i want to like rms but you get the sense that he doesn't live in the real world whenever you read his stuff.
I mean, seriously, Android is about a lightyear more open than iOS and there are super good reasons Honeycomb is not out. An OEM in China would promptly put out some sort of crappy phone that uses it and wrecks the Android brand.
What has RMS written that is not real?
He knows that some non-free software is compelling and profitable, but he argues that in the long run of is unstainable. And when you look at Lion and Metro and Google Apps' only half-baked Data Liberation Front and compare to what RMS wrote 20 years ago, it is clear he is very much in the real world, unfortunately.
Is Android the least evil? Probably. But it is still not free. And RMS doesn't say you mustn't Android and whatever else; he just days that you shouldn't if you want to protect and promote software freedom, and he is a living model of an example free software lifestyle, for better or worse.
he just days that you shouldn't if you want to protect and promote software freedom
So what phone do I use then? There's a couple select phones that might qualify, but they are fringe, expensive and impractical.
This is what your parent is referring to. When people talk about how rms doesn't "live in the real world" they are coming from a "people who, at the end of the day, have to get sh*t done" point of view. Both viewpoints have their merits.
These guys sure ruin the Android brand with a cheap and beautiful phone after spending lots of time to make Android actually nice to look at and much more pleasing.
Disclaimer: I'm back running cyanogenmod now, but that's mostly because MIUI on my piece of kit isn't rock stable yet (neither is cyanogenmod, but..) and because I'm actually not that much into bling. But MIUI was definitely sweet and showed innovation.
> An OEM in China would promptly put out some sort of crappy phone that uses it and wrecks the Android brand.
They're totally free to do that right now, they don't need a more open version of android for that.
It's not as if google is limiting who has or does not have access to the platform.
The issue that RMS is trying to address is one that matters to a small subset of those that buy the phones, your ability to modify the code and improve it.
The price of the lowest end android smartphones is dropping so fast there won't be any room left at the bottom for a hypothetical even lower end phone.
As for android being 'more open than ios' RMS makes that point in the article.
I mean, seriously, Android is about a lightyear more open than iOS and there are super good reasons Honeycomb is not out. An OEM in China would promptly put out some sort of crappy phone that uses it and wrecks the Android brand.