Comment by raw_anon_1111

3 months ago

Stallman doesn’t exactly make reasonable arguments that appeal to most people and his lifestyle based on his belief system is laughable.

And when most consumers look at open source alternatives to commercial software and hardware they are already “shitty”.

Are you really going to say that you would hand an open source product to most users and hand them a product by Apple or Microsoft and they would say the open source alternative is “better” for them?

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raw_anon_1111

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fsflover  3 months ago

Your empty accusations of Stallman aren't helpful to the discussion. What exactly do you find unclear or laughable? Perhaps you didn't understand that. I did.

> Are you really going to say that you would hand an open source product to most users and hand them a product by Apple or Microsoft and they would say the open source alternative is “better” for them?

This is exactly what happened when I replaced Windows with Debian for my non-technical relatives.

  • raw_anon_1111  3 months ago

    He uses software and hardware that doesn’t have the qualities that most people want.

    Now give your relatives FDroid over their iPhones and Android devices and see which one they would prefer. Give them an M series MacBook Air that runs quiet and cool with a battery life of 15+ hours.

    Wait until they want to run Photoshop, Office or any of the other popular commercial software and you show them Gimp or LibreOffice. Or their children want to play the latest PC game with their friends.

    • fsflover  3 months ago

      > He uses software and hardware that doesn’t have the qualities that most people want.

      This is true, and by design: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45025116

      > Now give your relatives FDroid over their iPhones and Android devices and see which one they would prefer. Give them an M series MacBook Air that runs quiet and cool with a battery life of 15+ hours.

      Supporting freedom requires some compromises. Any improvement in quality of life for the people can only come with huge efforts. Some people aren't able to spend these efforts due to the personal problems. It doesn't mean they don't care.

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