Interview with Dr. Richard M. Stallman, Software Freedom Activist

Direct download

Thought some might be interested. Listening to it at the moment.

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Thanks I will listen to it later; I suspect there won’t be anything new, the most entertaining bits are when the interviewers put a foot wrong and use terms like open source instead of Free Software :smiley:

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There is actually. Some interesting examples around copyrighting code. There’s a little side topic on calling peoples work “content” and “consuming” content which I think he actually has a good point on, I think he has mentioned that before though.

Still listening.

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At around 0:40:40 when asked about StackOverflow, Stallman says he’s never seen that site. I found that surprising.

Interesting talk overall.

A few funny moments:

  • making the interviewers giggle when he talked about sex toys
  • referring to the current US president “The Saboteur” without mentioning his name
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Does he have a fear of trump and Nickson like Alan Moore have of Margaret Thatcher? /Half s

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No clue, it was just a mention, no discussion of politics. Also, I had to look up who Alan Moore is. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m not a hippy, but I find these views interesting to think about and also necessary for a healthy, balanced society.


Another interesting point he made was to find out before writing code what kind of license the other contributors want.

I know some people who are really into open source (with apologies to rms who prefers the term free/libre software), and others who really dislike giving out anything to potential competitors and want their projects to remain proprietary.

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He was interviewed Alex Jones several times.
While one I heard on a pod-cast while driving Stallman comes across as very smart and reasonable. Totally unlike the meme’s he has inspired.
I like the guy
we so need a “podcast avail” tag :slight_smile:

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It’s one for the better interviews I have heard. RMS did not get triggered very often and we got to hear a lot of his thoughts.

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Agreed, definately one of the better ones. I think the interviewers did some home work and handled him well. RMS came across well and was able to expand on his thoughts uniterupted. He still likes to drop his quips in (which sometimes sounds a little childish) like calling ‘users’, ‘used’ but it’s just his sense of humour coming through. Unlike some FOSS supporters on various forums he comes across as very reasoned when talking about corporations. He stated facts rather than opinions about things they have done or continue to do that he disagrees with. Even if philosophically speaking corporations are a million miles from his view point he does give them credit when they use libre licenecs instead of insinuating it’s just a plot to destroy the free software movement.

I would like to hear him say if he views people using free and copyleft licences for their software as a victory even if they don’t understand the free software philosphy. E.g. would he die happy if eveything was under a free licence even if only done for the benefits of Open Source development and not free software? He definately get’s upset when people refer to Open Source which he see’s as a movement which does not share his views even if it does mostly use FSF approved licences.

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Previously I think he mentioned that this was fine (to an extent at least) because it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand as the license protects them regardless of their understanding, and so long as the license protects them they will always have those 4 freedoms.

On the forums for example, youll likely find that a lot of people who support open source ebut not free software actually want what free software provides when you see them arguing against companies who follow open source standards and not free software standards.

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In many ways it was more of a religious discussion then technical.
A few fun things.
“Just back engineer like compaq”
“very very hard”
It was open architecture and it still cost AMI like a million bucks just to reverse engineer the Bios.
“Companies used to give you free software”
Yea they did that when you bought a PDP-10 that cost more then the GDP of most nations they threw you a few freebies, it’s not like your buddies would run it on their own mainframe.
“Oppressive software” LOL that one had me laughing.
“I’m 65”
Medical devices running proprietary software, this could be a prob.
I kept thinking how they discussion of intellectual property rights was not even discussed other then if it helps or hurts the cause of free software.
Anyway thanks for the link, the fact that I found thing I agree and disagree makes it a really good interview.
“We need a Whistleblower protection law…”
Where do these guys get their news?

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That White House transcript talks about “the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act” which “created a new Office of Accountability at the VA”. It’s specific to the VA, not general whistleblowing.

Stallman did talk about reducing copyright duration, but not eliminating it. From those comments, my impression is that he views “intellectual property rights” as a tool to encourage/reward innovation based on the objective of societal good, and not an intrinsic right. I could be wrong though.

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(Continuing here to split the pure Stallman vs Stallman on GitHub topic, hope that’s okay :slight_smile: )

According to his site, he’s so far behind that I don’t think he could contribute. His complaints about C++ are way outdated, and he comments about not knowing “newer” languages like PHP and Python… Lol.

He would fit it on Reddit though, with his coders are not programmers comment :grin:

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I was thinking of the computer museum movement, I was really into this in the 90’s. Just collecting a few small desktops however made my wife question my sanity. I was into IBM PS/2’s AT’s and XT’s mostly

Man-cave for old geeks

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I dont think the kids are churning out great code either. It is still about building it to a dead line that works vs building it wise. Games are a great example of trash code.

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In this point in time. Stallman has a point with free as in devices. Its open day on consumer routers and modems. All closed source and we are screwed, only the manufacturer can fix it and will they. I have 2 adsl2+ modems neither have updates since 2014.

It is a time when we should be thinking about bios, UEFI, chip set drivers etc that are all closed source and being actively attacked. We have no power over the edge of networks

He might also have a point about the over-reach and creepyness of social media/ data mining companies abusing privacy for profit, and profiling people not even on their systems…