deborah | The FSF reminds me of PETA sometimes

I'm grateful to the Free Software movement. I don't deny that the movement, the FSF, and the GNU Project have changed the world for the better. But every time I actually interact with Free Software people, I end up contemplating violence. (Note: I'm distinguishing Free Software from Open Source here; be aware that the link I'm giving here is to a Richard Stallman rant.)

In this thread "A Call to Arms" on the GNU mailing list, Eric Johansson desperately tries to bring sanity to a discussion about enabling Free Software to interact helpfully with proprietary accessibility tools (in this case, Dragon NaturallySpeaking). And time after time, Richard Stallman derails the conversation.

When Johansson tries to explain about the poverty of many people with disabilities, Stallman counters with Billions of people today are too poor to [use computers] and To lack money is unpleasant, but it does not mean you have lost your freedom. (Contrast being broke with being in jail.) When Johansson explains that Free Software is currently something completely unavailable to dictation users, Stallman reports Our goal is to eliminate proprietary software. Towards that end, we have to teach people it is bad. We cannot do that and simultaneously suggest a "solution" that includes NaturallySpeaking -- that is a non-starter here. He thus completely ignores Johansson's larger point, which is that you can't teach people that proprietary software "is bad" if you take away a system that works for them and replace it with one that doesn't.

But the kicker. My God, the kicker:

Responding to Johansson's assertion Let's say I bought into the philosophy. I would get rid of my computer because a free system that I can't use is fundamentally useless, Stallman retorts "Can't use" is such a strong statement that I wonder if it is another exaggeration, Even if you have no hands, there are other ways to input besides dictation.

Sometimes I feel like it's my responsible as both a developer with disabilities and a female developer to speak up in these conversations instead of just lurking. But by all that's holy, that man is poison, and why would I want to be exposed to that kind of poison?

For the record, I hate being tied to Windows. For 10 years I've been on an operating system I despise. I worked on the XVoice project, which has been in a continual cycle of develop-and-stall for years. I would LOVE to be able to be working on non-proprietary software, and this No Compromise attitude is precisely why I can't. So Richard Stallman, if you read this, I want you to realize that YOU are why I'm working on a Windows machine. You are why I can't leave. You are why I use Microsoft Word -- because it's the editor that understands my dictation software. You are why I use Adobe Photoshop instead of the GIMP. You are why I am unable to use the Free Software that I love.

And meanwhile, when Bill Cox asks Will programmers who use Windows and Naturally Speaking, or Windows and JAWs hesitate to join a FSF community? I can only point to this thread in which he asks it as my answer. Will I be willing to speak up and be a voice in the community whose recognized god gets pandered to when he questions the reported adaptive technology needs of another developer? I think the answer is apparent.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

DO NOT engage with Stallman. Just don't. There aren't enough spoons in the WORLD to be worth spending so much as a spoonlet on that misogynist ableist creep.

See also: Eric Raymond, Dave Winer...

can I just tell you how much I love your icon?

I'm not going to engage. Watching other people engage is tough enough. But what's worst is watching people who are on the side of light but feel like they have to defer to Stallman.

RMS is on the fanatic end of the FSF movement spectrum and that sort of uncompromising attitude is totally to its detriment in making it accessible and usable for the mainstream. The way to combat fanaticism is to get more voices speaking up for sanity. The end goal may be to have no need of proprietary software and it's useful to have a lofty ambition, but I'm fully in support of temporary compromises to make things Work for more people Now. So please, add your voice, and your sensible, reasoned comments to the discussion. Please be brave and stick it out and be heard. Hearing from accessibility advocates who need interoperability themselves and aren't speaking on behalf of others who they don't fully understand the needs of, is important. You will have people who support you.

A spinoff group (which looks like it might not involve Stallman) seems to be forming, and I've put in my word to be a part of that. So we'll see what happens.

It's interesting watching how much the fanaticism of the FSF is helping the group sideline itself. Last year at a conference, I watched a FSF member give a talk bemoaning the fact that they can't get anyone to join Emacs development anymore and heartily encouraging all his listeners to contribute to Emacs, all completely oblivious of all of the reasons why lively Emacs development might not be an appropriate place to be funneling youthful development efforts in 2010.

Cannot figure out why he would even bother to fight this idea! It's an obviously good idea! Is it that Dragon is proprietary, so why work with it? But that's not what he's saying!

Arrrrrgh!

As the conversation has gone on, RMS has gotten a lot more explicit. His opinion is that because Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a proprietary tool, any considerations which made it easier to use Free software with Dragon NaturallySpeaking (such as permitting interface with Dragon's Select-and-Say capability) is making it easier for users to work with "bad software". Perforce is an ideological failing to make it easier for those users, and compassion is misguided. HE SAID THAT.

"Compassion is misguided" pretty much sums up RMS, as far as I can tell.

RMS does not live on the same planet as the rest of us. I comfort myself with the knowledge that one day he will go away, and the rest of us can get back to the task of making software.

I find it really depressing that at a certain level what we are doing is waiting for the first-generation of FOSS developers to die (or, well, retire). I understand that in the long run we are going to win, and they are going to lose. As long as they go out there on five minute rant about why are you people developing anything other than Emacs?, the next generation will be ours. But in the meantime, they are here, and annoying, and have way too much influence.

(I came here via a friend's journal.)

Stallman is a bit of a twat, really; I don't particularly care for his methods of advocating nonproprietary software, and his methods have *real* consequences for people who would LIKE to use FOSS, but *can't* because there aren't any accessible options for them. But of course, RMS just doesn't care, and spews out a load of misogynistic, ableist nonsense.

Exactly.I give real props to the people who developed Orca, the GNOME screenreader,because it's not like they got any encouragement to continue using computers with existing screen readers in the interim, and I'm pretty sure a lot of the Orca developers are blind themselves. And more power to them.

But the projects to write underlying FOSS speech recognition engines have been stalled for over a decade, for all practical purposes, it is really incredibly difficult to do. There's a reason that until this year, only one company had created usable speech recognition software, and now that a second company has entered the market is Microsoft. It's because this stuff is HARD.

But because Stallman had sore hands for a year (and the resources to hire someone to type for him!), he thinks the rest of us should be able to get by without compromising.

Indeed, this is why I'm tied to Windows + JAWS or Apple. At least Apple includes accessibility in the baseline. But all the research I've done on linux and ubuntu and my netbook is still empty of a working OS.
I want to scream. I want support. I want to stop being treated like an inane creature; I want to not have to be a developer to get access to FSF and open source.

Exactly! I don't think I know any Orca users who aren't developers. But part of that conversation thread included people saying "if people want to use the open source tools they need to expect to be contributing to the projects." WTF? We are bad if we use proprietary software, but we have to be developers to use open-source software?

There are levels of irony here.

Back in high school, one of my friends had a summer job typing for RMS. RMS was developing carpal tunnel syndrome, and couldn't type. So Tim would go in every day and spend eight hours typing. RMS would say, "Meta-x whatever open bracket this and that" and just dictate to Tim.

If you were still arguing with him, which you are not, because you are sane and have no desire to do pointless things, you could mention that not everybody has the ability to hire a high school student to type for them.

*facepalm* The levels of privilege we have here are just overwhelming. I can't even... I just can't.

The FSF reminds me of PETA sometimes

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject