Stallman "talks about how free software in the phone could protect you from eavesdropping (not surveillance)," Streptomycin on Ycombinator says. "He is correct. If everything was encrypted, eavesdropping would be impossible. But they could still track your position."

Stallman is right, but impractical:

"He makes perfectly valid and compelling points but then shoots himself in both feet by using the word 'Stalin,'" Angdis on Ycombinator writes. "Language like that just alienates people. The dude needs a filter."

Terevos2 on Reddit says, "I'm glad that we have Stallman to defend freedoms and whatnot. I'm also glad that he hasn't completely won, because in his world, proprietary software wouldn't exist - thus limiting my freedom. My problem is that he essentially calls proprietary software evil. It's not. It's good. Open source software is good, too. They both have their place."

A Slashdot reader points out that GNU and Hurd, the kernel Stallman never finished building, is not yet on cell phones so there's no practical alternative.