How does Richard Stallman browse the internet?

[MerlinCoder]

Hi everyone

So I decided I would start doing some research into Gnu/Linux and naturally I eventually found out about the free software foundation and Richard Stallman. I watched a few of his lectures on youtube and he has said something that has been bothering me. I completely agree with him that in an ideal world maybe we should put open source before proprietary tools because of the possibility of surveillance and back doors but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that as we go through life there is no way of completely avoiding proprietary software.
One of the things he has mentioned is that he wouldn't ever run any proprietary software ever, he would reject those programs regardless of the convenience or usefulness which I honestly do think is commendable. But how do you use that approach when browsing the internet? You can't stop a website from storing your IP in a database and tracking that as you go through it can you? Is that not the same surveillance as the facebook like buttons or have I missed the point?

Don't get me wrong, I think the guy is incredible, but to be truly free as per the FSF definition should the only online traffic that you use be through servers that you own yourself?

Also there's so many embedded systems out there that we will never know the underlying circuitry to, such as an oven/microwave or a button for a green man/walk don't walk crossing.

Is the idea more to just be as free as you can by changing as many devices as it is realistic to?

[craig10x]

He doesn't browse the internet...that is how he gets "totally privacy"

[haqking]

He doesn't browse the internet...that is how he gets "totally privacy"

http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

https://lwn.net/Articles/262570/

[buzzingrobot]

I think he uses wget to pull down files to read locally. Not sure how he finds out about those files. Also believe he owns an obscure Chinese laptop whose claim to fame is no proprietary code.

personally, though, I don't think FOSS is a surveillance panacea. Besides, the net would not work if it wasn't open and public. And phones are radios on the public airwaves that constantly tell the nearest tower where they are. We are wrong to expect privacy playing in those pools.

[MerlinCoder]

http://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

https://lwn.net/Articles/262570/

Thank you very much for the links, even answered the embedded question

[llanitedave]

I admire Stallman, especially the fact that he tries to practice what he preaches. We need more people like him. But we can't all be like him. For his ideas to work properly we'd need more than just a change in software philosophy, we'd need to have capitalism completely replaced by some sort of all-encompassing open-source economy. I'm not convinced that the time will ever be right for that, but who knows?

I think his philosophy is worth exploring, but there may be unforeseen flaws, and that's one thing that keeps me from committing to it.

In addition, I have to disagree with him when he proclaims that his particular view of ethics is the only valid one. I don't think proprietary software is unethical in principle.

[tupulpo]

@up @llanitedave true

[MadmanRB]

I admire Stallman, especially the fact that he tries to practice what he preaches. We need more people like him. But we can't all be like him. For his ideas to work properly we'd need more than just a change in software philosophy, we'd need to have capitalism completely replaced by some sort of all-encompassing open-source economy. I'm not convinced that the time will ever be right for that, but who knows?

I think his philosophy is worth exploring, but there may be unforeseen flaws, and that's one thing that keeps me from committing to it.

In addition, I have to disagree with him when he proclaims that his particular view of ethics is the only valid one. I don't think proprietary software is unethical in principle.

The problem with the Stallman approach is that it cuts off so many things in the commercial market, and many are afraid of going the full open source route and with good reason.
I think there needs to be a more balanced apporach something in between Proprietary and open source software

[Copper Bezel]

Do you mean a balance of the two (as we arguably have now,) or another kind of software that rides the line between them? I'd argue that Android, and increasingly the mobile aspects of Ubuntu, are striking a good space in being both commercial products and open source technologies. Ubuntu, I think, more so, because unlike Android, they're leveraging open source code while doing "proprietary" development on code that eventually (unlike Chrome's, incidentally) gets released as FOSS. In any case, that sort of arrangement can mean getting the good bits of being an open source project while maintaining a competitive edge in little ways. Do you think there's a way that projects like them could (or should) go further in a commercial, pseudo-proprietary direction?

[buzzingrobot]

I admire Stallman, especially the fact that he tries to practice what he preaches. We need more people like him. But we can't all be like him. For his ideas to work properly we'd need more than just a change in software philosophy, we'd need to have capitalism completely replaced by some sort of all-encompassing open-source economy. I'm not convinced that the time will ever be right for that, but who knows?

Can't happen until we end scarcity. As long as there is less of X than people need or want, people will sell X for profit. More fundamentally, resources taken out of a system need to be replaced. Stallman's notions work, after a fashion, in software development because the resources are intellectual and, hence, constantly replenishable.

In addition, I have to disagree with him when he proclaims that his particular view of ethics is the only valid one. I don't think proprietary software is unethical in principle.

Ditto and double ditto. I have little tolerance for anyone who wants my behavior to be controlled by his beliefs.