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Bullshit (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 day ago by Stamets@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works

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[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 59 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Richard Stallman literally started the Free Software Foundation over his frustrations with a printer

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt

Xerox gave the Artificial Intelligence Lab, where I worked, a laser printer, and this was a really handsome gift, because it was the first time anybody outside Xerox had a laser printer. And, you know, copiers jam, but there's somebody there to fix them.

Well, we had an idea for how to deal with this problem. Change it so that whenever the printer gets a jam, the machine that runs the printer can [...] tell the users who are waiting for printouts go fix the printer.

But at that point, we were completely stymied, because the software that ran that printer was not free software. It had come with the printer, and it was just a binary.

And then I heard that somebody at Carnegie Mellon University had a copy of that software. So I was visiting there later, so I went to his office and I said, "Hi, I'm from MIT. Could I have a copy of the printer source code?" And he said "No, I promised not to give you a copy." He had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Now, this was my first, direct encounter with a non-disclosure agreement, and it taught me an important lesson -- [..] non-disclosure agreements have victims. They're not innocent. [...]

(he goes on for a bit, but ultimately describes never accepting any software that requires signing an NDA ever, and then goes on to write his own unix)

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 17 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

And then I heard that somebody at Carnegie Mellon University had a copy of that software. So I was visiting there later, so I went to his office and I said, “Hi, I’m from MIT. Could I have a copy of the printer source code?” And he said “No, I promised not to give you a copy.” He had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

"this is it kids, this is the moment, right here, where all the madness starts.... " time traveller viewing the birth of free & open source software

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 3 points 10 hours ago

And now you can print from Linux without installing a driver from a cd