From his website stallman.org:
Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphona, so he will probably live many more years nonetheless. But he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.
Recent video of him speaking at GNU 40 Hacker Meeting. Screenshots of video stream.
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Stallman is like the friend you’ll never introduce to your family.
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I don’t think we’re too far away from AI’s that can refactor compiled code into any language of your choice; then all software will be open source.
Edit: lul; at least 50 people are butt hurt over the idea that an AI can decipher assembler in 5-10 years
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Ask it simple question a calculator can ask. Say square root of 48. It will give the wrong answer
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The problem is chatgpt will say you the wrong answer confidently unlike humans
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https://www.deepmind.com/blog/competitive-programming-with-alphacode
People overestimate how much it matters that ai “doesn’t have the capacity to understand it’s output”
Even if it doesn’t, is that a massive problem to overcome? There’s studies showing that if you have an ai list the potential problems with an output and then apply them to its own output it performs significantly better. Perhaps we’re just a recursive algorithm away from that.
Perhaps we’re just a recursive algorithm.
stop getting all your info about AI and it’s current/upcoming capabilities from mainstream news media my dude lol
We’re nowhere close to what you describe, and even we were, that wouldn’t be the same thing as “open source”, since you could only do it to code you have access to. You couldn’t - for example, use it to get a copy of the Reddit/Facebook server-side source code
we are very very very far away from that
You should know the difference between free software, open source software and source-visible software.
I rank it Free>opensource>source availiable
Downvoted because phrased as a technical solution. There might be a technical solution one day but until then, if it ever happens, it’s a moral problem. By phrasing it otherwise we diminish the value and efforts of countless people, including RMS, who did invest their time in FLOSS for an ideal. Again it might happen but until then we must bet on what is right, not an idealized future that prompts idleness because it is genuinely dangerous.
I think we still have a long way to go before this is equivalent to “the preferred form for modification”. I’d give it at least 5 more years. It would be really cool if you could just say “Hello AI, please remove all ad code from Windows”. But I think it is going to be a long time until we get there.
Also as this gets closer companies will get more defensive. It will become an arms race of obfuscating the code vs the AI understanding it.
And still, free software that can be modified and the copies can be redistributed is a world away from being able to ask your AI to try and make these modifications yourself.
On top of all of that don’t forget about DMCA where circumventing digital protections is a crime, even if you don’t commit any other crime.
Seeing him without his beard and hair feels so wrong and even uncanny. I hope he has a lot more years ahead of him and he kicks cancer’s ass.
His great hair is just too iconic, I would never have recognized him.
I hope he live enough years to grow back his hair and beard
*GNU+cancer
I have a hard time deciding what to do with this.
On the one hand… Dude, even as someone who loves dark humour, I couldn’t bring myself to make a cancer joke upon news of a diagnosis unless the person was a true shitstain on the earth, like Trump.
On the other hand…that was fucking brilliant and works on so many levels.
That’s a terrible joke that deserves the downvotes, because cancer is shit and I only wish the best to anyone who is diagnosed with it, but I laughed.
I don’t get the joke :c
Cancer is absolute shit, but I do also love dark humour (when I get it lawl)
It’s a reference to a copypasta.
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Aha! Thank you for the context!
It’s also a reference to Steve Ballmer from Microsoft calling Linux a cancer
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Well it’s dark humor and I can see how some are deeply offended. The post even says it’s a slow growing treatable form, so personally I’ll laugh at the joke. It’s not like he’s end stage untreatable form of cancer. Like you know arch linux running on WSL level cancer.
Certified banger
My humor is fucking dark so I had to laugh but that one dose go a little far, it’s a good joke but with that timing I certainly wouldn’t make it!
His page doesn’t load so it must be overwhelmed with visitors.
Linux users all around the world who want to be close to him.
When things matter, we are a good community guys <3Really unfortunate. He looks rough. May his days be long yet.
Is he accepting medical treatments that require non-free software? Serious question, from what I know of him he would rather die. I don’t know if that changes when you’re actually faced with it though.
Software freedom applies only to hardware you personally own. It wouldn’t even apply to machines you interact with but do not own (such as ATMs or kiosks) since you aren’t the one who agrees to the proprietary software license.
Stallman himself explains it in his computing FAQ.
He mentioned once that he can use a bank that doesn’t use free software because he’s not logging in to it to do general purpose computing. I think the same would probably apply to medical treatments.
I believe he does extend it to JavaScript however, so if he were required to run unfree javascript on a webpage relating to his treatment that could be a problem.
Yes, if the JavaScript is running on a computer he owns. JavaScript programs running in a browser are just as much software as any other type of program.
It’s embedded JavaScript though … The code is available by design.
The code merely being “available” isn’t the same thing as the user having the legal freedom to modify and share it. Besides, that’s not always the case; sometimes JavaScript is minified, obfuscated, and packed in ways that make it effectively no different than any other compiled program.
Note that source code is “the preferred form for making modifications” so obfuscated code is by definition not “source.”
man, those screenshots hurt
Yes Stallman have issues but you dont wish someone dead! I know someone who is currently battling cancer and on chemotherapy and its an awful situation just to see it. I hope RMS can beat the cancer.
What? Who’s wishing for Stallman’s death?
93A1A71EABD6B6CD658458CC1F4
I certainly hope no one is actually wishing for Stallman’s death, but I feel at least a few people will be “glad he’s gone” as Stallman said of Steve Jobs.
Yes Stallman have issues but you dont wish someone dead!
What
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Cancer and clean-shavenness aside, I disagree with much of his talk. I don’t see making social media (or “anti-social media” as he calls it) illegal is the best solution.
Heck’s sake, Ballmer hexed that one on Stallman, with all that saying that “Linux is a cancer” and all that
as cancers go, this one seems better than the usual ones.
My dad is recovering from cancer and it was a hard fight, I sincerely wish the best for Stallman.
The last part of the headline reminds me of windows
