Free as in Freedom: A Recommended Read


ekianjo

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Recently featured on Pandoralive, a book about the life and works for Richard Stallman. Note that the book is written from a neutral angle (by the writer Sam Williams) and honestly this was a very good read. Have a look at the review if you are interested to know more:



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Cheers for the heads up. :)


Just about to put this on the Aura HD and give it a read. Looking forward to learning a fair bit about free software.
 
Thanks ekianjo, that was a really interesting read. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone looking to learn a bit about where the free software movement came from, one of the main players behind the movement (RMS) and the history of where things like the Linux vs GNU/Linux debate comes from.

Would love to read a follow up to see what RMS made of developments in the last 10 years.

Must have another go at Word War Vi now I understand a bit about the background of Emacs 'Vs' Vi. ;)
 
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Would love to read a follow up to see what RMS made of developments in the last 10 years.
I'm actually in touch with RMS recently to organize an event with him. I will certainly ask him the question when the time comes :)
Hey cool, if you get to chat to him then see if you can get him to give his thoughts on the Pandora, from my perspective it's about as close as you can get to 'free' hardware as is currently available on the market. Just make sure he's not holding one when you tell him about the binary blob for the GPU ;)

It would make an awesome blog post for Pandoralive.

From reading the book it does seem likely to me that he probably has mild Aspergers syndrome (I know a couple of people with Aspergers), so don't think he's necessarily being rude or deliberately awkward if his social etiquette is a little unusual.
 
I just finished reading the current edition of the book - I read it back when it was originally written, but I didn't read the updated version yet. It has certainly improved, it's a pretty good read.

Somewhat related to this is the thread on whether we should aim to get FSF endorsement in the form of a "Respects Your Freedom" certification for the Pandora successor:

http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/14049-respects-your-freedom-certification/

Maybe that is also something you could talk about when you get the chance to meet RMS.
 
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Thanks _wb_ had no idea there was a second edition available. Found the first edition highly enlightening, will be most interested to see what has been added to the second edition :)
 
Thanks _wb_ had no idea there was a second edition available.
If you did get it through hackerbooks you would have read directly the second edition :)

SHameless plug :)

Maybe that is also something you could talk about when you get the chance to meet RMS.
Won't be able to physically meet RMS. He cannot travel to Japan (they do fingerprinting in the airport for foreigners and he is strongly opposed to that).

Hey cool, if you get to chat to him then see if you can get him to give his thoughts on the Pandora, from my perspective it's about as close as you can get to 'free' hardware as is currently available on the market. Just make sure he's not holding one when you tell him about the binary blob for the GPU ;)
I won't get to meet him physically and have a one on one with him. I am organizing a speech with him. Don't expect anything Pandora related, this is not the objective here :)
 
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