~~~
lysol
The real geeks I know what to get work done, not send email all day.

~~~
Argorak
The real geeks I know would at least dream of building a computer of which
they control all pieces of software. Maybe for the achievement only, but they
at least dream of it.

I am pretty sure that RMS gets his work done as well, whatever that work is. I
wouldn't suspect him to be _lazy_.

------
feralchimp
The saddest part of all this is that kids will read it and think "this is what
'sticking to my principles' is going to get me, so fuck it."

RMS used up his "I was there when" cred a long time ago. He's now the demented
grandparent no one has the heart to tell to STFU when he yells at the TV. And
yet simultaneously, one of the greats.

~~~
dasil003
Show some respect son. Seriously.

~~~
feralchimp
I did. Seriously.

