Richard Stallman video

[jpeters]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9200017148771621670

[tobiaus]

i've seen it. he's here, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPmtQDWZ1s

[jpeters]

I think it's kind of ironic that we need adobe flash to watch Stallman's videos.  I wonder what his ideas are about that..

[tobiaus]

technically, it's possible to download the file and play it in mplayer. i have never been able to use mplayer for .flv files without it closing with an annoying error every time it plays a video. the video plays first, so it's not useless, but it's always given me the impression that mplayer is a piece of... i like vlc, which has the same problem with some videos (but not .flv.) but i haven't got vlc installed and the main apps tc lacks imo are pcmanfm and qemu. i wish i knew why other people enjoy mplayer more.

if rms is like the guy in the video you posted, then he won't even install flash. i'm unhappy that gnash is not available to play youtube videos, and if it was i wouldn't use adobe's. so long as youtube is functional, that's enough in terms of flash support. it's too tedious to browse youtube videos by downloading them all the time, even if you watch them while you download.

according to stallman that makes me a "coward," but he's right about most things. we all say dumb stuff at times, he's just less afraid of doing so than most people. the list of things i don't do because i care about the same things he cares about would make most people think i'm nuts, but giving people a little leeway lets more people fight for software freedom... even the ones that get it but aren't all-or-nothing. (in other words, most people.)

i never buy "you're either with us or against us" from anyone, free software is based on the freedom of speech, and free speech is based on the right to think for yourself- even the right to make mistakes and be imperfect. (along the theme of the video and your question, adobe flash  is imperfect in more ways than one.)

[mikshaw]

I've never really had much interest in listening to what Stallman (or even Raymond or Torvalds) has to say in terms of ethics, business, or politics.  Each person has his/her own set of morals, but many people seem to need a leader to tell them what to believe.  Stallman appears to love that power of intellectual leadership, but his preaching does nothing for me except annoy =o)

i wish i knew why other people enjoy mplayer more.

MPlayer doesn't seem to be the most stable application available, but I still prefer it to others I've tried.  A good, solid multimedia system in general seems to be one of the most complicated things to accomplish in Linux, particularly when starting from scratch.  I don't have much experience with VLC, so some of my reasons for preferring MPlayer might be flawed.  Anyway, I like that it doesn't need a GUI, and can be used in X or console. This also allows it to fit nicely with mc and terminal, for example, when playing audio files...they playback without opening a new window, as if you were using mpg123 or sox. If you browse through the manual, you see a huge variety of things that can be done with it (and mencoder), including ripping video, audio, and frames, reencoding/fixing video streams, embedding the player in other applications, and adjusting playback speed and syncing audio/video on the fly with the touch of a key.

i never buy "you're either with us or against us" from anyone

I agree.  Everyone has good and bad qualities, and there is no solid line that can be drawn between two groups which specifies Group A is right and Group B is wrong.

[tobiaus]

Stallman appears to love that power of intellectual leadership, but his preaching does nothing for me except annoy =o)

he probably does. however i think the free software movement could very easily be co-opted into a sense of convenience-over-freedom that, while it doesn't need an extremist like stallman to keep it relevant, benefits from a leader. thus i won't hold it against him that he enjoys being one, even if he isn't as much of one because he lets perfectionism make him petty and (if you can see it anywhere in the video) spiteful. he can't decide if he's a greek philosopher or a greek god, but i don't mind his politics as much as his tone.

who's going to take over the fsf decades from now is the number one question, i think. by definition of free software anyway, it's not about him and his obsession with "gnu/linux" (while it may provide minor publicity) is exactly the sort of reason people think his mission is meaningless. he says it's not the most important thing, but his tone doesn't make him look honest about it. whether you call it gnu or linux or gnu/linux matters as much to software freedom as obama's lapel pin means to national security, and if it isn't the most important thing he should give it up and focus on what's important.

MPlayer doesn't seem to be the most stable application available, but I still prefer it to others I've tried.

yeah but i wonder why mplayer stops playing every time i play an .flv file. i can't use "repeat" or put more than one vid in a playlist, and in my experience is having apps close like that can make everything else unstable. either other edit: forget what i said about mplayer... the nodeps run-from-cli version that curaga made is great people experience it differently (same for me in dsl and tc and everywhere else, but i doubt they're the same mplayer version, let alone the same kernel) or they experience what i do and that's just okay with them. either way it's confusing (but options are good.)