Richard Stallman is a large man. A large man with a beard that could easily hide a family of poor, migrant workers from La Migra for days on end. Am I claiming that Mr. Stallman is guilty of hiding illegal immigrants in his beard for fun and profit? No, I’m claiming that he hates video game consoles.
A Dtoid reader, Matthew, sent us an email earlier directing my attention to this ZDNet blog, where Mr. Stallman converses with one of the writers there about the evils of the consoles we all have in our homes. To wit;
Q: One final question. We’re seeing more and more devices, and I’m thinking specifically of games consoles — I know that my kids have one in the house — where there is no —
Richard Stallman: I wouldn’t. You have to learn how to say no to your kids.
Q: That’s true, that’s true, I wouldn’t deny it. Now, there is no free software at all for devices like this [correction: Yellow Dog supports some console(s)].
Richard Stallman: That’s why there is no possible ethical way you could use one, and so you shouldn’t have it.
Q: All right, I think I’ll take the kids out on the bike more often.
Richard Stallman: That would be much better for them.
Far be it from me to call anyone with facial hair of that magnitude a raving psychopath, but I think all the years of being the Ingrid Newkirk of the FOSS movement have turned Richard into the kind of raving zealout that Muslim clerics go gay for. Refusing to give your children a device that would bring them endless amounts of joy simply because you have been disallowed from writing a program that would make the Xbox 360 send a text message to your Linux-enabled toaster whenever a new .bin of the first season of Spaced hits Mininova, is not only crazy, it’s the sort of thing that drives children to grow beards like Mr. Stallman’s.
Seriously, did you see that beard?!?
Published: Apr 7, 2007 03:04 am