Richard Stallman's thoughts on Gentoo

CliveHarris

I went to a lecture by RMS last night and, in the discussion afterwards, I asked him if he had any recommendations about Linux distributions (sorry, GNU/Linux distributions!). The gist of his answer was that the only distro he unreservedly supported was "Ubuntu", but Gentoo came out better than most because it would only install packages the user specifically asked for, so you know exactly what you're getting. His main criticism was the inclusion of "unfree" packages in the portage tree.

When I explained to him about the package masking policy, where "unsafe" packages had to be specifically asked for, he approved and thought it was a step in the right direction.

I think to get him fully onside you would have to mask or remove all the "non-GPL-compatable" packages. However, perhaps there is a case for having a keyword or USE flag which would allow a "pure GPL" user to filter out incompatible packages.

As for myself, I'm not quite so particular. I've installed the Nvidia graphics drivers and a few other "unfree" packages. I don't like it but I'm willing to compromise where necessary.

By the way, after that we grabbed Richard's laptop to see what he was running. It turned out to be a customised version of Debian.

moocha · Watchman Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 5722

I don't see a way to do that *and* at the same time not to fall into the same trap as Debian, namely a slow development cycle... That's the good thing about distributions - there are so many of them that one can choose if one doesn't like one

_________________
Military Commissions Act of 2006: http://tinyurl.com/jrcto

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- attributed to Benjamin Franklin

PingEnt

miqorz · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:01 pm Post subject:

So the Lord thy God has spoken. SO IT SHALL BE DONE.

Stormy Eyes · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:12 pm Post subject:

It's not like "non-free" packages are installed by default. You have to ask for a non-GPL package just like you have to ask for everything else, so what's Stallman's beef?

miqorz · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:14 pm Post subject:

CliveHarris · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:14 pm Post subject: Is he ... like Bill Gates?

After I got back from the meeting, I told my 9-year-old daughter that I had met the man who had written most of the programs on her computer. She looked puzzled for a minute and then said "Is he very famous - you know - like Bill Gates? He must be very rich! Did you shake his hand?"

Stormy Eyes · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:14 pm Post subject:

miqorz · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:25 pm Post subject:

CliveHarris · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:29 pm Post subject:

miqorz · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:32 pm Post subject:

If I ever met RMS, he'd kick my ass for using FreeBSD, lol. :lol:

Stormy Eyes · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:46 pm Post subject:

miqorz · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 1:47 pm Post subject:

richk449 · Guru Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345

From what CliveHarris said, Stallman liked Gentoo because you don't have to worry about "accidentally installing real player" or something like it. He is making a contrast between Gentoo, where the user makes all the choices, and the RedHat/Suse/Mandrake/etc type distros where there is a default installation that often includes non-free (as in freedom) software.

Miqorz - you should just put the fact that you run BSD in your sig, so that you dont have to bring it up in every thread.

Athas · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:14 pm Post subject:

miqorz · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:32 pm Post subject:

spb · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:55 pm Post subject:

ciaranm · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 3:03 pm Post subject:

We had this discussion with him a while back... He started out demanding that we removed all non-Free stuff from the tree, and then backed down to "only accept fsf-approved licences by default" when GLEP 23 was mentioned.

senectus · Guru Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 534

RMS is a legend :-)

But I honestly believe that by the time his hard on for "GPL ONLY" environments are a commercial possibility, he'll be well past caring.

But you always need "extremist hippies" to balance out the evil being done by the capitalist henchmen currently wrecking the world.

edit: yes I'm aware of how contradicting the above statements are :-P

RMS is a powerhouse of philosophical brilliance.. I just think that he's come too early
_________________
2800+XP A7N8X FX6600GT
www.modmeup.net |
Belief is 9/10 of YOUR reality.
Wise man say: A skilled troll is a master baiter.

ciaranm · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 3:36 pm Post subject:

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20630

tomk

wdreinhart · Guru Joined: 11 Jun 2003 Posts: 569 Location: 4QFJ12345678

Liquid · n00b Joined: 18 Nov 2003 Posts: 59

moocha · Watchman Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Posts: 5722