<story><title>Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook</title><url>https://stallman.org/facebook.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>umanwizard</author><text>Nobody needs GNU software; they can use FreeBSD which is just as good. They can also use clang and lldb instead of gcc and gdb.&lt;p&gt;You can debate about whether those would have existed in their present form without the leadership of the FSF, but then you&amp;#x27;d be making a different argument.&lt;p&gt;By the way, I&amp;#x27;m not sure if you are trying to imply that Stallman brought us the Internet but I can&amp;#x27;t see how that could possibly be true.</text></item><item><author>chflags</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll bet Zuckerberg and countless Facebook employees have used software written by Stallman.&lt;p&gt;At the risk of being wrong, I&amp;#x27;d even go so far as to say they &lt;i&gt;need&lt;/i&gt; this software.&lt;p&gt;But does Stallman ever need to use software written by Zuckerberg or Facebook employees?&lt;p&gt;Personalities and errors in judgment aside, give respect and credit where it is due.&lt;p&gt;I have never needed Facebook&amp;#x27;s software.  And I doubt I ever will.&lt;p&gt;From a purely utilitarian viewpoint, my gratitude goes to Stallman and the people who brought us the internet.  I&amp;#x27;m not sure what I could thank Facebook for.&lt;p&gt;If Zuckerberg had failed to be in the right place at the right time, there would always be a substitute.&lt;p&gt;But if there was no Stallman back in the 70&amp;#x27;s and 80&amp;#x27;s, would we still have gcc, gdb and so much free, open source software?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chflags</author><text>&amp;quot;...I&amp;#x27;m not sure if you are trying to imply that Stallman brought us the Internet...&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;No.  The opposite.  I&amp;#x27;m trying to draw attention to the fact that besides free open source software, improvements in the network allow companies like Facebook to grow as big as they are.&lt;p&gt;Before clang, FreeBSD used gcc.  I&amp;#x27;m actually not a GNU&amp;#x2F;Linux user; I wish BSD did not have to use gcc, but for as long as I&amp;#x27;ve been a user, release engineering has always used gcc.  I would personally prefer to use something like pcc as opposed to clang.&lt;p&gt;Today, lots of companies use GNU software, when they could just as easily use BSD.  And many BSD users still need gcc to compile their OS. Not how I expected things to turn out but attacking Stallman makes little sense at this point.&lt;p&gt;Instead, maybe we should be thanking him.&lt;p&gt;Companies like Facebook offer very little while taking all our personal information for their commercial use, while open source projects like BSD and GNU continue to offer a great deal, without requiring so much as an account or password, much less tracking our every move.</text></comment>
<story><title>Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook</title><url>https://stallman.org/facebook.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>umanwizard</author><text>Nobody needs GNU software; they can use FreeBSD which is just as good. They can also use clang and lldb instead of gcc and gdb.&lt;p&gt;You can debate about whether those would have existed in their present form without the leadership of the FSF, but then you&amp;#x27;d be making a different argument.&lt;p&gt;By the way, I&amp;#x27;m not sure if you are trying to imply that Stallman brought us the Internet but I can&amp;#x27;t see how that could possibly be true.</text></item><item><author>chflags</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll bet Zuckerberg and countless Facebook employees have used software written by Stallman.&lt;p&gt;At the risk of being wrong, I&amp;#x27;d even go so far as to say they &lt;i&gt;need&lt;/i&gt; this software.&lt;p&gt;But does Stallman ever need to use software written by Zuckerberg or Facebook employees?&lt;p&gt;Personalities and errors in judgment aside, give respect and credit where it is due.&lt;p&gt;I have never needed Facebook&amp;#x27;s software.  And I doubt I ever will.&lt;p&gt;From a purely utilitarian viewpoint, my gratitude goes to Stallman and the people who brought us the internet.  I&amp;#x27;m not sure what I could thank Facebook for.&lt;p&gt;If Zuckerberg had failed to be in the right place at the right time, there would always be a substitute.&lt;p&gt;But if there was no Stallman back in the 70&amp;#x27;s and 80&amp;#x27;s, would we still have gcc, gdb and so much free, open source software?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>webkike</author><text>Needed. LLVM hasn&amp;#x27;t been around as long as Facebook, and for a long time initially you couldn&amp;#x27;t (or wanted to) build the Linux kernel with it.</text></comment>