Richard Stallman has cancer

pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to Linux@lemmy.ml – 846 points –

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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Sad news about a pioneer of internet freedom. He has earned his fair share of criticism and detractors, but he has also given a lot to the Linux and free software ecosystem. I personally run !boinc@sopuli.xyz on all my rigs to support open-source cancer research, I hope one day we can finally cross cancer off the list of humankind's foes.

Stallman is like the friend you'll never introduce to your family.

The guy in your WoW guild who carries hard but you know you never want to meet.

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 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 <3

From what I read it slow growing and pretty manageable as far as cancer is manageable of course. Hope he'll make a quick recovery, and start growing that magnificent beard back.

If Hank Green is anything to go by, it'll only come back stronger.

Edit: His beard I mean.

Yikes. Your comment was very easy to take out of context.

Until I read back, it looked like you were saying Hank's cancer was somehow back stronger than before (which would have to have been practically fresh breaking news), and not a comment on post-chemotherapy beard growth being different, perhaps stronger, than before.

Follicular cancer doesn't sound like it bodes as well for a beard as other kinds of lymphoma (like Hank's was) but hey, you might still be right.

(RMS is a controversial character in some regards. While I wouldn't strictly wish the loss of a greybeard's beard as cosmic correction of controversial behaviour, I'd much rather that than cancer. That'd be too far, Universe.)

Really unfortunate. He looks rough. May his days be long yet.

Eff cancer :(

Hopefully some day we get to the point where it's as rare as polio. I think that's the same kind that Hank Green had though, IIRC. Hopefully it's as manageable.

Your comment confused me since I thought you were saying the EFF was cancer at first.

I have never read the initialisation EFF as “eff” before but now… can’t unsee

RMS is a hero he will survive. I really respect this dude commitment to his beliefs and values and everyone know that he is right despite any personal biases against him. Foss is the way.

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.

If you would like to put my speech on the Internet, or distribute it in digital form, I insist on using the formats of the free software community: Ogg Vorbis or Ogg Speex

Streaming is a kind of Internet distribution, so everything in the previous section applies. In particular, you must use only Ogg format or Matroska VP8 (Webm).

http://xahlee.info/emacs/misc/rms_speech_requirement.html

It seems reasonable to wonder if he'll allow an MRI image of his cancer if that image isn't saved in a Free format. I don't know where he draws the line, but his requirements seem to go quite a bit beyond what he owns or interacts with.

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.

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."

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.

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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.

My dad is recovering from cancer and it was a hard fight, I sincerely wish the best for Stallman.

as cancers go, this one seems better than the usual ones.

The usual ones aren't so bad, people don't hear much about them because they're so usual and mild.

It's incurable but usually has a good long term prognosis (97% 5 year survival rate and most people live 20+ years from diagnosis). Seems that the best RMS will get is remission but not cancer free.

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The last part of the headline reminds me of windows

wait, covid-19 is still a thing!!? which year is this.

It's gonna be 2020 every damn year until the last of those damned redcaps drops dead wondering why they can't taste the horse paste.

If you live in the USA is still a thing (boosters and masks)

In the rest of the world (like me), is a thing from the past for some time

*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.

Yeah I love dark humor as well but timing is everything.

I had pretty much the same thought process.
It's dark, but brilliant.
Yet I can't imagine RMS being offended by this, so I shouldn't either.
That's the kind of thing I wouldn't be too surprised to hear from the guy himself.

The world is a better place because of him and I wish him well.

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)

Comes from the copy pasta of "I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux" and. And a bit more memeing with the fact that Linux itself is not as "free/libre" as GNU AFAIK (or the famous quote of Linux is cancer from Ballmer)

Thank you! I’m just getting into Linux and stuff.

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

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.

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!

Retard

Dunno why you of all people are insulting their intelligence.

While they made a clever double reference to the GNU/Linux meme and tying it in with the Ballmer 'Linux is cancer' rant, you not only come out with a one word response, but that one word makes you look infinitely worse than the person who literally made a cancer joke upon news of a diagnosis.

Maybe ableist slurs weren't the best idea?

While they made a clever double reference to the GNU/Linux meme and tying it in with the Ballmer 'Linux is cancer' rant

No. It's an unfunny and retarded "meme" that is overused by redditors. And this obviously isn't related to the steve ballmer rant. They just use the same template with any subject.

Just because you ain't got the braincells to make the connection doesn't mean others can't.

Speaking of overuse, you sure are using the r-word liberally for someone who couldn't get the joke. Or is it one of those "I'm black therefore I can use the N-word" kind of things?

Fucking retard. The subject of this post is cancer. That is all. You think you're smart for overthinking the connection.

Why yes, that slur does apply to me! You see, I have autism and don't take particularly kindly to that slur.

Unlike you though, I actually have to tell people before they know there's something wrong with me. Because, again unlike you, I can act like a normal human being. As opposed to acting like a 5 year old that just learned the r-word. Sorry, I can tell you need an explanation for these things!

Haha wow you are so cool

They are certainly cooler than you and I can tell that from three really stupid messages, you aren't on Reddit anymore pal!

What do you have to gain from being this rude to strangers and using slurs against them? This behavior is legitimately antisocial, and unless you're literally 13 years old it's inexcusable.

Did you really make an account just to post this comment?

You know, serious question from someone relatively new to the fediverse: how do you make sure that people won't just create many accounts across instances if they want to evade bans or create one-time throwaways for posting abusive comments? One instance has no idea about users on other instances after all.

You can't, not effectively. This ain't necessarily a federation problem though, centralised social media has the same problem. You can do the same on Reddit.

That's not to say there aren't things that can be done. Instances can agree to implement shared banlists that include known-abusive IPs or, if an abusive user has a habit of using a pattern in their evasion usernames, you can use a Regex to hunt them out.

On reddit the entire user database is in the hands of one company, so they might be able to tell whether two people are (likely) the same person. So I think that might actually be a problem made worse by federation.

You'd be surprised how hard the task is. Any given identifier can be trivially changed. IP addresses aren't permanent and change frequently for home users. Multiple people genuinely use the same IP. People are likely to have very similar writing styles to someone else by complete coincidence. Browser fingerprinting can be thrown off by simply using another browser or fucking with the User Agent.

That about puts paid to any identifiers either Reddit or an instance owner may have.

Mad? Cry more

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