How Richard Stallman does his computing

Richard Stallman describes a computing setup shaped by ethics and privacy. He usually avoids direct website connections from his own machine, fetches pages through another program, checks them with lynx first when possible, and sometimes uses IceCat via Tor. He also says he never pays for anything on the Web unless it is tied to his own domain.

Reading notes

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• ethics and privacy concerns come before convenience in how he uses the Internet
• he usually does not connect to websites directly from his own machine, except for a few sites with a special relationship to him
• he fetches web pages through a program that mails them back to him, then reads them in a browser or directly in the HTML when possible
• he tries lynx first, then a graphical browser if the page needs it
• he sometimes browses with IceCat via Tor and says this keeps his browsing from being connected with him because he does not identify himself to the sites he visits
• he never pays for anything on the Web, with an exception for fees for the stallman.org domain
• he would consider paying for an e-book or music recording only if the payment were anonymous and ethical, without DRM or EULA