Free software champion Richard Stallman’s netbook

Ever find yourself wondering what warrior for the free software movement Richard Stallman uses as his primary computer? It’s a Lemote Yeelong netbook. That makes sense, since as we told you a while back, this netbook uses 100% free and open source software. Everything from the BIOS to the OS to the drivers are open source. And that makes Stallman happy.

What doesn’t make Stallman happy is the fact that the Yeelong has a small screen, slow processor, and not enough RAM. In other words, he didn’t really choose the the Yeelong because he was looking for a netbook. He chose it because it’s open source. Aside from the software, it doesn’t sound like he’s all that impressed.

Stallman does say he plans to upgrade from the 9 inch model to a version with a 10 inch screen soon, which should help a bit.

Oh, the other interesting thing? Stallman doesn’t connect to the internet very often. He goes online one to three times a day to send and receive email. It really doesn’t sound like he wanted a netbook at all.

The Lemote Yeelong netbook, by the way, has an 800MHz Loongson CPU, an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, up to 1GB of RAM, and a choice of a 2GB or 8GB SSD or a 160GB HDD. It ships with Debian Linux, but it can run any number of Linux-based operating systems.

via Smarterware and MiniFrag

Posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010, 11:17 am by Brad Linder

http://twitter.com/turn_self_off turn_self_off

heh, if RMS heard you use “open source” he would probably correct you to “free(dom) software”
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lccurtis1

I wonder if he has inquired to some of the major manufacturers to see if they would provide him with a completely opened sourced netbook? I am sure this would be a good marketing point for those manufactures looking to capture that open source consumer. Then again maybe open source is not as much of a demand as we make it out to be?
http://twitter.com/turn_self_off turn_self_off

i would claim that a job sixpack consumer dont care as long as he can access his porn and torrents…

bread, circus and all that stuff…
http://www.facebook.com/johndstewart John Stewart

sure, but there's still a decent number of non-sixpack geek users who might be interested. Dell does a decent business in Ubuntu machines (esp outside the US).
Brian

Indeed. Here are his thoughts on open source.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misse…
PC

Sounds like he got exactly what he didn't pay for.
http://www.netbookfiles.com/ Mehboob

I developed http://www.netbookfiles.com using my Eee PC 701.

And I am not kidding.

The whole site was developed on a Eee 701 which I still use.

So it is always possible.
http://www.facebook.com/david.gosnell David Gosnell

Trust RMS to choose ideology over practicality. I'm a big fan of open source (I refrain from using the word “free” for various reasons) but know where its limits lie.
http://www.facebook.com/david.gosnell David Gosnell

The VIA Nano reference designs seemed to be going in this direction at one point. No idea if anything ever came of it in the end.
http://www.facebook.com/david.gosnell David Gosnell

Can I get open-source fries also then? Or just BBQ sauce?
pauli

as the saying goes… “if it's good enough for rms, it's not good enough for me.”
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fana

“warrior for the open source movement”

OH MY! Don't let him read THAT
fana

“warrior for the open source movement”

OH MY! Don't let him read THAT
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http://www.facebook.com/nmvictor Moin’ Victor

If I had the resources plus of course the charisma and respect bestowed unto you by your decision some years back, I would be living just like you rms -open source all the way, from the peripheral devices to that tiny microprocessor. i love open source but as for the moment I’m scared of our future now that some stupid Oracle (OraKILL) company has most of our products within its cruel and malicious power.

Free software champion Richard Stallman’s netbook

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