zlacker

RMS to me is really a curious case. He doesn't know how to install GNU+Linux and relies on others to do it. He doesn't know how to take a screenshot, and I remember reading other snippets from him about not knowing how to perform other basic tasks.

>>Almond+(OP)
See also: Knuth. Literally wrote the book on algorithms, but barely is able to do more than open a window in FVWM.

>>Almond+(OP)
I don't know why people take him so seriously. He said some decent things about software freedom, and the rest of his entire existence seems to be him being deliberately obtuse and generally off-putting. I find it bizarre that there's this strange carve-out here for him, especially considering that he would absolutely loathe 99% of the software that gets discussed here.

>>ventur+o2
> He said some decent things about software freedom

Well, he also created GCC and GNU Emacs.

Linux and the idea that developer tools should be free wouldn't exist without him.

>>ventur+o2
RMS is an extremist, and not the kind of person I tend to agree with, he seems to be a bit of an asshole too...

But that's also the kind of people we need. Companies are not going to compromise on their profits, we need someone to balance that and not compromise on software freedom. With these two extremes we can take an balanced position and that's how we got Linux and distros like Debian: it is free software, but it is also pragmatic. If we only had pure GNU (HURD), we wouldn't get far, but if we didn't have GNU at all, it would be even worse.

Richard Stallman didn't just talk. He actually wrote code, famously Emacs, and started the whole GNU project. I am not aware of recent technical contributions though.

>>gosub1+T1
Can you cite this in some way? Given he's shown at least the competence to write and typeset an impressive series of books, I find this claim pretty hard to believe.