The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing (2012)
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HN comment orderThis is something Stallman[1] and others have talked about for a while now, with this article having been published in 2003[2]. [1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.en.html [2] https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
When I read articles like this my fears always move straight to a future where it has become harder to program for play. I appreciate that this concern is somewhat superficial compared with some of the issues raised in this article, but I feel profoundly grateful to be able to tinker with computers in my spare time. I feel this more deeply than the fear that my music collection might not survive a computer upgrade or that the government might…
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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
- 2
- Total points
- 696
- Total comments
- 309
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-08-26 | The coming civil war over general purpose computingFirst breakout | Create | 279 | 98 |
| 2015-05-24 | Cory Doctorow: The Coming Civil War Over General Purpose Computing (2012) | oskarth | 2 | 0 |
| 2016-07-02 | The coming civil war over general purpose computing (2012) | userbinator | 7 | 0 |
| 2019-05-10 | The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing | gfmio | 1 | 1 |
| 2020-10-23 | The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing (2012)Hall induction · Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | pdkl95 | 405 | 210 |
| 2023-03-31 | The Coming Civil War over General Purpose Computing (2012) | archagon | 2 | 0 |