

What Eric S. Raymond and Richard Stallman gets wrong on Jobs - keeperofdakeys
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103401775933335847164/posts/QitLvUyJgZC

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teyc
Jobs got good at focus and killing off old products. I'd suggest RMS start
with autoconf.

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stephenr
Stallman's entire approach is "free === good, proprietary === bad". His
comments on Steve and "fools" is basically saying that freedom means we should
all be using what he claims to be good.

Stallman is no less a "dictator" than Steve ever was, he's just not successful
at it.

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grey
I think you misunderstand. You're right that to him "free === good,
proprietary === bad" and since his software (GNU) is one of the few platforms
that really qualifies as "free" he encourages people to use it, however he's
made it perfectly clear what it takes to qualify something as "free" and many
many other independent developers have released software that meets this
qualification.

To consider Stallman a "dictator" is simply ludicrous, the entire point of his
philosophy is that once software is released to the end user, that end user
has almost all the rights to do anything they please with it, The only thing
they can't do is take those rights away from others.

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kyberias
This is the first time I hear that programming languages can have charisma.
Sounds slightly ridiculous. But I would like to see a study on the subject.
What programming languages feel like and how does that affect the end results.

~~~
keeperofdakeys
Different languages definitely have their prominent styles, but languages also
have places where they are commonly used. Something like shell scripts are
usually used for quick hacks, acting as a glue between different systems.
However, all shell scripts don't have to look 'hacky'.

So a language's 'charisma' is determined by how people use it, and if most
people use it for a certain purpose, most won't consider it for other
purposes.

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phoobahr
The big difference between Jobs and RMS? Jobs shipped.

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ordinary
Incorrect: <http://www.gnu.org/software/#allgnupkgs>

~~~
dextorious
Probably he means: Jobs shipped some world changing tech.

Now, what exactly GNU offers that appeals to non-geeks?

It took Google to make Linux something the big masses will use (in Android).

~~~
phoobahr
Jobs helped create and industry, Stallman helped create a licence Jobs drove a
company to be a commercially significant platform (twice) and more recently
redesigned the way such an entity could produce desirable goods people want to
buy. Stallman will be remembered as the man who failed to produce HURD,
quibbled about licences and fell on his sword when arguing an extreme position
rather than, y'know, shipping an alternative.

You just don't get to categorically decry a market leader's strategic,
commercial, and production accomplishments as 'jail made cool' unless you're
willing and able to show a functional option. People will buy what they like
and, to some degree, like what they buy. Whether they purchased goods with
time, money, labour or some form of opportunity loss it doesn't matter: every
sale is a _sale_ and Stallman has never sold. He's had a hand in building some
niche 'ware (some of which makes my little world go 'round, to be sure) and
championed some ideas which others have utilized to great good but the man
himself doesn't ship or cause to ship in anything like the league that Jobs
did.

