SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Free software advocates seek removal of Richard Stallman and entire FSF board:
Richard Stallman's return to the Free Software Foundation's board of directors has drawn condemnation from many people in the free software community. An open letter signed by hundreds of people today called for Stallman to be removed again and for the FSF's entire board to resign.
The open letter said:
Richard M. Stallman, frequently known as RMS, has been a dangerous force in the free software community for a long time. He has shown himself to be misogynist, ableist, and transphobic, among other serious accusations of impropriety. These sorts of beliefs have no place in the free software, digital rights, and tech communities. With his recent reinstatement to the Board of Directors of the Free Software Foundation, we call for the entire Board of the FSF to step down and for RMS to be removed from all leadership positions.
Previously:
Richard Stallman Rejoins Free Software Foundation Board of Directors
Richard M. Stallman Resigns
Richard Stallman Deserved to be Fired, Says Fired GNU Hurd Maintainer
(Score: 2, Funny) by bart on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:23PM (20 children)
Let's try.
* Bruce Jenner is not a beautiful woman, and not the bravest person on the planet
* These bigots shouldn't be so spastic about RMS
* I don't like fat women
Anything else seriously I forgot ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:30PM (8 children)
Nobody needs the FSF.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:49PM (7 children)
Then what does it matter who runs it?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:21PM (6 children)
Just because nobody needs them doesn’t mean they’re not an annoying distraction. Nobody needs a mosquito, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to give it a smackdown.
The world has changed. IBM now controls the direction of Linux. Gcc is obsolete. The FSF wanted Windows to be open-sourced because open source can’t compete in the desktop. And Stallman is still pushing more restrictive licenses over the MIT and BSD licenses, because he’s always been a control freak. Just that for decades, the emphasis has been on FREAK. See the tow jam video as an example.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 26 2021, @12:23AM (2 children)
As counterpoint to the licensing gripes, I present you Theo de Raadt's asspain over what companies did with BSD-licensed code, and Linus Torvald's decision to keep the Linux kernel under GPLv2. You can quibble with the differences between v2 and v3, but the Zeroth Freedom is *absolutely* necessary to stop large corporations from just yoinking your code, doing what they will with it, and effectively making the fork the real program and your code the fork.
The fallacy of the BSD license, and other overly-permissive ones, is the assumption of an equal, meritocratic playing field. A large corporation vs. a single coder or small group thereof is not an even playing field. The corp has more money, time, staff, and legal clout.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:48AM (1 child)
Theo needs to take a chill pill. If someone licenses their code under the BSD license they know what they’re offering up. They should be happy that their code is not being left to rot. Same as work people place in the public domain.
Anyone, not just large corporations, is free to create a fork and keep part or all of their changes private. This acts as a counterbalance to Disneyesque insanely overlong copyright terms. Because those terms circumvent the intent of copyright, which was to protect works for a limited time in Sturbridge for them going into the public domain after that time, to benefit everyone.
20 years should have been more than enough. Maybe everyone should act as though that is the law, and bring the current regime down, because it requires mass consent to continue the current regime.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @05:07AM
He needs to admit he spent decades of his life railing against RMS... for being right.
I'm not anti-Theo. One of the handful of people in this world I genuinely admire and look up to.
But also a good example to prove how even the smartest, sometimes often the smartest, can commit themselves to an early mistake and just keep doubling down on it.
BSD license was always a bad choice for his goals, and it was always clear personal prejudice prevented him from perceiving it.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:55AM (1 child)
I license all I write publicly under the GPL. Because if I give freely, I want the code to possibly be a seed for future development that will benefit the public.
I don't care that I "lose users" because some are not willing to accept my grant on their terms. I am not in the business of providing free labor that corps can take and make millions on.
MIT and BSD licenses are tailored for projects that have been funded with taxpayer money.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @04:09AM
All very nice and well, but it doesn’t work. Linux is now controlled by IBM, and is serving IBM’s needs, not the general public. Hence systemd.
Google controls Android on Linux. And chromebooks. And web browsers.
So the GPL basically still ended up serving large corporations as opposed to the public.
There’s no money to be had developing GPL software for the general public. Because the general public wants games, and is willing to pay for them, but the only way to make it happen financially is to wall it behind a shit-ads-as-a-service. So Google has your wallet in it’s grubby mitts.
At least the other licenses allow devs to create software that can actually be sold to help pay for it’s ongoing development and support. And that’s in the public interest, because choice is good.
GPL code is a dead end for developers, and a dead end for consumers, because of the financial implications of the GPL limiting developers financial options.
And let’s be honest - desktop Linux is worse today than at the turn of the century. (Though the included programs haven’t changed much, if at all. Abandonware isn’t a synonym for stability.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @10:41AM
If FSF is mosquito then we need more of them
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:22PM
In my years in LA, once you get to know them, there are almost no beautiful women in Malibu, regardless of the amount of surgery they've denied ever having.
(Score: 2) by EJ on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:38PM (7 children)
Say something like, "Donald Trump did some good things as president."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:00PM
True, but only by accident.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Snotnose on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:06PM (4 children)
Trump did a lot of good things. But he is such a toxic person there is no way I can support him, nor a GOP that supports him.
/ held my nose and voted for Biden
// who is currently living down to my lowest expectations
/// policy wise, human wise Biden is a fine person
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:01AM (1 child)
If it this is your standard:
1. sniffing pre-teen girls, caught on video many times, even right on the senate floor
2. moving a girl's hand to his crotch, again caught on video
3. a bias against sniffing black girls (probably they don't object to that racism though!)
...then yeah, Biden is a fine person.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:56AM
Now do Trump =) be equally comprehensive!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:00PM (1 child)
"A 62 y/o law abiding California citizen, my Covid Vaccination status is lower than prisoners and illegal immigrants."
"held my nose and voted for Biden"
just how dumb are you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:28PM
But his "friends" tell him he can feel good about himself now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @04:48AM
Say something like, "Joe Biden read some good things off of cue cards as president."
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 26 2021, @12:20AM (1 child)
Counterpoints: *Caitlyn* Jenner is a woman, but a seriously ugly one, especially inside. Transition, in either direction, is not going to make an entitled asshole stop being an entitled asshole. You have half a point with this one at least: she's not exactly brave. I'd call her brave if she began as a poor black man in the deep South and still went through with transition. THAT takes serious guts.
The other two, though...why are Stallman's opponents automatically bigots? Careful with what words you use where, if you want to be taken seriously. As to fat women, is it that you dislike them as people, or just find them unattractive? I don't find fat people arrtactive either, but I also don't jump to immediately disliking them just *because* they're fat. It may hint at some personality issues, but it may not. Learn about the person in question, then judge.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @11:05PM
"I'd call her brave if she began as a poor black man in the deep South and still went through with transition. THAT takes serious guts."
oh please. the poor mistreated porch monkey myth. the reason these ape hybrids were hung and intimidated was because they can't stop raping white girls and women, stealing, etc. I don;'t think the intimidation was the best tactic overall (they should have forced the slave owners to ship their black asses back to africa) but it's what they had the power to do. The rich slave-trading jews brought them in, and the poor whites were forced to deal with their subhuman nature. No white should ever have to deal with a negroid. It's against Nature's Eternal Religion.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:26PM (22 children)
This looks like a power grab to me. Or a witch hunt, and they found their witch.
It's too bad for RMS that the pleps can't understand him and crucified him for their lack of comprehension.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:36PM (18 children)
How can it be a power grab? Neither the FSF nor Stallman have any real power, or even much of a reputation, any more.
Sisters are moving away from gcc because it’s obsolete. The rest of the tool chain is also being replaced. Nobody is using his Gnu HURD. He hasn’t really done anything of consequence in decades.
He said about Steve Jobs “I don’t want him dead, I just want him gone.” And now people are saying the same of him. So stop being such a hypocritical whiny bitch already.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @08:54PM (9 children)
Please point out the Hypocracy. Also, pointing out a power grab (calling for the resignation of everyone in this authoritative position) is "whiny bitch" level?
If these authoritative figures didn't have any power (influence is power), then what's the point of calling for their resignation?
All you had to do was use a few brain cells, but you couldn't even do that, could you?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:13PM (8 children)
Did you toss a big fat “fuck you asshole” when Stallman made his Jobs remark? I doubt it. Unless you did, you’re a hypocrite for thinking that it’s okay for Stallman to want Jobs gone, but not for others to want Stallman gone. What has the fat fuck incel done this century anyway?
And as I pointed out, it can hardly be a power grab - more akin to getting an ugly wart or two removed. Because neither Stallman, gnu, nor the FSF are relevant any more, and we could do without their constant whining for attention. Bunch of whiny attention whores. Maybe they should stick to TikTok or Instagram or Facebook where people lap up that shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:27PM (3 children)
So I'm a hypocrite because people want Stallman off the board, and in fact, the entire board, because they don't understand what he said years ago?
"What has the fat fuck incel done this century anyway?". Since you're attacking him, might I ask what YOU'VE done this century that doesn't make you a victim of your own words?
If they aren't relevant anymore, why are you getting so up in arms? Surely they have some influence over you if you can't let it go?
And might I point out, you know you're dealing with a bunch of whiny, irrational people when they've identified the problem, and attempt nuke everything from orbit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:48PM (2 children)
The guy hasn’t done anything relevant in decades, and his GPL license has led to the exact opposite of it’s intent - the GPL software ecosystem is stagnating because there’s no financial payback for investing in whole classes of software, such as games or office suites, or even integrated packages of utilities, like the old PC Tools.
Tux Racer doesn’t cut it any more. Whatever they’re calling the GIMP nowadays is so far behind commercial packages. And of course the niche proprietary software has no GPL equipment, because nobody’s going to make the investment. He screwed up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:17AM (1 child)
It is proudly still "The GIMP".
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday March 26 2021, @07:32AM
And they explicitly state that they do not intend to change it. [gimp.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:32PM (3 children)
glad to see we're keeping this discussion civil
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:37PM (2 children)
The discussion stopped vexing civil the day Stallman made his comments about Steve Jobs death.
His claims to the moral and ethical superiority of GPL software and his vilification of those who insist on using software that actually does what they want and are willing to support the developers of said software with their money is extra grist for the mill. The lifelong mooch needs to take a bath. And go away. Or just go away.
His brand of white male privilege doesn’t cut it any more. Neither does his fake humility in public, which was always an obvious act. You’ve been conned by a flimflam man.’
If you’ve earned a living by writing commercial software that the source was never released, he considers you scum of the earth. He would want you to live the life of a quasi-religious monk, a true believer. Sponge off other people for a roof over your head for a few months at a time. Suck the government welfare benefits system rather than engaging in gainful employment. In his warped mind, poverty is the ultimate validation that your motives are pure.
So it’s not surprising that people just want him to go away, same thing he said about Steve Jobs death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:44PM
In his warped mind, poverty is the ultimate validation that your motives are pure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @08:57PM
Nerve touched, eh? Really a shame that no one will ever see the code you wrote, and that you will never get any credit for it, since it does not belong to you, and you are just scum of the earth. You have my sympathy. But why inflict such slavery on others?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:36PM (3 children)
when the hell did gcc become obsolete? I'll have you know that g++ generates more efficient code than the intel C++ compiler, for intel machines.
(Score: 5, Touché) by MostCynical on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:39PM
Shh .. facts are not woke
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:26PM
》 when the hell did gcc become obsolete?
It got replaced by Ruby on Rails in 2019.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @12:06AM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday March 26 2021, @02:12AM (3 children)
Wanting RMS out for bad behavior isn't a power grab. Wanting the entire board out with him, regardless of what their position was on the issues, does look a lot more suspicious. RMS staying or going or retiring without admitting wrongdoing, I don't care much about, but demanding that the organization get taken over makes it less likely that they'll agree to that.
As for what power the FSF has, it's not nothing, they still control software that's key to just about every running Linux system out there, and more importantly there's a bunch of money associated with the organization that somebody probably has their eye on.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @04:29AM
All the software that the FSF @controls” is being replaced with other software. But let’s be honest - busybox, for example, can be stripped from any Linux system. Same with gcc for many distressed, replaced with clang/LLVM.
So what power does the FSF have? Not much, and eventually none.
They’re just not relevant any more, same as Stallman. They deserve each other, but nobody else needs them. They used to be sacred cows - untouched. Now, it’s time to fire up the bbq and grill some no-longer-sacred cows. Because their primary use now is as filler material for click bait articles like this one. They are the story now, not the software.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Friday March 26 2021, @07:13AM
I would still like to know what bad behavior. The big one seems to be mostly due to a (possibly deliberate) mis-quote of something he wrote (words, not deeds). The rest is vague innuendo and very non-specific "everyone knows".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @06:16PM
I think you've hit a core issue. When they took over Gnome, they bankrupted the foundation by spending their entire endowment on 'outreach programs'. Anyone who questioned this, asked what these programs were, who ran them, or where the money actually went, was shouted down as a bigot. The same thing is currently happening with Mozilla. If they can take over the FSF that would not only give them a tidy little pile of money but also let them sabotage other free software projects. Most GPL projects are 'GPL v or later', with the wording of 'later' determined by the FSF. I've always been leery of that clause because of what could happen if a bad actor managed to take over. Now imagine what would happen if GPLv4 is written by the 'woke' crowd: They'd put their bloody CoC directly into the licence.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @09:54PM (2 children)
The lead authors are with the Berkman Center [archive.is]. It's a formal [catbox.moe] power grab. They are the government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:29PM (1 child)
what the heck am I looking at
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:26PM
Seems to be a list of Globalhomo pukes who push intersectionality.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:18PM (6 children)
An "open letter" making demands on the FSF on how to run their business, hosted on a Microsoft property.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @01:46AM (4 children)
"instrumenti genus vocale et semivocale et mutum, vocale, in quo sunt servi, semivocale, in quo sunt boves, mutum, in quo sunt plaustra."
Marcus Terentius Varro, " RERUM RUSTICARUM DE AGRI CULTURA "
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:00AM (3 children)
What was the context of this? Sounds like it could be unbelievably witty here, but I'm not getting the connection.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @02:54AM (2 children)
Click the vatican flag for Latin, the US flag for English.
It's the bulk of paragraph 17, consisting mainly of advice on the handling of farmhands, free and slave. Our poster above skipped the first bit, picking it up in the middle of a sentence at "the class of instruments which is articulate" - referring to slaves and hired men - perhaps for shock value?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:58AM (1 child)
I read it as "there are three classes of tools, the vocal, the semi vocal and the mute. The vocal are made up of the slaves, the semivocal are made up of the oxen, and the mute are the wagons."
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @03:18AM
"there are three classes of tools, the vocal, the semi vocal and the mute. The vocal are made up of the slaves, the semivocal are made up of the oxen, and the mute are the wagons."
The translation I linked (same part):
"others into three: the class of instruments which is articulate, the inarticulate, and the mute; the articulate comprising the slaves, the inarticulate comprising the cattle, and the mute comprising the vehicles."
So yeah, that's right close, I think you got the gist of it.
But the very next sentence proceeds to include free farm-hands along with slaves, and express the belief that it's generally better to use free hands than slaves if you have the choice, regardless of soil.
"With regard to these in general this is my opinion: it is more profitable to work unwholesome lands with hired hands than with slaves; and even in wholesome places it is more profitable thus to carry out the heavier farm operations"
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @04:36AM
oMG. Let’s boycott all software hosted on Microsoft-controlled properties. We can start with the Linux kernel. Quick - let’s all switch to Gnu/HURD. Oh, wait … https://github.com/BrentBaccala/hurd [github.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:30PM
It will come in handy to populate my blocklist of people to avoid working with. These people probably also use xcode, slack, github and macbooks to develop their code, gum up their web sites with google analytics and think the GPL is a bad license.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by cockroach on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:33PM (4 children)
... to make a small donation to the FSF.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:58PM (2 children)
Me as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:04PM (1 child)
There's a sucker born every 25 minutes
(Score: 3, Funny) by melikamp on Friday March 26 2021, @03:25AM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @05:41PM
That is of course the root of the issue. The FSF has resources, the SJWs want to seize them and divert them to Woke initiatives. Stallman wants to build and promote Free Software.
What is absolutely clear is this: If this results in a split in the Free Software community the ones on Stallman's side of it will be the productive ones and the other side will have the Corporate Programmers grinding code.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:47PM (1 child)
So fucking what? Has there ever been a time in history nerds haven't faced persecution for unorthodox beliefs and behaviors?
Why doesn't this Inquisition chemically castrate him, force him to denounce Copernicanism and make him drink hemlock? Surely that'll be enough for these gender-confused retards to virtue signal themselves into a utopia?
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Friday March 26 2021, @08:11PM
Your ideas have merit, but it doesn't begin to address the reparations for slavery, women's choice, or a myriad of other societal issues left unaddressed.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 4, Interesting) by krishnoid on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:47PM (9 children)
If there was ever a situation where solely leaning on precise textual statements won't cut it in the court of public opinion, this would seem to be it, regardless of culpability to date.
I have to hope that Richard Stallman is *getting help* on working on a strategy and a public statement of some kind rather than winging it by himself. He has to be smart (and experienced) enough to know that sometimes you have to pull from a different toolbox or subcontract out some work, and (especially after 2016-2020) that the facts alone won't save or crucify you in the day-to-day when it comes to the public eye.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @11:32PM
The facts don't matter at all. Facts are too hard for people to comprehend. Haven't you heard? Facts are the leading cause of climate change, mass extinctions, trafficking and all forms of PIV rape.
All that matters is the strength of your victimhood.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hopdevil on Friday March 26 2021, @01:52AM (7 children)
Who has the time and money to make a website, probably pay someone to fill it full of crap to oust RMS? Seems like someone hired a PR firm. They probably had to spend time (or something else even?) convincing enough of these supposedly relevant people to sign the "open letter". It's never a good day when a single person is the target of hired assassins.
I've read the demands and the accompanying material, I don't understand the hatred towards the guy. Maybe RMS is a total piece of shit, but I can't tell that from his "inappropriate comments".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @02:25AM (2 children)
The actual purpose of the foundation? They don't care about that. They'll cannibalize it just like they did Mozilla, if they can pull it off.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @04:42AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday March 26 2021, @05:22AM
You can "puss" right off, thanks. Do your worst. Deal with the goons. Just please, for the love of all that's human, quit pretending your judgment of 'relevance' is relevant.
It isn't. I'm past laughing. I'm starting to cry on your behalf.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:14AM (3 children)
Wow, I hadn't read the complaint [github.io]
I bet this moral outrage squad deny "Cancel Culture" exists too. What a bunch of cretins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday March 26 2021, @04:08AM (2 children)
That is a good point. NCommander also brought up RMS's comment(s) about Down syndrome at the end of his video. But when parents are given a choice, they overwhelmingly choose literal eugenics to wipe out Down syndrome:
Down Syndrome Births Nearly Eliminated in Iceland [soylentnews.org]
We could see that for other mental health issues in the future, like autism. Even if there is only partial correlation to certain genes, parents might "play it safe" and roll the dice again.
The future of neo-eugenics. Now that many people approve the elimination of certain genetically defective fetuses, is society closer to screening all fetuses for all known mutations? [nih.gov]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @03:59PM (1 child)
Eugenics and dysgenics are two sides of the same coin. Michael Malice has run a decent defense of Margret Sanger on ethical grounds recently, explaining to conservatives that poor life outcomes due to poverty were almost a certainty without birth control. I'm less sympathetic to pro-abortion arguments now that birth control is widely available but not in the case of Downs syndrome. A friend set her Downs brother up with an apartment and a job so he could enjoy some degree of autonomy. He was arrested six months later for indecently exposing himself to women. We can laugh at the innocence behind it but not that we're discussing a 220lb adult male. Stallman's "pets" comment may be insensitive but it's accurate, people with Downs typically need long term care and there's no guarantee their parents will be around to provide it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 28 2021, @06:47AM
The availability of birth control has nothing to do with the ethics of abortion. The only question is whether there is a human right to use someone else's organs to keep yourself alive. The answer to that question is no; there is no precedent for such a right. There's no other situation in which you can be forced to give up your organs or allow someone to use your body as a life support system in order to keep someone else alive. Therefore, those who want to ban abortion are actually asserting that fetuses have more rights than people who have been born. That is not a coherent position.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:51PM (2 children)
Issued today, concerning corporate governance:
https://www.fsf.org/news/preliminary-board-statement-on-fsf-governance [fsf.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday March 25 2021, @10:55PM
Is that the mechanism they will use to re-purge RMS?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday March 26 2021, @02:15AM
I have to say, that sounds eminently reasonable, suggesting they're going to make significant changes while also maintaining enough continuity that the mission will be maintained.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:06AM
'nuff said...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:17AM (1 child)
Abolish the FSF and all females from Earth. Problem solved.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @02:36AM
That's the GNAA position.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Friday March 26 2021, @02:51AM (3 children)
An opposing statement has been made and they have been gathering a lot of signatures, too:
https://rms-support-letter.github.io/ [github.io]
A lot of Russian sounding names on there. I randomly picked a few of those, and a few with a different origin, and most seem legit developers with quite some contributions, more than I have on my gitlab anyway. Are we seeing the start of a cultural cold war here?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @04:48AM (1 child)
No, but I’m sure both RMS and the FSF wish it would. Maybe they should try Facebook, or meth /sarc.
Next question?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @05:40PM
One side will be too busy cancelling one another to put up much of a fight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @03:05PM
https://twitter.com/kaizervonmaanen/status/1375203166774517760 [twitter.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by RamiK on Friday March 26 2021, @04:45AM
If you're part of the FSF but have problems with FSF's management or ideology, you can bring it up in the meetings. If your complaints aren't herd, make your own foundation under the banner of your own ideals. By going public to pressure the donors you're just hurting both your and the FSF's cause by making sure the donors would want nothing to do with either of you.
Seriously, this is Joker level flag and bridge burning stupid. And while for most causes I'd be right there with you pouring fuel on the fire, this cause happens to be one I care about so let me just come out and say this: Don't sign any of it. Not the one for. Not the one against. It's dumb. It's shameful. It's self-defeating.
If you want to champion your inclusive-first, FOSS later ideals, do it in a positive way under your own foundation. Since you're soft on FOSS and hard on minority issues you can attract completely different donors (corporations!) and volunteers from both private and public individuals and organizations. There's really no need to shit all over other people and their work like this.
Signed, me.
compiling...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 26 2021, @06:43PM
https://www.fsf.org/news/update-on-work-to-improve-governance-at-the-fsf [fsf.org]
"FSF president Geoffrey Knauth announced, "I commit myself to resign as an FSF officer, director, and voting member as soon as there is a clear path for new leadership assuring continuity of the FSF’s mission and compliance with fiduciary requirements.""
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 27 2021, @07:33AM
Reposted, since the Morgatory Buzzard is such a douche of baggery. Please, explain to me, how this filter is allowed, while Buzzard being raped by his grandpa (Runaway) is permittted? It beggers the imagination, about what is allowed on SN, outside of aristarchus submissions. Fux the Buzzard, in his aliemaetary canal. For great justice. \
Guess who? Why do you block legit Soylentils, Oh Minty Bussard? Let Freedom ring from countries and IPs. Not fair to block
Turkey and Hong Kong, just because SN is full of white supremacists. Fuck off, Buzzardian.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pvanhoof on Saturday March 27 2021, @12:58PM
In 2009 I proposed that the GNOME Foundation would split from the GNU project [slashdot.org] (the green site indeed had picked it up, which was not necessarily what I had looked forward to).
Back then because Richard Stallman had on the GNOME Foundation mailinglist said that the most minimal support for the free software movement is to refrain from going directly against it; that is, to avoid presenting proprietary software as legitimate. You can find the mailing list thread here [mail-archive.com].
Back then GNOME was not as radical as it is today and most of the GNOME developers were making money with selling their expertise as software developers at the many companies that used GNOME's many LGPL libraries. You probably remember the Nokia's 770, N800, N810, N900? That were those times.
Too many of GNOME's people and its Foundation today are in my opinion radicalized and I canceled my membership before their cancel culture would. This is one of the wise decisions in my life.
I again propose to the GNOME Foundation that they split from the GNU project.
Get it over with GNOME. Go your own path.