Richard Stallman on OLPC

memshankar writes "In an interview while he was in Hyderabad, India RMS praises for the One Laptop Per Child Project. He is even contemplating making a switch to XO, the flagship machine of the project, from his "old thinkpad". Stallman went on to say that the OLPC laptop has given people a way to use the free BIOS. He is, however dissatisfied with the wireless networking system used in the XO."

RMS has a great guru image

[Morgaine]

Although some people can't see beyond the ends of their politically correct noses in the west and so talk down RMS for his shaggy look, that's not an issue in the guru culture of India. In fact, the picture of RMS in TFA fits in perfectly. You wouldn't trust a "wise old man" dressed in a slimy western business suit and tie.

Kudos to RMS for all his work over the years, and putting up with small-minded criticism.

Re:RMS Proves One Thing....

[hey!]

Actually, I think he is making these remarks in his capacity as the author of and important license, in which case it is quite newsworthy. Or it may be in his capacity as the originator of the "free software" concept, I'm not sure.

In any case, that puts the count of significant accomplishments to RMS's credit at two or three, depending on whether you count GPL as important in its own right or only as the most popular implementation of free software licensing. Not too shabby in either case.

Re:RMS has a great guru image

[jellomizer]

Nah it is because he has been so closed minded for many years. He was open minded then he came up with an Idea that a lot of people liked now he is closed minded in that idea and any concepts beyond his train of tought is evil. The Indian Guru look works because of the sience of humility to the world and or a connection with nature and not towards material possetions. Being the RMS is not humble, and being that he is pushing technology means a connection to material possetions (as a point in the article saying I am getting an OLPC laptop and I indorce it and I want you to get one too), and the fact if given the opertunity of an Open Sourced Hardware vs. more envriomental hardware he will go with open sourced, shows that he is not one with nature. So all the leaves him as a smelly unkempt old man. Who is hanging on to decade old ideas.

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it.

[Anonymous Coward]

He won't even put down the laptop he owns now, even for a second. Not even when he is dancing [youtube.com]. :)

Re:RMS Proves One Thing....

[Anonymous Coward]

Or it may be in his capacity as the originator of the "free software" concept, I'm not sure.

Of course those behind the BSD license would point out they originated it; RMS just redefined what free meant to meet his political agenda.

Re:He does answer his emails

[OldeTimeGeek]

(He's like a true politician, he can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip!).

No, that'd be a diplomat. [answers.com]

Re:RMS Proves One Thing....

[cbart387]

Writing a compiler is an undergraduate project.

Writing a compiler for a real language is a non-trivial task. I'm in a two semester compiler class right now (first semester is upper level undergrad/lower level grad and second semester is purely grad level). Our 'toy' language, that we're working with, is fairly basic. (Ignores strings, floating point, dynamic memory etc). Even so, it's still a lot of work. I can't imagine having the free time available to devote my time to writing a real compiler.

Can you expand upon your statement of why you think writing a compiler is an undergraduate project?

Re:RMS Proves One Thing....

[macshit]

I wouldn't characterize Linus as a brilliant programmer. A brilliant software manager perhaps, but no more than a strong programmer. Most of the Linux kernel has been written be people other than Linux, and the Linux operating system owes 1000% more to Stallman as a driving force than Linus.

I don't know where you draw the line between a "strong programmer" and a "brilliant programmer", and it's surely true that at this point, the Linux kernel is much more other peoples' code than Linus's ... but if you spend any time at all reading the mailing lists he posts on, Linus just gets things faster than almost everybody else, and clearly has a deep understanding of vast swaths of the system, even if most of the code was written by others. When there's an issue at hand, he'll say "oh, you could do blah blah" -- and then follow up 2 hours later with a prototype implementation almost as an offhand remark (and it's usually a clean, efficient, implementation too).

No slight intended against RMS -- I think he's far more visionary than Linus, and will have had a much bigger effect on society and computing -- and RMS is no slouch at programming (especially when compared to wannabes like ESR), but in the end, I think Linus is a better programmer.