Richard Stallman was right all along

[Triple Zero]

No matter what you may think of RMS, I mean, I agree he is an anti-social (probably autistic) Free Software zealot evangelist, this article is quite interesting.

http://www.osnews.com/story/25469/Richard_Stallman_Was_Right_All_Along

It doesn't really tell us much we (here at PD) weren't aware of already, but apparently RMS is kind of a holy man or prophet, since he too, like us, preached about the Horrible Things that were going to happen, that indeed did in fact happen.

One criticism, given on HN, is that the article does not explicitly state which predictions RMS exactly made that came through. You need to read between the lines a bit for that, and imagine what a Free Software zealot would predict about the Horrible Things that we know all too well.

He was a good personal friend of Fravia+, btw.

To give a taste, here's a quote from Cory Doctorow from near the end of the article:

The copyright wars? Nothing but a prelude to the real war.

"As a member of the Walkman generation, I have made peace with the fact that I will require a hearing aid long before I die, and of course, it won't be a hearing aid, it will be a computer I put in my body," Doctorow explains, "So when I get into a car - a computer I put my body into - with my hearing aid - a computer I put inside my body - I want to know that these technologies are not designed to keep secrets from me, and to prevent me from terminating processes on them that work against my interests."

[Triple Zero]

Just stumbled across Cory Doctorow's article, where the quote came from, also a very good read:

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I've met RMS on several occasions (watching him and ESR on the floor of a dance club was... entertaining). He has had a pretty good grasp on the importance of computers and programs in the future and the extreme risks associated with keeping the source hidden.