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Comment by backprojection | Hacker News Reader

In case anyone didn't catch it, Stephen Fry extolling GNU and free software:

https://gnu.org/fry/happy-birthday-to-gnu.html

This man is a wonderful person.

While I appreciate the focus, the guy is entirely opposite when it actually comes to technology purchasing and quite happily throws piles of cash at closed proprietary products on a daily basis and brags about it on television.

Better to have someone like Stephen Fry talking about it and raising awareness then nobody at all.

Until one day he is found out to be not credible on most things he blabbers about and it goes all over the press. Then people will just demonise everything he endorses.

After watching this particular video, it was clumsy, with lots of rough edges. It doesn't seem to have been written for a target audience, and contains a grab-bag of iffy factoids - which is not up to Fry's reputation of knowledgable, insightful commentary. At the very least, they could have moved the MBA out of frame.

MBA can't run GNU?

Anyone that can make a hackintosh already knows everything that Fry mentioned - which is one of the reasons why I said the target audience is unclear. And half the people who can run a hackintosh will be able to pick the errors in what he said as well. For those who aren't aware of the hackintosh, having the MBA in-frame sends a very mixed message. Why even defend it's presence? The founder of GNU hates Apple products for philosophical reasons directly related to the fundamental principles of GNU. Having it in frame is a misfire.

Fry is one of the most amazing people on the planet, but he was still a bad choice for this video, given that he actively lionises Apple's products - to the point where he receives special editions available to none other than Jobs himself.

A Macbook Air running GNU/Linux isn't a hackintosh.

Why defend it? I made the film.

So? I don't see why this matters. You can support free software and purchase proprietary hardware without being a hypocrite.

FWIW, Fry is a manic depressive and buying a shitload of technology is a side effect of his medical condition. Fortunately for him he has the financial means to do this, others are not so lucky.

That was 5 years ago for the 25th birthday, but the message is still true, and quite well explained for love technology but perhaps less technically inclined.

Glad you like it. I made this :) It was the project that got me to move to the US, and eventually start a couple GNU projects of my own (GNU FM and GNU social)

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