[wazoox]

> Users do not mess with their car's firmware.

Lately Jaguar recalled 18000 cars because of a potentially lethal firmware bug. I'm pretty sure a common, generalized open-source automotive embedded platform would be a huge enhancement in all respects.

> Regardless of Stallman's contributions, the whole point of "free software" is no longer relevant.

On the contrary. At times when our governments are moving away from democracy and computer software are always more important tools of control and enforcement, Free Software is more critically relevant every day.

[alavrik]

In this case, there is clearly a disconnect between idealization and the reality.

Today, Stallman's and FSF's real political and social influence is miniscule.

FSF had some impressive achievements in the 90s, but they failed to utilize the social capital efficiently and couldn't catch up with rapid ecosystem changes (e.g. software and computer programming becoming mainstream).

An example of this is tivoization clause in GPLv3 which is a nuisance for businesses and contributes to marginalization of the license.

[wazoox]

> Today, Stallman's and FSF's real political and social influence is miniscule.

I don't think it to be minuscule among programmers and hackers.

> An example of this is tivoization clause in GPLv3 which is a nuisance for businesses and contributes to marginalization of the license.

I don't see what makes the tivoization clause a nuisance for business. I think it's a misconception, like the idea that software patents are good for anybody but lawyers and trolls.