The guru has become an obsolete squiggle – New Technology

       

One would think that it is a development that pleased Richard Stallman, the man widely regarded as the father of the project with open source. But nothing could be further from the truth.

When he recently was in Stockholm to give a lecture about his attitude to the open and free software, it was clear that Richard Stallman is not softened before the big companies in the same way as the for the idea that it is good to share. The only Richard Stallman like less than Apple, Google and Microsoft are themselves open source movement, and writers like me who are trying to make him a part of it.

The indignation stems from a difference in perspective. Richard Stallman’s software freedom and openness of ethics. For large companies and their customers, it is a practical consideration. Stallman believes that to be free it is necessary to have control over the software running on their computer and have it must be able to take part of the code, change it and share it on.

companies like Google or Microsoft, it is important that the code will spread and that many developers can participate and contribute. Even popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu dismissed by Stallman as apostates, because they see open source as a practical tool and not primarily as a political act.

It is not difficult to give Stallman the right parts of the analysis : big companies are following our digital tracks in every detail to maximize their own profits. But to be with and guide the development in the direction you want to have to be able to listen and to compromise. Stallman has stuck in their own world and are not good at any of this.

He likes such as cash because it does not leave traces. However ashamed he was not to ask people in the audience at the lecture on speed dial numbers on a note to later withdraw funds for the purchase of promotional materials from the organization Free Software Foundation, which he represents.

A compelling example of the difficulties of being uncompromising is a story Richard Stallman talks about when he’ll see the movie at the home of a friend. Since the film is available on Netflix and Netflix uses copy protection, you must film evening set. It had not worked on his friend enjoyed the movie bluray because neither the discs can be played using free software.

One way of looking at it is that Stallman with his hard-line style want to set an example for their “fans”. But after seeing him perform and sell the stickers to the audience in Stockholm, I get the feeling more of a funny squiggle of a bygone era.