Re: Reboot: Strategic goals for GNOME

["Lefty (石鏡 )" <lefty shugendo org>]

On 3/4/10 9:07 AM, "Gian Mario Tagliaretti" <gianmt gnome org> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Lefty ( 亢À ) <lefty shugendo org> wrote:
> 
>> But, just so I'm sure I'm clear here, Mr. Stallman, it's my understanding
>> that you don't even actually _use_ the web, in any realistic sense, relying
>> instead on some congerie of email and a back-end rendering server to view
>> static images of individual web pages.
> 
> can you stop being an ass just for the sake of being an ass?

Okay, just for the record, that would be an unmotivated public personal
attack here. In case anyone's keeping score. Please note that I haven't
called anyone names, just requested a clarification of what I understand to
be the facts here.

My understanding is that Mr. Stallman doesn't use a web browser, instead
mailing individual URLs to a server, which renders a static page image and
mails that back.

I would take the position that this sort of "interaction" with the web is
unrepresentative of the way that people in general, even just GNOME people
in general, actually use it (is this surprising?), and that someone whose
sole interaction with the web is through this sort of mediation might well
not "get" what it's actually about.

Is this actually a controversial suggestion? I'm surprised, frankly. If you
were to give me advice on how to conduct a telephone conversation, when
you'd personally never used anything other than a telegraph and Morse code,
semaphore flags, or smoke signals, I'd probably feel much the same way.

> You can disagree with what RMS says of course, is the attitude that
> makes people tired, in the sentence here above you are not criticizing
> a point of you that you might not like, you are just being a smart ass
> thinking "wow I'm fighting Mr. Stallman" what a hero.

I'd suggest that you attempt to avoid making assumptions about my
"attitude", something which email communicates very poorly. (For your part,
you might even be capable of disagreeing with me without recourse to
pointless insults, but this particular message sadly provides no evidence
one way or the other.)

For the record, my "attitude" is largely one of dismay and disbelief. I'll
try to remember to point out these things, to avoid misunderstandings.

So no, I'm expressing a serious concern over a conversation which has
touched on the general subjects of "social media" and "web-based services"
in which we've seen claims that the CIA controls Facebook and probably
shares all its users' information with them, just for starts, as well as the
notion that software running on a web server is somehow inherently less
"free" than software running on a desktop. I'm frankly having difficulty
making sense of that, which is what led to my question.

> Stop this non-sense on this list please?

In all fairness, I didn't start the nonsense, I'm simply attempting to make
some sense of it.

It is, after all, a discussion list. If people don't want things actually to
be discussed here―and let me again point out that, of the two of, one is
actually discussing things, and one is simply indulging in personal attacks
and name-calling; I'll let you work out who's who―they probably shouldn't
post them in the first place.