[quickben]

Eh. He and you have different lifestyles. I also can't fathom there lifestyles of the shepherds back home that go without human contact for months at a time, but they have a lifestyle.

Just because you don't want to switch your lifestyle, or we trade convenience for exposure, doesn't mean that stalman's lifestyle is wrong.

It's just different choice, and we are comparing apples to oranges here.

[throwanem]

He satisfies himself with contempt for those who find it not so easy as he has to choose the life he's chosen. I won't be satisfied until we have a world which makes no such choice necessary. Hardly apples to oranges; more apples to orchards.

As it happens, I recently attempted to open a conversation on this subject with the man himself, in a public forum. I was polite, if uncompromising. He was profane, and preferred to have a minion disconnect my microphone rather than address the point I raised. Many people in the hours that followed found it worth their while to seek me out and thank me for making the attempt. Perhaps more thanked him for his response. I hope I may be forgiven for finding that improbable. In any case, he found no reason not to sign my Emacs manual when I approached him not long afterward, so I can at least hope that, however fundamental the differences in our positions on this matter and however unlikely the prospect of fruitful debate, there may remain at least some modicum of mutual respect.