Re: What OS is used By Richard Stallman

[Alexander Terekhov]

jellybean stonerfish wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:21:56 -0800, Andrew Gray wrote:
> 
> > Ignoramus5311 wrote:
> >> he is my hero from late childhood
> >>
> >> what OS is he using?
> >>
> >> thanks
> >>
> >> i
> >
> > This question has not been answered a single time, so this thread needs
> > to continue without the presentation of new, more applicable topics.
> >
> > I could be really out of place with this.
> >
> 
> I'll post the link to stallman's statement about his system again for
> those who missed it
> 
> http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.

Oh poor RMS...

"I use gNewSense, a GNU/Linux distro. I chose that distro because it has
the policy of rejecting non-free software."

Now,

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-users/2007-11/msg00042.html

"as we go along we find out now and then that we've got non-free
software. Some scripts have been written to help automate these checks,
but it still takes "too long". ... I don't believe that any package
manager has built-in support for license issues and this is something
that I think is a technical flaw that harms our distro ... I don't know
how to "find" binary blobs. I dont' know what they look like in the
source, so I'm almost totally useless as to determining non-license
freedom"

Reaction:

http://wiki.gnewsense.org/ForumMain/WhatSucksAboutGNewSense

"Yes it is hard to find non-free software in a distribution. It is
probably much easier to start from scratch and add from day one only
free software to your distribution. So you don't have to check existing
packages, you just know that you have add only free software.

Creating a distribution from scratch is probably to much work. So we
have to go the second way: Build upon an existing distribution.

GnewSense has waste already a lot of time with PFV"

(PFV stands for Package Freedom Verification.)

"So the overall question is how we can make PFV easier so that we can
concentrate more on creating an exciting distribution instead of putting
all our effort in checking licenses?

For me the answer is clear. Gnewsense should build upon a distribution
which already really cares about freedom. 

...

I know the question upon which distribution Gnewsense should buid on was
discussed many times before. But using a distribution which bases on a
quite good distribution (in the sense of freeness) and adds non-free
components looks like a bad decision. We see and feel this bad decisions
more and more. Gnewsense struggles now for months to get Gnewsense 100%
free. We could get this much cheaper with a different distribution and
concentrate more on making a exciting distribution which attract (many)
new users."

regards,
alexander.

--
"Plaintiffs’ copyrights are unique and valuable property whose market
value is impossible to assess"

                             -- SOFTWARE FREEDOM LAW CENTER, INC.