Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment order"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw We should all be thankful to rms for his unreasonableness. It has literally been the underpinning of so much of what we take for granted vis-a-vis free software.
Stallman's critique of software, hardware, and services as tools of social control has only become more relevant over the years. Can you imagine his search records being rifled through by a government investigator? Or his Facebook profile being examined by an employer? No, because they don't exist. Nor can you imagine his computer being locked by a bootloader that only allows "Genuine Windows". He's not concerned about looking weird. For certain audiences this is a disadvantage. But he is concerned…
I admire Stallman's unworldly, unfettered commitment to his principles. It's difficult to live an ethical life, and twice as difficult to live an ethical life under capitalism. Stallman's manic devotion to assiduously following his own moral compass is, bizarre though its manifestation may be, something we should all aspire towards. That being said, I'm perpetually frustrated by the boneheadedness of his ethical commitments. They strike me as ineffective and, more critically, unsound: it seems to me like Stallman…
> First, read a textbook about programming in some language, then manuals for several programming languages including Lisp. If they make natural intuitive sense to you, that indicates your mind is well-adapted towards programming. > If they don't make intuitive sense to you, I suggest you do something other than programming. You might be able to do programming to some degree with a struggle, but if you find it a struggle you won't be very good at it and you…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 777
- Total comments
- 821
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-04-07 | Richard Stallman: How I do my ComputingFirst breakout | Ideka | 205 | 276 |
| 2013-03-15 | How I do my Computing | ari_elle | 5 | 7 |
| 2014-02-24 | Stallman Computing | ragsagar | 1 | 0 |
| 2015-05-17 | How I do my computingBest thread | fs111 | 334 | 327 |
| 2016-10-25 | Richard Stallman: How I do my computing (2015)Hall induction | aleyan | 82 | 117 |
| 2017-12-06 | How to learn programming? | tjr | 3 | 0 |
| 2018-03-03 | Richard Stallman's computing habits | cynicaldevil | 1 | 0 |
| 2018-11-29 | Richard Stallman: How I do my computing | wooby | 54 | 22 |
| 2020-07-21 | How I do my computing | chha | 28 | 20 |
| 2021-10-27 | How I Do My Computing | hidden-spyder | 1 | 0 |
| 2023-07-29 | Richard Stallman – How I do my computingLatest 20+ point return | scrlk | 60 | 52 |
| 2025-12-09 | Stallman – Lisp | AlexeyBrin | 3 | 0 |