On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 22:45, Richard Stallman
<rms@gnu.org> wrote:
I don't think Richard's statement is completely ignorant or wrong; I just
feel it's stated in a completely inappropriate way.
I don't see anything wrong with it, but if you have an idea for how to
do it better, please go ahead.
First, if I were in your highly esteemed and respected position as a leader of FSF, with an essentially correct message, I would write a message a month later.
I would directly reflect upon Jobs' positive contributions, as well as bad ones.
I would reflect upon the positive contributions: Apple's contributions to GCC, contributions to LLVM and Clang, expansion of LGPLed KHTML into WebKit.
I would then reflect upon the negative sides, and ask the readers not to forget the good nor the bad contributions he made to the industry. That way, your message would be heard, would not elicit negative reactions, while scoring points by pointing out to people that locked down systems are bad.
The message could include the negative view of Android, which, despite claiming openness, does not result in devices easily unlockable in a manufacturer supported way.
The message could also include the positive view of Maemo/MeeGo, and perhaps include a disappointment in Nokia CEO's abandonment of what seems to me the most free mobile device system currently on the market that could actually get end users to use it. (It does have binary blobs, but for the most part, it's free. More so than Android.)
That's what I would write. Not exactly an application of De mortuis nil nisi bonum, but close enough.
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